How to have successful meetings with potential referral partners

How to have successful meetings with potential referral partners

How to have successful meetings with potential referral partners

Perhaps you have identified you want to get more effective with your meetings with potential referral partners. Here are some tips to fine tune your effectiveness in extracting more from referral partners in terms of how you meet them and set up the referral process.

First of all – Prepare. Have a potential referral partner presentation or info package for them before the meeting. Present it to them in the meeting. You may present it to them either in advance, during or after the meeting. Give some thought to which kinds of referrals and the relevant information to give to them. Perhaps have a follow up meeting email or video of ideal referrals they can send.

Tell them a story about how you help clients. It is more memorable, repeatable, understandable and engaging. They may easily repeat the story to others for you.

Maintain contact with them. Try to have a framework to see them again such as a monthly coffee or invite them to your networks. Basically if you think you can see someone once and whammo you have a referral partner then it wont work that easy. Like all relationships, they take time, perhaps even years even to fully blossom. A personal example for me is some of the people I met in the first years of business that are still around with me are like people you have known since your childhood, you have literally grown up in business together.

Listen to them. Make sure you give them a chance to share what they want, tell them what you can do for them. Be sure to offer what you can do for them such as I know these target markets you want when…

Offer incentives or rewards for referrals. Thank them and acknowledge all leads they send. Celebrate good news when leads are great ones with feedback to them.

Think outside the square with who you think is an ideal referral partner. Try people you think wouldn’t normally be  an ideal referral partner.

Don’t try to sell to your referral partner, but try to get their referrals.

Have a plan of who you want to meet as referral partners. Then find them.

Know what referrals you want, be clear or your targets referrals and ideal clients.

Tell them what you don’t want too. We would all have an example of lower worth leads, why not educate them on what you do not want.

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