Life Changing Events Create Referral Opportunities
Life changing events often times create referral opportunities. They may be Events like: -Marriage -Having Children -Divorce (personal or business) -Death -Mom/Dad grandparents going to nursing home -Job promotions -Kids going to school -Becoming a partner in their company All members should have a short list of 5-7+ life changing events that trigger referral opportunities…
Read MoreFinding balance between being too loose & too rigid in your meeting
Before I started The Referrals Group the smartest thing I did was to seek advice on our business model from over 55 people that I thought were smarter than me. It was a great exercise for me and shaped philosophically how I tried to build groups from day one. I came from an environment where…
Read MoreRemember to….
Have you….. 1- Logged all referrals that? -spun off from a received referral or referral source intro -came from a visitor (log the referral from member who brought that guest) 2- Setup face-to-face meetings with? -your top referral source in the group -members you haven’t received a referral from in 4-5 months -members you haven’t sent…
Read MoreNot Getting Enough Referrals
I often get asked, “Why am I not getting referrals?” It takes me back about a decade ago when I was working with someone in a group. In year one, he got one referral. They didn’t trust him yet. In year two, he got a lot more referrals including a HUGE referral that resulted in…
Read MoreKeep Going
I enjoying running. It is where I clear my head, burn off stress, come up with new ideas (most of these article ideas are created on a run), & in general get my mind right. Often times when I’m on a run I am either really energized or extremely tired. When I’m energized I often…
Read MoreOur group has Tripled in Size & Referral Volume has Quadrupled (An Interview with Stephanie Preston)
This education blog content comes from an interview with Stephanie Preston. The group she is in (Lex9) has tripled in size and referral volume has increased 4.5 times in the last 18 months. Stephanie is a market leader with BB&T in Lexington, KY. Question 1(Bart): Stephanie you told me at a meeting last year that…
Read MoreGetting Face-to-Face meetings scheduled when you are busy…Try these scheduling tips
Face-to-Face meetings are the #1 driver of referrals in our groups. We want busy successful people in our groups. The ability to attract and retain talented business professionals is one of our main goals. I’ve observed over the years that some of our busy members struggle with scheduling enough face-to-face meetings to participate at the…
Read MoreWhat can I realistically expect from my membership?
I often get asked by members, “What can I realistically expect from my The Referrals Group membership?” I believe you get out what you put into anything you are involved in. I also believe you should have realistic expectations. It is a tough question to answer, but I start by saying that our program, when…
Read MoreMailbag v 3
Question #1: (to log or not?) I changed all my property and casualty insurance over to (Member Name) three months ago. At that time I “referred myself” to him in the system. Now I’m buying another rental house and I’ll be getting another policy from him to cover it. Should I “refer myself” to him…
Read MoreMailbag v2
Time for another mailbag! Questions in BOLD. I wasn’t sure if I logged this referral correctly. I don’t always specifically log each referral for closings. Example: I had sent 6 closings in October (with list of family names in notes). Is it ok if at the end of the month I total up all the…
Read MoreMailbag v1
This blog’s format: mailbag questions that have come in over the last month. Questions in bold. Bart our speaker no called no-showed at our meeting. What should we do with the time block? Also, we’d put a lot of effort into having guests and we had 3 that day. Our member (Name removed) made us…
Read MoreTarget Market Exercise
Building relationships is critical in developing relationships with referral sources/center of influence relationships. The first step in referral relationships is often trust. In order for people to refer to you they need to be able to: 1- Trust you. People refer and do business with people they know, like, and trust. 2- They…
Read MoreReaching your ideal membership size
A- What is your ideal membership size? _____ B- Factor in attrition (20% annually) …
Read MoreA few best practices from around the area
A few best practices I’ve observed the last few months at The Referrals Group meetings: Speakers: 1-Share specific targets. Recently, I saw a member share a list of 175+ specific targets he had wanted to meet. He then focused on why he wanted these targets and how to introduce him. It made it easy for…
Read MoreReverse Engineering Team Success
Almost always the conversation with our new, existing, and struggling groups comes back to “I want to build (or be part of) a really good team.” I think starting with the why and the how is very helpful and for this post I thought I’d let one of my friends Nigel Green share some…
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