What 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 worked properly, creates an opportunity for you to develop long-term meaningful relationships with other local business professionals.

Our Goal:   Our goal has always been for the opportunities you get from members, guests, past members, ideas, & referral source connections/intros to over time become 10-15% of your business.

I Suggest:  View your membership like signing up for a fitness program.  For a fitness program to help you achieve your goals, it works best when you show up, do the workouts the right way, eat a proper diet, and get enough sleep.    Our program is no different.

The Fundamentals:
I tell our members that our job with The Referrals Group is to put both you individually & your group in the best position to succeed.  Many variables are involved in that, but it often comes down to staying focused on the fundamentals that make the program work.  Those are:

1.  Do Face-to-Face meetings
 *big driver of referrals
2. Attendance
-be at a minimum of 80% of the meetings
3. Mindset
-focus on giving referrals.  They will come back to you.
4. Run Good Meetings
-be prepared in advance.  Log referrals, update recruitment, read education pieces, & come with 1-2 questions for the speaker
5. Grow Membership
-add professionals who fit and can add value to group increase referral volume
-membership Attrition: 15-20% is normal, plan for 25% to give yourself margin for error

How much time should I invest in this?
I think it also makes sense to set your expectations from an annual time perspective.  I’ll base these numbers on a group that meets twice per month for 90 minutes.   It usually works out to 45-50 hours of time vested depending on your group size.

49 hours invested into your membership or roughly one work week per year equals around 2% of the time you likely vest working on/in your business annually.

I mentioned before we hope to grow to become 10-15% of your annual volume over time which would give you a return of 5-7 times on your time.  This program works when you give it a chance to work by continuing to do the fundamentals of the program properly & consistently.  It won’t ever be perfect, it won’t happen overnight, and when something isn’t going your way please reach out to us.  Let’s talk about it.

*If you’d like to see averages  (referrals given/received along with close %) by profession please email me at bart@TheReferralsGroup.com