Mailbag 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 office closings and send them in one referral?
My response: That’s a perfect way to do it. Exactly how I’d recommend it. It is efficient & easy. It will skew our referral close % a little, but I’m not overly concerned about that.
This question is from a realtor who refers several closings/month to the title/closing attorney within the group. Instead of logging 6 referrals throughout the month he wanted to do them all one time. It makes perfect sense to do it this way. If you have a relationship in a group where you can do that for efficiency sake I say go for it providing you don’t short change the dialog that happens regarding the discussion we have around referrals given & received in the meeting.
Bart I got a referral from a guest. Is there a way to log that?
Yes, here is how:
-login at www.TheReferralsGroup.com/login
-Go to the Send Referral tab
-fill in all data to send referral (log the guest referral from the member who invited the guest)
Click the to Switch the sender/receiver and make this referral TO me
-click Send
I love hearing that members got a referral from a guest. Guests don’t always become members, but they should represent about 15% of your overall referral volume in a group. I love stories about guests doing business with our members. I heard 2 really good ones this past month. In one a realtor called a guest to thank them for coming & said “I’d love to grab coffee with you sometime to learn more about your business”. It was a great approach because she had genuine interest in learning about his business. That same guest who never came back to a meeting was responsible for 5 transactions for the realtor!
What are some other members/groups doing to drive referrals?
Great question because there are 1000+ ways to create referrals for other members, but I’ve always observed that there are some basic fundamentals that produce referral opportunities in our groups. These are the5 things I go over with new members in their new member orientation & say over and over and over with all our new groups.
1. Face-to-Face meetings
#1 driver of referrals
2. Attendance
-be at 80% of meetings
3. Mindset
-focus on helping others
4. Run Good Meetings
-be prepared in advance. Log referrals, update recruitment, read education piece, & come with 1-2 questions for the speaker
5. Grow Membership
-adding good professionals who fit and can add value to group increase referral volume
Remember that you can make excuses or you can make money, but you can’t make both!
Once you master the 5 fundamentals that make things go in our groups you can be significantly more pro-active and creative in helping promote other members. A few really cool things I’ve seen members use lately are:
-having members write articles for your newsletter
-using a client intake form that highlights your members to make it easy to bring them up naturally in conversation
-Having a handout with all member’s contact info on it (see business resource guide in downloads tab for template)
-I saw a financial advisor send out an email to all his client’s that owned commercial/rental property on behalf of the commercial banker in his group to promote their product & more importantly her
(email me bart@TheReferralsGroup.com if you want examples of any of these):
Who will win the national championship in basketball this year?
Tough one for me. I think Duke has the most talent, but Grayson Allen is unpredictable. They only go 6-7 deep, but in the NCAA tourney depth usually doesn’t matter as much because the TV timeouts are absurdly long. All that said I’ll go with Arizona this year (pending the looming FBI investigation doesn’t make ½ their team ineligible. See Rawle Alkins ). I think Sean Miller busts through to the Final Four and goes all the way. They have a great mix of talent and experience. They should be hungry from past NCAA tourney failures in the Elite 8/Sweet 16.
My way tooooooooo early Final Four picks would be Arizona, Duke, UK, & Wichita State.