Darcy Heather (9:55)

I think for me, especially in in New York, there's a bazillion interior designers and, you know, you can only do so much with SEO. You can only do so much and that's, you know, advertising dollars.

Stacey Brown Randall (10:07)

Right?

Darcy Heather (10:07)

You're spending a lot of money or time going out and like trying to pound the pavement network and all these things. And These are, it can take a long time and it can cost a lot of money. And if somebody comes to us by way of a referral, I feel like it's, it's much more of a interested person as opposed to because they've come, right, because somebody else that they trust has recommended us. So there's already this kind of feeling like I know I'm in good hands because this person that I trust has already said that you do whatever it is that you do awesome work and you're, you know, this type of a person and you're this, you know, this is your type of business owner. I feel like it's just so much easier to, to sign that client, number one. And number two, from even just looking at it from an economical standpoint, it's probably better ROI than some other ways of trying to, trying to gain a client.

Brandall Brody (11:07)

Well, there's a, a lot of reasons.

Melanie Shafer (11:10)

But a couple of reasons that come.

Brandall Brody (11:13)

To mind for me are one, they're significantly lower cost and at the end of the day a lower effort than most any other marketing activity, whether it's.

Melanie Shafer (11:26)

Paid advertising or otherwise. And also because they're referrals from someone.

Brandall Brody (11:35)

That they know like and trust already, the conversion rate of closing those sales.

Melanie Shafer (11:41)

Is significantly higher versus, you know, a cold lead from paid advertising.

Adam Goldman (11:50)

Typically the initial conversation that we're having is with the CEO of a mid market company sized between and I'm going to go employees because that's where we come in with level of complexity in the business. Typically when they hit about 50 employees up through kind of 500 employees is that range where they're growing rapidly and they know they need help doing something differently as it pertains to hiring, developing and retaining their people. And you don't get access to a CEO through cold calls or you know, I heard you're great at this, so I wanted to have this conversation. You get those conversations and the audience with them through typically a trusted source they're already working with. So for example, those CEOs are in peer groups and there is a chair that runs those groups. And so we get a lot of referrals from them. Strategy consultants often are working with the C suite team around how do you disseminate and communicate that strategy down to that middle level so that people are clear on the execution of how to get to results. So those are our typical kind of referral partners that see issues with people and then the CEO is motivated to have that conversation to solve that issue.

Jennifer Gilman (13:12)

My business is frankly, it's a situation where people need to buy me first if they're going to be investing in a franchise. And so when I have different sources that are not referrals, they don't necessarily trust me as much. And you can see to the numbers from closing ratios, et cetera. The best source of leads are people that are referred, especially from people that are referred, that have a relationship with some person that really trusts and respects me. So that's pretty much the reason why these are considered the gold standard of referrals in my business.

Amy Peltier (13:50)

So, you know, in any business the know like and trust factor is very important. But lawyers tend to be the most risk averse population I've ever met. And, and they're always seeing the potential risk in every situation. And in this case, because we focus on rainmakers, those lawyers who have their own clients who will move with them. It's very important for them. And there are no non competes for lawyers. So they could change jobs every day if they wanted to. They're protected that way. But they need to make sure that if they're promising they're going to bring clients, that those clients actually do follow them. And so there's a great need for confidentiality because if, if the firm they were leaving found out they were planning to bring clients with them, the firm would maybe badmouth them to those clients or offer them a special financial deal to stay or some other kind of incentive and then they would get to the new firm having promised something that they couldn't deliver on. So they're correct in thinking that it is very important for it to be confidential. They might take it to the next level and act like they're CIA agents sometimes, but it is actually important. And so there are a lot of. Unfortunately, there's no bar to entry to be a legal recruiter. And you know, there is an organization I belong to called NOW where we all take an ethics pledge and, and we work a certain way. But there are a lot of legal recruiters that are not part of now. And a lot, when I was still practicing, I got calls from a lot of unsavory legal recruiters on a fairly regular basis. And it made me have a little bit of a distrust for recruiters too. So I get where they're coming from. I really do. It's just so much easier when it's a friend or someone they trust or a colleague who says, oh no, you can talk to Jen, it's okay.

Steve Yeager (15:45)

Also, I have a lot of friends who own businesses as well and sometimes I'm like a little jealous of them because they get a new client and it's a client that can last years. It's a monthly service that goes on and on and on and on. Ours is project based. So if I'm doing home and I finish that home, that project is done until that client either moves, moves or buys another home. And who knows how many years that is. So we are constantly having to fill our pipeline with referrals to make our business keep going forward. Our clients aren't necessarily clients over and over and over again, or at least not on that consistent of a basis.

Stacey Brown Randall (16:23)

So.

Phil Crowley (16:27)

Probably one of the biggest ones was that I thought referrals were kind of just random. They were like one off things that would just happen periodically and they'd pop up. I'd be like, yay, I got a new prospect, you know, and I wouldn't do anything with it. But I didn't really think about taking any steps beyond just that one person who was sent to me. I never thought about going to the person that actually referred them back then or to like mine, that person for a little bit more possible relationship building. Everything that I had had prior to working the program, I did through kind of the larger referral groups like BNI's, VRNs and things of that nature. And they can certainly have a place for some people, but they're not my forte. I'm not going to a crowded room with a lot of people kind of person. I'm more of a one on one kind of guy who likes to build relationships organically and just kind of see where they go. So you know, I, I've tried the bigger group things, but I, I now know that I can use my assets, my time, my money, my relationship building techniques in a targeted way instead of just kind of putting it out there in a large group setting and hope people refer to me just because I'm a member.

Melanie Shafer (17:54)

But I think that's where most businesses having one of the channels, being a robust referrals channel can be a very, very important part of an overall marketing plan and can really leverage some of the other aspects of the plan and be leveraged by aspects of the plan. So I mean it's very complementary in my view with a total marketing view. I think that's one of the things that I've learned as a legal entrepreneur is really the importance of having an integrated view of marketing generally and diversified. Yes.

Brandall Brody (18:40)

So if you, if you didn't receive referrals, you'd be working what I would call the hamster wheel, which is if you are not out there prospecting and chasing business all the time, then your business is going to stall. Right? The main benefit to there's several great benefits to a referral, but a couple short ones are these clients will already trust you out the gate and they're less likely to do question your authority and your expertise. If they know that someone has referred you to them, they're going to, they're going to trust you more. Also, if you're really trying to make a longevity business out of real estate, it's really important that you have your ideal client avatar figured out. And if those ideal people are referring you the same clients, it's going to lead to more clients, it's going to lead to better conversations with those clients and more sales overall. Also with those new referred clients, you can turn them into, you call them alumni clients, which I really like. I've been using that ever since. And those people will also refer you even more. So what ends up happening is you become the main agent in people's friend groups or their work groups where it's like, hey, I worked with Alex. I worked with Alex. I worked with Alex too. You know, I usually tell people if they're talking to me for the first time, like, you probably will run into one or two people throughout the length of working with me who have either worked with me or have had conversations with me in the past. There's several great benefits to referrals, but the most important one, I would say, is that these are your ideal clients. These are the people that you want to work with.

Alex Mayer (20:15)

All of our clients come in through samples of seeing our great work or through referrals. And I was horrible at following up. I was horrible at knowing who by the next year who had referred. And it was just time for me to take all that to the next level. I've been, you know, I've been poking at you for over a couple years and I wanted somebody to do this in house and realize that my team was not the right people at all to be doing this because they are experts in doing design and layout and illustrations and editing and none of it had to do with the people coming in. And so I thought, you know what I saw that you had posted online because I am a Stacy stalker on social media. And by the way, I had seen, you know, part of the kicked up program and then the retreat that you had coming up. And I just said, you know what? It's now or never. And never was not an option because I really needed to get a hold of this because it was part of a really important part of my business that no one was managing. I wasn't managing it, and I gave it to no one to manage. So it just wasn't happening.

Stacey Brown Randall (21:37)

All right, I hope you've really enjoyed those 10 business owners talking to you from previous episodes 10 about the power of referrals in their business. And I hope it was inspiring for you and motivating for you and you felt empowered to take some different action to see more referrals come into your business in 2025. Of course, you don't have to do it alone. I would love to help. The resources mentioned in this episode specifically to each of these folks businesses so you can go check them out online can be found on the Show Notes page@stacey brownrandall.com 342Please check out these businesses. They are some amazing humans that I have had the privilege and pleasure of working with over the last couple of years and I love seeing their continued ongoing referral success. All right, we're back with another great episode next week created with you and your needs in mind. Until then, you know what to do, my friend. Take control of your referrals and build a referral business. Bye for now.