Ep #345: Deep Dive on Your Referral Reality - Roadmap to Referrals

Summary

Roadmap to Referrals: Ep #345 - Deep Dive on Your Referral Reality

Release Date: January 21, 2025
Host: Stacey Brown Randall

In Episode #345 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, host Stacey Brown Randall embarks on a comprehensive exploration of understanding and optimizing your referral strategy. Titled "Deep Dive on Your Referral Reality," this episode is a must-listen for professionals aiming to elevate their business through effective, natural referral generation without resorting to manipulation or direct asking.

Introduction

Stacey Brown Randall opens the episode by reintroducing herself and the podcast's core mission: empowering professionals to generate referrals organically. Emphasizing her international experience, Stacey sets the stage for a deep analytical session geared towards refining listeners' referral strategies.

“Referrals, they're no different. I was on the phone recently with a business consultant who's considering attending my referral accelerator...”
[00:04]

The Pitfalls of Traditional Referral Tactics

Stacey critiques common methods businesses employ to garner referrals, such as paid services, direct asking, or incentivizing referrals. She highlights the ineffectiveness and sporadic nature of these approaches.

“They say buy their thing and it'll get you referrals. When in reality, it typically gets you leads, prospects, but not necessarily referred ones.”
[05:30]

Stacey underscores that far too often, referrals obtained through these tactics are unpredictable and not the sustained, high-quality leads desired.

Introducing the Referral First Strategy

Contrasting with traditional methods, Stacey introduces her "referral first strategy." This approach prioritizes referral generation as the primary objective, integrating it seamlessly into the business’s operations rather than treating it as an ancillary activity.

“What I teach and provide is a referral first strategy. What I teach you to do is for the main benefit of getting referrals.”
[10:15]

This strategy stands apart from conventional marketing and prospecting efforts, ensuring referrals are a consistent and reliable source of new business.

Analyzing Your Current Referral Reality

Stacey guides listeners through a meticulous self-assessment process to understand their current referral landscape. She outlines seven critical areas to evaluate from the past two years:

Total Referrals Received: Determine the exact number of referrals gained.
Names of Referred Prospects: Identify who was referred to you.
Referral Sources: List who referred these prospects.
Client Conversion and Revenue: Assess how many referrals turned into clients and the revenue generated.
Prospects Still in Process: Track referrals that are in the decision-making phase.
Unsuccessful Referrals: Note instances where referrals did not convert.
Referral Activities: Document current efforts to generate referrals and evaluate their effectiveness.

“The first step in building your referral first strategy is you really do need to get clear on what happened last year with referrals.”
[20:45]

Deep Dive Exercise

Stacey encourages listeners to conduct a "deep dive" into their referral data for the years 2024 and 2023. She advises taking detailed notes on insights, revelations, and missed opportunities uncovered during this analysis.

“Write down your thoughts in ink or pencil. Don't type, write. There's always a method to that madness.”
[35:00]

This hands-on exercise is designed to illuminate patterns, identify successful strategies, and reveal gaps that need addressing to enhance referral generation.

Strategizing for Growth

With a clear understanding of past performance, Stacey challenges listeners to plan for 2025 by:

Identifying Necessary Changes: Recognize what needs to be altered or improved in current referral practices.
Doubling Down on Successes: Amplify strategies that have proven effective.
Setting Refined Goals: Aim to increase referrals significantly, building on the foundational analysis.

“If you want to take those 15 referrals from last year and get to 30 or 45 referrals this year, what do you need to be doing?”
[50:20]

Stacey reassures listeners of the possibility to scale their referrals exponentially by applying a disciplined, informed approach.

Invitation to the Referral Accelerator

Throughout the episode, Stacey promotes her upcoming Referral Accelerator workshop—a two-day, in-person event in Charlotte, North Carolina. This intensive program promises personalized guidance, workbooks, templates, and actionable scripts to build a robust referral system.

“The Referral Accelerator is a small group, in-person workshop where we'll design a fully functioning referral system to grow your business with referrals without asking, manipulating, incentivizing or being gimmicky and promotional.”
[15:50]

Listeners are encouraged to register promptly to secure their spots, as seats are limited.

Conclusion and Call to Action

Stacey wraps up the episode by reinforcing the importance of a structured referral strategy. She urges listeners to meticulously analyze their referral data, apply the insights gained, and consider adopting a referral first approach to achieve sustainable business growth.

“Get to work and let me know if I can help you. The resources mentioned in this episode like more details on the Referral Accelerator can be found on the Show Notes page @stacybrownrandall.com 345 that's for episode 345.”
[55:30]

Stacey signs off with encouragement to take control of one's referral processes, laying the groundwork for a referable and thriving business.

Key Takeaways:

Avoid Traditional Referral Tactics: Methods like paying for referrals or direct asking are inconsistent and often ineffective.
Adopt a Referral First Strategy: Make referrals the cornerstone of your business growth strategy.
Conduct a Deep Dive Analysis: Thoroughly assess your referral data from the past two years to inform future strategies.
Strategize for Growth: Use insights from your analysis to enhance and expand your referral generation efforts.
Engage with Expert Guidance: Consider participating in specialized workshops like the Referral Accelerator for personalized support.

For more information on growing your referral strategy and to register for the Referral Accelerator workshop, visit stacybrownrandall.com and navigate to the show notes for Episode #345.

Stay tuned for next week's episode, where Stacey continues to provide actionable insights tailored to your business needs. Until then, take control of your referrals and build a referable business.

Transcript

Stacy Brown Randall (0:04)

Hey there and welcome to the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation. I'm your host, Stacy Brown Randall. I'm a card carrying member of the Business Failure Club, have taught my Referrals Without Asking methodology and strategies to clients in more than 14 countries around the world. And my mission is to help you unleash a referral explosion by leveraging the science of referrals and respecting your relationships. Knowing where to go or where you want to go always starts with looking back. Referrals, they're no different. I was on the phone recently with a business consultant who's considering attending my referral accelerator that's coming up in late February. He receives some referrals, about 10 to 12 a year. He is unclear though, on the number of referral sources, that's the number of people who refer to him. And he's trying to figure out the best path forward to generate more referrals. Now he totally gets it. He knows that referrals make the best clients, that it is the most cost effective way to bring in new prospects. It's typically easier and the quality is usually better. Getting more referrals is definitely his goal. It's probably your goal too, which is why you're listening to this podcast. But he probably, like you, has been hit with a lot of different options on how to generate those referrals. Should he pay for them? Should he be asking for them? Should he write a book and give it away to generate referrals? Okay, all of those make me laugh. And is there something else that he's missing? There will never be a shortage of tactics people are selling for how you should generate referrals. I was actually on a website earlier that a real estate agent told me about and this direct marketing company was selling referrals as the main benefit of, of why you should put in place one of their direct marketing packages. Doesn't matter if it's postcards, magazines, digital newsletter. When it comes to other businesses trying to get your attention to buy whatever it is that they are selling, they will use referrals as their bait to get your attention because it works well, because we all want referrals. We see the word referral in marketing and people are like, ooh, yes, that's, that's what I want. I want referrals. Ooh, your solution will give that to me. They say buy their thing and it'll get you referrals. When in reality it typically gets you leads, prospects, but not necessarily referred ones. And if you do get referrals from whatever service or offer that you're buying from them, it's typically a bonus. That can happen, but it's gonna happen maybe sporadically and and definitely not consistently. It is not a referral first focused strategy for me. What I teach and provide is a referral first strategy. What I teach you is to get referrals. So what I teach you to do is for the main benefit of getting referrals. Referrals are not the added bonuses that may or may not happen with the strategies that I teach. Now not every business needs a referral first focused strategy. I know some businesses who solely rely on digital marketing and as long as it works for them and they can afford the budget, that's great. I know some law firms that spend upwards of $20,000 or more per month on digital marketing lead gen strategies. I don't care how big your business is, that's a lot of money every month. If you decide to put a referral first strategy in your business this year, here are some things you need to know about last year to help you figure out your direction. Hey, pardon the interruption. If you've ever wanted to receive my best referral strategies in the quickest amount of time, the answer is the Referral Accelerator. It's being held in late February over two days in Charlotte. All details can be found at stacybrownrandall.com Referral Accelerator the Referral Accelerator is a small group, in person workshop where we'll design a fully functioning referral system to grow your business with referrals without asking, manipulating, incentivizing or or being gimmicky and promotional. The Accelerator includes two seven hour days with me in Charlotte, North Carolina. Workbooks, templates and all the scripts are included. There are no video trainings to watch. You're going to learn from me and build as you go. Make plans now by registering to join me for the Referral Accelerator, the most affordable shortcut to getting your referral machine up and running done in a small group setting. You can find the link for more details and snag one of the last few seats remaining on the Show Notes page for this episode. Now back to our episode. What do I mean when I say a referral first strategy? It means you have specific focus on doing the things that will generate you referrals. They're not a bonus. They're not just a great little add on that we didn't know was coming. They are the reason we do the things. And these are of course separate from Your marketing activities and your prospecting activities. So the first step in building your referral first strategy is you really do need to get clear on what happened last year with referrals. Here's how to do a deep dive on your referral's reality. First, how many referrals did you receive last year? I need an exact number, not a range. Okay, so let's say for our example, you received 15 referrals last year. Okay, so the next thing is, I need to know what are the names of those 15 people who were referred to you? Now, if you listened to last Week's episode, episode 344, you really should already have this information. Okay? Now the third thing is I need to know what are the names of the referral sources who referred those 15 prospects to you? Next, of those 15, just using that as our example, of those 15 referrals, how many became a client and what was the revenue for each client? How many are still in process, meaning you're still working them through the buyer's journey. They haven't yet decided yes or no to working with you. And how many of those 15 said no or not yet to hiring you? All right, next up, I need you to know, how many times do you think, and this is more of a guesstimate, how many times do you think you hear, I told someone about you, but it goes nowhere? How many times? Okay, so on the flip side of that, right? So it's how many times do you hear, hey, I told someone about you, but it goes nowhere because you don't actually know who they told about. Like, they don't know who they told about you to. Like, you have no idea who they were talking to because it doesn't go anywhere. And how many times, the flip side of that, how many times do you get lucky and the prospect follows up directly and tells you who referred them to you? Capture that information. All right, here we go. Two more. Next up, I want you to answer the question is what are you doing now to generate referrals? Like the task, the activity, the thing you do is specifically to generate referrals. It's not an add on. I want the actual steps you are taking to generate referrals. And then finally, how confident are you that what you are doing actually attributed to those 15 referrals you received last year? Take a minute and look over that information. There is a lot that can be revealed in that data. What aha moments did you have? Write them down. Any light bulbs go off, write those down. Did you connect any dots? You hadn't connected before. Write down the dots. Did you have any of those hit your palm to your forehead moments because of something you failed to do or missed knowing you should have been doing? Write those down too. I want you to sit with all of that information and write down your thoughts in ink or pencil. Don't type, write. There's always a method to that madness. But trust me, I know this means you'll actually do it. But here's the thing. You're not done yet. I need you to repeat all of that for one more year. I need you to go one year back further and pull this information for 2023 as well. All of it. All those seven things I just told you to list out. And then as you took a minute and looked over that information and then you wrote down what your aha moments and light bulbs and dots connected and oh, I can't believe I forgot to do that moment. And you wrote down all your thoughts about all that data. I needed to do it one more time. I need you to do it for 2023 as well. All of it. Now, you may have to pause and come back to me to be able to answer this final question, because you really need to be looking at your data and your thoughts on your data for 2024 and 2023 to be able to truly answer these next two questions. But I want you to consider the last two points that I asked you to answer. What are you doing now to generate referrals? The actual steps you are taking, and how confident are you that what you are doing is actually attributing to the referrals you've received last year and the year before. Consider what needs to change or be improved. Or maybe there's some things you need to double down on for 2025. If you want to take those 15 referrals from last year and get to 30 or 45 referrals this year, what do you need to be doing? What is clearly lacking and what can you build upon that is quite possibly starting to work, or maybe has been working a little bit? What are you doing now to generate referrals? The actual steps you are taking? What did you do last year and the year before to generate referrals? And how confident are you that what you're doing is actually attributing to the referrals you received over the last two years? And then what needs to change? Be improved, doubled down on for this year? If you want to take those referrals and double them or triple them or more, it is totally possible. Happens every year with my clients. But you need to do a deep dive and get really clear on the reality of referrals that is already happening in your business. Then decide if you want to get serious and deploy a referral first strategy in your business to get to the next level. So what's your next step? Get to work. I just gave you a bunch of things I need you to do. Get to work and let me know if I can help you. The resources mentioned in this episode like more details on the Referral Accelerator can be found on the Show Notes page@stacey brownrandall.com 345 that's for episode 345. And don't forget Stacy has an E. 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 referable business. Bye for now.