Episode 888: How to Educate Others to Refer You

Summary

Summary of Episode 888: "How to Educate Others to Refer You" on The Official BNI Podcast

Release Date: November 27, 2024
Host: Dr. Ivan Misner
Guest: Phil Berg

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Introduction

In Episode 888 of The Official BNI Podcast, host Dr. Ivan Misner engages in a compelling discussion with guest Phil Berg on the essential strategies for educating others to refer your business effectively. The conversation delves into the nuances of referral marketing, emphasizing the importance of specificity, understanding your value proposition, and providing actionable tools to empower referrers.

Key Discussion Points

1. The Responsibility to Educate Referrers

Dr. Ivan Misner opens the dialogue by highlighting a common mistake among BNI members: expecting referrals without actively educating others on how to refer them. He states, “we just do our stick instead of educating people how to refer them” (02:19).

Phil Berg concurs, emphasizing that effective referral marketing is not about promoting oneself but about addressing the needs of the referrer's network. He advises members to shift their focus from self-promotion to understanding and communicating how they can solve specific problems for others.

2. Understanding and Communicating Your Value

A central theme of the episode is the necessity for members to articulate their unique value propositions clearly. Phil Berg shares a critical insight: “it's what people need to hear as against what we fill the time in” (02:47). This means that instead of listing services or products, members should communicate the specific ways they can assist potential clients.

Dr. Misner reinforces this by urging members to teach others how to think about their offerings, making it easier for referrers to make meaningful introductions.

3. Specificity in Referrals

The conversation underscores the importance of being specific when requesting referrals. Phil Berg explains that vague requests often lead to inadequate referrals because referrers lack clear guidance on who exactly to refer. He suggests providing detailed profiles of ideal clients, including demographics and specific needs. For example, when discussing chiropractic services, Phil mentions, “the chiropractor really needs to talk at some point... about being able to help aging individuals with their aches and pains” (05:24).

This level of specificity ensures that referrers can identify the right opportunities, making the referral process more effective and increasing the likelihood of successful connections.

4. Providing Tools and Lines of Entry

Phil Berg introduces the concept of "lines of entry" as practical tools that members can use to help referrers make introductions. He shares a strategic approach: “if you meet somebody that sells motor cars... I can introduce you because your solution is aligned with their needs” (08:15).

By equipping referrers with clear and concise lines of entry, members make it easier for others to facilitate introductions, thereby enhancing the referral process.

5. Common Mistakes and Solutions

Dr. Misner and Phil Berg discuss why some members feel they are specific in their referral requests yet still receive insufficient referrals. Phil suggests that without external feedback, members might believe they are being specific when they are not. He advises, “making it simple for the other person to understand who you want” (09:45), by including precise details such as the target person's name, position, company, and industry.

Insights and Conclusions

The episode concludes with actionable advice for BNI members:

• Do Your Research: Utilize tools like Google to better understand your target audience and refine your referral requests.

• Ask for Specific Referrals: Avoid broad requests; instead, provide detailed profiles of your ideal clients to make it easier for referrers to identify suitable opportunities.

• Empower Your Referrers: Provide clear lines of entry and necessary information that enable referrers to confidently and effectively introduce you to potential clients.

Phil Berg encapsulates the essence of the discussion by stating, “if you ask for small, you'll get small. If you ask for big and use the same strategy, then everyone knows people you want” (11:07), highlighting the importance of ambition coupled with strategic planning in referral marketing.

Notable Quotes

• Dr. Ivan Misner (02:19): “We just do our stick instead of educating people how to refer them.”

• Phil Berg (02:47): “It's what people need to hear as against what we fill the time in.”

• Phil Berg (08:15): “If you meet somebody that sells motor cars... Would you trust me to take the call?”

• Phil Berg (09:45): “Making it simple for the other person to understand who you want.”

• Phil Berg (11:07): “If you ask for small, you'll get small. If you ask for big and use the same strategy, then everyone knows people you want.”

Final Thoughts

Dr. Ivan Misner and Phil Berg's insightful conversation offers BNI members valuable strategies to enhance their referral marketing efforts. By taking responsibility to educate referrers, being specific in their requests, and providing practical tools, members can significantly improve the quality and quantity of referrals they receive. This episode serves as a vital resource for anyone looking to optimize their networking and referral marketing strategies within the BNI framework.

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For more insights and to connect with Phil Berg, visit PhilBergCoach.com. Join us next week for another episode of The Official BNI Podcast.

Transcript

[Priscilla Rice]

Episode number 888, how to Educate Others to refer you.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

You're listening to the official BI podcast with BI founder and chief visionary officer Dr. Ivan Meisner. Stay tuned for networking and referral marketing tips from the man who's been called the father of modern networking, along with suggestions and insights into getting the most from your membership in the world's largest networking organization, bni.

[Priscilla Rice]

Hello everybody. Welcome back to the official B and I podcast. I'm Priscilla Rice and I'm coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. And I'm joined on the phone today by the founder and the Chief visionary officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Meissner. Hello Ivan, how are you and where are you?

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

I am home in Austin, Texas to celebrate in the U.S. the U.S. thanksgiving. So I'm going to be with family this week and celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.

[Priscilla Rice]

Oh great. Okay. And who do you have with us?

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

I have a really good friend of mine. He's been a friend for a long time, Phil Berg. Phil and I and Bharat Daga are working on a book called Networking is a Marathon, Not a Sprint. You're going to hear more about it next year. It's a great book and looking forward to it coming out. Phil's been on the BNI podcast before. It was at least once episode 689. The only difference between online and offline is the spelling, which I love that title. So he's been on before. Check that out. He's his business career started in the retail industry in the 1970s and then in parentheses he says, yes, I'm old. He started by selling carpets and flooring on a market stall leading to building and a well reputed retail flooring company. And he was a member of BNI from 1997 until a transaction that he had in 2007. So he's been in BNI a long time. He specializes in helping companies and his expertise really is in effective networking and leadership. Phil, welcome back to BNI podcast.

[Phil Berg]

Thank you so much and happy Thanksgiving.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Thank you. I appreciate that. So you got a couple of things here that I think are really interesting in terms of educating others how to refer you. And I think this is critical. I think this is the thing we really get wrong as, as members is that we just do our stick instead of educating people how to refer them. So you have three tips that you want to share. One is that it's not about you. Talk about that.

[Phil Berg]

Yeah, I think the reality is because you know, public speaking, etc. Is you know, a very big fear I think people need to become better, and better educators become more confident. And I think one of the things they need to start understanding is that it's what people need to hear as against what we fill the time in. So people tend to stand up and say, I do this, I do that, I want this, I want that, instead of thinking, what does the other person need to hear to be able to refer me?

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah, and that's an educational process. You got to teach them how to think about you. Isn't that right?

[Phil Berg]

Correct. Yeah, it's. You know, I always say, don't teach people to be you teach people to connect you build those relationships, to empower people to want to help you, and then give them the tools they need to have the ability to help you.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

So how can they be specific not only about who they want, but how the referrers can approach them?

[Phil Berg]

Yeah, I think there's ultimately, once I know who you want, really the missing piece is to understand your value to the other person, I will be able to refer you so much easier when I'm doing the other person a favor by giving them you. So if I understand your value to the other person, then I'm going to actually be excited to introduce you because they have a need and you have a solution, and then it simply becomes a good deed. But I need to know what their need is and what your solution is, if that makes sense.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah, it makes sense to me. Can you give an example? Do you have any idea of an example that might resonate with.

[Phil Berg]

So, for example, you know, as we get older in our years, there may be a few aches and pains. And therefore, I know of somebody that's a qualified chiropractor, for example, that has specialized in, if you like, easing the pain of an older, more mature person. So it's understanding that, you know, I really have someone that can make a difference to you, and therefore I can introduce you. So we need to start educating the people around us of our value to the other person.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

And so the chiropractor really needs to talk at some point, obviously not every week, but about being able to help aging individuals with their aches and pains. So it's really reliant on the chiropractor to educate.

[Phil Berg]

Right, correct. And it is totally the responsibility of the educator. You know, I remember you gave me a fantastic line once, and I years and years ago, and you said, it's not my responsibility to refer you, Phil. And I remember thinking, well, yes, it is. And then you said this, and it was amazing. You said, no, it's your responsibility to teach me how to refer you. And that stuck big time.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah. Thank you. And I really still believe that with members, it's the members responsibility to teach people how to refer. Refer them. Because we're not in that business. You're in that business. They're in that business. And they have to learn how to teach people to think about them. I've got a, a really good podcast on Standing in the Middle of a Referral which talks about that. And go back and find that podcast if you're listening to this one, because it talks about that at length. All right, so we know you want them, but why do they want you?

[Phil Berg]

Yes. So ultimately with that, you know, we should think of ourselves as solution providers, if you like. I remember my young kid brother used to work for my flooring company and he just said to me one day, he said, you know, so why are we good? And in, in. When I look back at this, I can't believe I answered it, but I said this very sincerely. I went, well, because we are. And he went, well, I understand that, but why? And I actually got a bit annoyed with him and said, well, I've just told you, we are. And the reality is I learned to actually start searching, actually. Why am I good? If I would like an introduction to somebody that's likely to already be using my competitor, what compelling reason could I teach the people around me to give them the tools to say, hey, but does your existing supplier do this, or would this be an added benefit? And I, I really learned to look into my own business and instead of taking it for granted without being arrogant, but just, I just knew I was good. But when push comes to shove, I really didn't know why. And I had to search for those answers.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah. And then share that information. Because one of the things I say is it's not your confidence that counts, it's my confidence in your ability to provide a quality product or service. And how do I gain that confidence? Well, I have to gain that from you. You have to. You have to show me why I should be confident in your ability to provide a quality product or service.

[Phil Berg]

Yeah. And as we know, the way we're seen as doing anything is the way we're perceived as doing everything. So the way we appear, the way we behave, etc. That's going to give people confidence in kind of who we are, our values, et cetera, but then they simply need the tool. So a great one, for example, is a line of entry. So me, for example, this would Help everyone listening. It's teaching your referrers a line of entry. And a line of entry for someone like me, for example, as a sales trainer, if you meet somebody that sells motor cars, you've only got to say to them, do your team sell as many cars as you like? The answer will always be, we can always sell more or no. And then it's simply saying, hey, you know, I've got someone that I truly believe could be of value to you. Would you trust me to take the call? So there's a line of entry if, if people could learn that. It makes it easier for us to talk about you.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

So a lot of members feel they're, they are being specific and yet they still don't feel they receive the referrals they want or enough of them. I ran into somebody like that just week or so ago. What are your thoughts on that?

[Phil Berg]

Well, I think, I think people think they're being specific because no one's told them they're not.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah.

[Phil Berg]

And we only know.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

I told him, I told him he wasn't. Because, because he shared with me what he did. And I'm like, that's not specific enough. So you're. I agree completely, but I cut you off. Go ahead.

[Phil Berg]

No, no, exactly. I'm, I'm laughing with you. So I think being specific is going as deep as you can. You know, I always say, don't give people around you the brains. I mean, you know, compliments to you as well. You once said to me, if I've got to do the, if you can't be bothered to do the research to teach me, then don't ask me to be bothered. And I think we've got to make it simple for the other person to understand who you want. And the way to do that is to simply incorporate maybe a few things. I'd like an introduction to this person and their name. Ideally, this is the position in the company or this is. If it's business to consumer, this is the age group, this is the. Where they would live. This is the type, you know, they'd have two children at this age. So it's making me think of someone that you want. So ideally, if it's business to business, name of the person, ideally the position they're in, ideally the name of the company and certainly the industry, because I may not know that person, I may not know that company, but I do know somebody else in the industry.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

So what, you know, it's counterintuitive to people. They think that they need to be broad, but the Truth is, the more specific they are, the more likely they are to get a referral. We're almost out of time. Any last thoughts before we wrap up?

[Phil Berg]

I think. I think. Do your research, everybody. You know, the world has changed and it is a lot easier to do your research on Google, etc. And just remember this, if you ask for small, you'll get small. If you ask for big and use the same strategy, then everyone knows people you want.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

And when you say do your research, you mean learn how to educate people to refer you. Correct?

[Phil Berg]

Learn how to educate, but also understand who you want. Many people don't actually know who they want. They fall into the trap of saying, I want an interior designer. Which one?

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Really valuable information, Phil. For anyone who wants information, more information about Phil, go to Philberg Coach. That's P H I, L, B, as in boy, B, E, R, G dot Coach. C O, A C, H Filberg Coach. Phil, thanks for being on the BNI podcast again.

[Phil Berg]

Love it. And happy Thanksgiving to you and the family.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Thanks. Over to you, Priscilla.

[Priscilla Rice]

Okay, well, that's it for this week. Thank you both so much for that great information. This podcast is sponsored by MeisnerAudioPrograms.com these audio programs will provide you with the tools and the inspiration to powerfully enhance your BNI experience. So check out the great material that's available to [e-mail] and then use the promo code IVAN5O for 50% off of everything. All of the proceeds go to the BNI Foundation. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we look forward to having you join us again next week for another exciting episode of the official B and I podcast.