How to Run Your Referral Marketing System

Now that you’ve written your referral guidelines and know what sets sets you apart, and who your ideal client is, and you have your list of 250 people, you’re ready to start running your referral marketing system.

Remember, this is a customer manufacturing process that will make as many customers as you want for as long as you run the system.  The more consistently you run the system, the more customers will feed into it.  Like everything else in life, you get out of it what you put in.

First: Review your list and look at the people you marked as "inside referrers."  Those are the people who are nearest and dearest and will give you the most honest feedback.  Call them up and set up a face-to-face meeting with them.  Either on the call or over the phone tell them that you are working on a referral system to build your business and that you’d like to get their input. 

When you meet with them, be sure you have at least two copies of your referral guideline.  Give one to them and keep one for yourself.  Tell them that you’re going to read this to them and that they should follow along.  It’s important that they give you open and honest feedback and let you know if anything at all is unclear, or could be stated more clearly.  You’ll be surprised at what wonderful feedback you get.  This is your opportunity to put some great tweaks on this.  Also be sure to ask what it is about you or your business that they think is unique and sets you apart.

Once you’ve collected all this feedback, go back to your list and start setting face-to-face meetings with your referral partners; those people that come before and after you in the process.  Do the same thing with them.

Your overall objective is to identify Centers of Influence to your ideal client.  Because these individuals are so critical to your success, it’s important to do this group last and get all the practice that you need with your inside referrer and referral partner group.

Set a goal for yourself that you will connect with at least two people a day and schedule no less than two face-to-face referral meetings per week.

As you go through this process, you will see that it works much like your experience on the web.  You’ll meet with one person and they won’t "hire" you but they’ll either know people who will, or will know someone who knows someone.  I call that the "tier" effect.  Tier 1 people can hire you.  Tier 2 people know someone who can hire you and Tier 3 people know someone who knows someone.

You can expect to meet a lot of Tier 3 people in the beginning.  Don’t be discouraged, that’s natural.  Remember you’re digging for the diamond called Center of Influence.  So just keep going.

Once you’ve identified about 5 Centers of Influence who enthusiastically refer you, you need to manage those relationships.

Run the system and you’ll never be hungry for clients again.