Believe it or not, I use my own referral system. Yes, what I wrote about in my latest book is actually what I do for my self.
Of course, everything in a great referral system executed is unique and customized. I recently had a conversation with an old friend about how things are really beginning to accelerate for my business and his question was “What are you doing?”
The answer was that I was doing what I teach and write about.
Without getting too technical, I thought I would share the highlights of how the last 2 years have led directly to today’s success.
The first thing I want to share is that I believe that referrals are without question an amazing tool to fill the very top of your sales funnel and that has been a primary goal of mine. I purposefully stopped asking for referrals for new personal coaching clients and focused on two specific things:
- By not continuing to fill my calendar with recurring appointments (lucrative as they are) I was committing to doing the thinking and creating necessary to be able to figure out how to move to the next level. Having the space to breath in your calendar is, imho, essential to be able to do the work of preparation for growth.
- I focused on learning and meeting new potential sources of referrals and business. More on this later. Basically, I needed to grow my network deeper with higher level contacts so that I could have better options and better revenue later.
The second thing is that I don’t focus on COI’s. I teach a ton about it and love working with them, but they aren’t my top priority. My top priority is identifying and getting into a relationship with what Luke 10 from the Bible calls ‘People of Peace’. These are people of deep influence in their particular community (both local and in many cases international). Approaching these people is very different from your standard COI type conversations (even the new and unique way I teach it now).
I focus on looking at how myself and the POP can impact our mutual aims in massive ways. I have made two of these relationships in the past two years and over 90% of the massive increase in my pipeline and sales funnel is coming from them. One thing that is amazing is how you can, by focusing on how to help them, end up collaborating with multiple ones at the same time on shared objectives.
Please note that I am not saying that you should do it the exact way I do it. There is something to be said for 30 years of experience and having a few books under your belt. That being said, start where you are because, well…it’s where you are. Who are the people in your life that are widely known and well respected? How can you help them?
Remember, the key is that you don’t wake up one day and make this happen. I have spent two years, after writing two books on referrals in my past, setting the stage for this current success. It was hard to be patient and to stay focused and passing on new coaching retainers was difficult to do. It was worth it and you can be assured that you can have at least as much success as I can.
Be patient and curious,
Mike
