CHAPTER 2
EARNING THE FEARLESS REFERRAL
—Stephen Covey, The 8th Habit
Before you start asking clients for referrals, there are some rules you need to consider.
YOU ONLY ASK FOR REFERRALS IF YOU’VE EARNED THEM!
Too much of what we hear about referrals is based on techniques: how to ask, when to ask, what to say, and whom to get them from. We don’t spend enough time focusing on what we are actually doing to earn the word-of-mouth recommendation.
Let’s look at some word-of-mouth facts highlighted in Andy Sernovitz’s Word of Mouth Marketing:
PEOPLE DON’T TALK ABOUT THE ORDINARY
Have you ever recommended that someone eat at Perkins or Burger King? Pizza Hut? Ever told friends they should try Coca-Cola? No. It’s too ordinary.
How do your clients see you? Is it possible many of your clients see you as business as usual? Most salespeople will say no to this—after all, none of us thinks we are ordinary. But how often do you walk out of a business, or store, or restaurant, saying to yourself, “That place had really good service!”? Not very often, right? Are you sure you’re that much better and provide significantly better service than your competition?
WHEN PEOPLE’S EXPECTATIONS ARE MET, THEY DO NOT TALK ABOUT IT TO OTHERS
When you go to the dentist, you expect him or her to take care of your teeth. When you take your sick dog to the vet, you expect your dog to get well. If you hire someone to service your air conditioner, you expect it to run better after that person leaves.
My point? Simply doing your job isn’t enough. You must exceed expectations. We don’t apply this thinking to our own clients and our own business enough.
Because our brains are wired to think about ourselves 95 percent of the time, we somehow assume that our service is better than everyone else’s—even if it isn’t. At almost every networking event I’ve ever been to, someone earnestly tells me that the unique part of his business is the customer service. This gets pretty meaningless after a while.
If you really want more referrals, you must truly exceed expectations.
IT’S MORE IMPORTANT TO BE DIFFERENT THAN IT IS TO BE BETTER
People don’t just talk about what’s best; they talk about what’s different. Here are a few examples:
Jeffrey Gitomer has branded himself as the top sales authority in the United States. Is he really? His content is very good, and he’s branded himself marvelously as different—funny, creative, not a “suit.” It seems to resonate well with people.
Is Larry Winget really one of the best motivational speakers in the United States? He dresses like a biker. He looks different from all his competition. He has successfully branded himself as an in-your-face type of guy. He knows his stuff. Does he know more than anyone else?
John Eliot is a professor at Rice University who writes and speaks on peak performance. He has branded himself differently not by his appearance or marketing savvy, but by his opinions and the way he states them to catch people’s attention: goal setting is for couch potatoes; hard work is overrated; stress is a good thing. It got me to read his book Overachievement (once I saw his credentials), and it is full of great research and ideas.
Yes, these people are all good, but what makes them stand out is what makes them different. Differentiating yourself doesn’t have to be world changing. It could be making an initially powerful impact when people first walk into your place of business. Some banks and car dealerships now have Starbucks machines in them. That was once a wow factor.
Perhaps you differentiate yourself through providing excellent follow-up and keeping in touch. Trent, a Realtor I know well, does this better than anyone else I’ve ever met. Think about how many people want your business but fail to show they care about you since they don’t keep in touch. I got one e-mail after I spent almost $40,000 on a car a year or so ago. Not even a call. I’ve bought three properties in my lifetime. Only one of the Realtors I worked with kept in regular contact. Would you refer someone who didn’t even follow up to say thank you?
IT’S CUSTOMER SURPRISES, NOT CUSTOMER SERVICES, THAT COUNT
I say this to emphasize that “business as usual” nets zero referrals. Great customer service matters greatly, but what people remember most are the nice surprises. Last weekend I opened my mailbox to find that someone who had been to a recent seminar of mine had sent me a book. (This is a very quick way to win my heart!) And it wasn’t a book about her business; it wasn’t some vague ruse to sell me something. On the contrary, it was a book she knew I would really want to read. Every time I see that book, I remember who gave it to me. Bottles of wine are nice, but they get consumed quickly. That book will be a permanent reference tool for me.
Here are other real-life examples of people I’ve worked with as referral coaching clients or met at seminars who earn many referrals:
An insurance agent who takes one weekend a year and makes quilts for the clients who have the most policies with her
Two mortgage consultants who offer you water, coffee, or beer when you arrive (and mean it!)
An insurance agent who has a community notice board where locals can advertise for a babysitter, sell a boat, or promote a yard sale
A Realtor who routinely gives away fresh eggs, homemade jam, and just-made maple syrup
A financial advisor who regularly invites his best clients to Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics games
KEEP FILLING UP THE WELLS WITH WATER
Referrals do not come out of thin air or thin relationships: You can’t get water out of an empty well.
GET YOUR CLIENTS TALKING ABOUT THEIR PASSIONS
George Silverman, former president of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, said, “People talk about their passions. You can’t get them to shut up about their passions.”
Think about yourself here. You love talking about your kids, your favorite team, a hobby, your pet, a favorite band, or a vacation destination. Your clients like you more when they know you care enough to ask them about theirs.
One of the reasons I like my vet so much is that he is one of the few people outside my family who sincerely asks me about what I care about most: my wife and family, my business, and my dog, Scooby. Kurt, one of my past clients, always used to ask me about Coventry City, my hometown team, even though it rarely feels good to talk about them because they are pretty awful! I still appreciated him remembering.
Maybe your clients are not that interested in what you do professionally, just as you may not be very interested in what they do. So know what they do care about most and talk to them about that!
Actually, better than getting your clients to talk about their passions is when you can help them to connect more to what they love.
Do we all know exactly what we want in life? Do we have all the time we want to connect to our passions? Here are some ways to help your clients reconnect with their passions.
HOST CLIENT EVENTS THAT REVOLVE AROUND SOMETHING YOUR CLIENTS LOVE
Bring people together who have the same strong interests in life. They will talk to each other, and you will initiate great word of mouth about you! That’s one reason why target marketing works so well (all people with a common interest).
Here are some examples of successful client events:
A friend of mine who owns a business has several events each year at Green Bay Packers and Milwaukee Brewers games.
A friend of mine who is a florist hosts a variety of events on gardening, interior design, creative gift ideas, and floral design followed by a 15 percent discount off everything in the store before customers leave.
A former client of mine who is a financial advisor has hosted events at a microbrewery where clients and guests get a tour and great beer-tasting experience. How easy do you suppose it is for his clients to invite friends to that!
BE A RESOURCE TO YOUR CLIENTS
Do you know the best resources in town who may be able to help your clients? The more people you know professionally who have different specialties, the more you can become a resource to your clients. (Additionally, by referring others, they are much more likely, in turn, to refer you—my next book will address how to master this.) This is a way to position yourself as a “go-to” person and build trust with clients.
Almost everyone has money worries at times—do you know people who can help your clients in those areas? Know a good travel agent or travel Web site for your client wanting to get away in the winter? Know a massage therapist for your stressed client? How about a friend who has connections to get tickets for sporting events or knows about the best plays or bands coming to town? The list is endless. Create more traffic through you. Create more buzz. Very few professionals have that reputation—why not be that person? It’s word of mouth, remember?
You can make a huge difference for people you know.
HELP OTHERS GET WHAT THEY WANT FIRST
When you help others get what they want first, asking for referrals gets a whole lot easier. This just might be the most important statement in the book! I know this has almost become a cliché, but like most clichés it’s founded on a great deal of truth. Maybe nobody has ever done any scientific research on it, but it surely seems that the more you give to others, the more you get.
The more you go above and beyond with a client, the more business you get. The more you help a center of influence, the more business comes back to you.
It’s not always tit for tat, and you certainly don’t want to keep score. You might send three pieces of business to one professional and help someone at a networking event find a job. You might not receive anything specific from these people, but perhaps you’ll get all kinds of opportunities from others.
HUMAN RESEARCH
Why do we hear so much about helping others and yet often find it hard to do? It is counterintuitive. Research has shown that humans are innately wired to focus on their own needs 95 percent of the time. If you’re spending 95 percent of your time focused on getting referrals, that’s great. The only problem is that you really need to spend more than 5 percent of your time thinking about how you can help others. It also means that the people you want referrals from are not thinking about you!
Three years ago, I met a lawyer who had brought in $1.1 million of new business to his firm in 2006. He attributed it almost entirely to the fact that he had referred so much business to others. He did a lot of giving, and he didn’t keep score about who gave back. He just knew that creating that much goodwill would make good things happen.
HELP OTHERS SUCCEED
You will often have to help others succeed first—or at least try. And you’ll need to keep helping them. With clients this means continually taking care of their needs as well as you can and listening for other ways to make an impact. With centers of influence—other key professionals in your network who have a similar target market—it means a lot more.
START A NEW ACTION HABIT
Schedule time to add value to centers of influence and key clients. This will start a new mental habit of putting the needs of centers of influence high on your priority list.
This is not easy to do, and for most sales professionals, it does not come naturally. It takes practice, and it needs to be drilled into your head.
I don’t know how many times I had to hear that before it truly sank in—I think for me it took about four years. That’s how hard it was to stop focusing only on immediate business. The sooner you do it, the better.
I recently asked Adam, an insurance agent and past client of mine, why he was the only agent in his office to have referral partners. Look for his reasons:
My first question used to be “what’s in it for me?” “How can he help me?” I wasn’t thinking long term; I was only thinking about myself. I really needed a mindset shift. I had to trust you, as my referral coach, that it would be worth my while. And Tim [a former agent in his office] had had great success getting referrals from other professionals, and he had worked with you, so I knew it was possible; and he spoke really highly of you. I had no idea back then how great it could be.
Six reasons! It took six different contributing factors before Adam was ready to do something. Now because Adam has done such a good job referring business to other professionals, he is a Presidents’ Club qualifier in his company, 70 percent of his business comes from referrals, and 80 percent of that business comes from centers of influence.
I took a week off recently and returned to reading one of my favorite authors, Stephen Covey. This quotation grabbed me by the jugular so much that I had to read and reread it several times. It is from his book First Things First:
We settle for the illusion society sells us that meaning is in self-focus—self-esteem, self-improvement. But the wisdom literature of thousands of years repeatedly validates the reality that the greatest fulfillment in improving ourselves comes in our empowerment to more effectively reach out and help others. Quality of life is inside out. Meaning is in contribution, in living for something higher than self.
Too often I get caught in the trap of thinking too egotistically about “what can I do that will help me and quick-fix cheer me up?” and wind up missing the point that I feel best when I’m helping others grow their business by getting more referrals, or coaching kids improv comedy on a Tuesday night, or spending time with friends and family, or playing with my sister’s children, who are five and seven.
This is the kind of paradigm shift that could change everything for you. Happiness is not in the “me, me, me,” but in making a difference to others. And that’s where the referrals come, too!
UNDERSTAND AND APPLY THE RULE OF RECIPROCATION
For the past nine years I’ve listened to audio programs extolling the importance of bringing something to the table, of adding value first. Recently, author Bob Burg published a book titled The Go-Giver, which shares the compelling message of helping others. The idea is virtually a cliché!
There were times when this drove me nuts as I thought to myself, “I can’t spend my time doling out free advice and helping others with their causes—I’ve got a business to run!” At times it sounded fluffy and new age. I felt like saying, “Yeah, easy for you to say, Mr. Millionaire International Speaker! I’ve got a growing relationship with my credit card company!” So here’s what you need to understand as soon as possible: the reason why helping other people is so highly recommended is because people often feel obligated to return the favor! Read that again! It’s the Rule of Reciprocation. Nobody had ever explained this to me before.
I knew deep down it made some sense, but taking the leap of faith was difficult for me. Now that I’ve read the psychology research, it makes sense. Cialdini first wrote about this in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. He makes it clear that it is innate to humans that we feel we must help someone in return provided the help the person gave us was genuine and unconditional. (If we sense it’s a scheme of sorts, it won’t work.)
He notes that when we need to persuade and influence others, we mistakenly ask ourselves, “Who can help me here?” This approach rarely works because it comes off as needy—rather like saying, “I really need your help growing my business. Can you please, please refer me to everyone you know?” No! In Cialdini’s latest book (written with coauthors Noah Goldstein and Steve J. Martin), called Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, he advises: “It would be more productive to ask ourselves the question ‘whom can I help?,’ knowing that the norm of reciprocation and the social obligation it confers on others will make future requests more effective.”
This is why it’s vital to know what value you’ve brought to your clients before asking them for referrals (Step 2 of the Six-Step Fearless Referral Conversation; see Chapter 6). Have you helped them enough to earn a referral?
BOUNDARIES
You teach people how to treat you. You need to have boundaries in your business week about whom you help, and keep in mind that it may be a while before the favor is returned. I hate to sound calculating, but you are growing a business, not a nonprofit organization. Absolutely there are times to help others who are reaching out to you; mentoring others is incredibly rewarding. But most people don’t have the time or money to randomly help everyone who knocks on their door. Does that person you’re helping know others who might make good clients for you?
A friend of mine in the financial services industry developed a huge network and became known as a great resource for helping people between jobs. The problem is that somewhere along the line, people met with her expecting free advice and were not interested in discussing their financial situation and potential retirement rollover money with her. After some time, my friend simply grew resentful at not being appreciated.
Interestingly, this is where I find that the universal principle of how much you like the other person makes a big difference in how much you are willing to help!
TWO THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
There are two things to consider if you want a big return from helping others.
WHAT YOU GIVE INFLUENCES WHAT YOU GET
The more a person gives to us, the more obligated we feel to give in return. Is your lightbulb on now? The more you sincerely help someone out, the more that person will feel obligated to help you in some way. Think about it. The last time you met someone for coffee or lunch and he or she picked up the tab; what was the first thought you had? Next time we get together, I better pay—I don’t want to feel like a moocher! Or what about the last time someone helped you move to a new house? I am sure you did something to show your appreciation because the person really helped you out.
GIFTS AND FAVORS ARE MOST PERSUASIVE
Three factors will determine to what degree these offerings are effective:
1. The offering needs to be seen by the recipient as significant or meaningful. I remember a financial advisor friend of mine was telling me that she was disappointed by the lack of response she had received after sending some of her clients subscriptions to National Geographic. She had wanted to send something of value that both spouses might like. Unfortunately, the magazine evidently did not mean enough to those who got it. That’s because of the next point.
2. The offering needs to be personalized. What are you most interested in? What would you remove from your mailbox and say, “This is great!”? What are your primary needs right now?
I was in England three summers ago speaking to an organization about networking. Afterward, someone told me about some business that took four years to come her way. But during that time she had met the needs of her prospect several times by recommending writers to her (which was her prospect’s primary need during this period).
3. Unexpected is best. This supports research done by Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert and by Gallup. I cannot recommend this idea more highly. I have had tremendous success surprising people with small gifts. Remember, it has to be sincere!
Last year, on two different occasions, sales managers who had brought me in to present to their teams stood up during this point in my seminar and explained to their salespeople that they had decided to select me after unexpectedly receiving a book from me.
MAKE EMOTIONAL BANK ACCOUNT DEPOSITS
One of the fundamental principles to getting referrals is you can’t get water out of an empty well. You can’t ask for anything if you haven’t been adding value, making “deposits,” and filling up the well yourself first. But what you add must have real value. You wouldn’t readily recommend anything if it hadn’t really done anything good for you. Your integrity is on the line.
Stephen Covey coined the phrase emotional bank account. His concept was that you can’t have a strong relationship without constantly feeding it positive deposits. When you are adding to it on a regular basis, then there can be some give and take. If you ignore building it the right way, you can’t expect anything in return. The same is true for referrals.
The last time I bought a new car, I got a call from the company asking me if I would recommend the dealership to friends and family. Over the phone I said I would because my experience had been very positive. But after I hung up, I concluded that I would hesitate to give a referral. I was trying to understand why I wouldn’t recommend the company. I thought about it and realized that the car had to deliver for a while. I’ve had some bad experiences with cars, and I realized that I wouldn’t recommend one until I knew it was coming through for me.
So far one good deposit has been made, but in this instance I will need many more before I would suggest someone else go there. For example, the salesperson who helped me didn’t really seem very interested in me and what I did for a living (which strikes me as really strange since he could have fished for some free advice!). He earned the referral on his competence, but he did little to build the relationship.
I remember meeting someone at a business happy hour once. I barely spoke to him, didn’t connect with him on a personal level when we did talk, and then was amazed when he started leaving me messages asking me to introduce his wife (whom I’d never met) to all my contacts in a specific industry! No deposits had been made, and yet he was asking me to risk my reputation for a total stranger. It’s an extreme example, but it reminds us that we need to track the balance of lifting or leaning on a relationship.
HOW YOU CAN APPLY THIS KNOWLEDGE TO GET MORE REFERRALS
Here are five things you can do to take what you know and use it to improve your referral rate:
1. Find out how you’ve helped your clients. This is discussed in detail in Chapter 6. Helping clients to realize fully how much you have helped them and acknowledge what you have done for them recently solidifies part one of the Rule of Reciprocation. You will hear whether you have made enough deposits and have earned the referral. If your client tells you that you have brought value, it makes transitioning to what you and I call a referral conversation that much easier.
2. Keep regularly adding value to clients, referral partners, and potential centers of influence without expecting any immediate return. This is something you can do every week. And you should do it regularly, so that your top 20 percent of contacts know that you have done something for them recently! Please, schedule it now! Make it a regular habit in your business week. Then the only question you need to answer is, “How can I most add value to this person?”
3. Send items of value to your client base to keep you top of mind. This could include free helpful information that is not selling something and that your clients might actually want to read—not pitch in the recycling bin. Perhaps articles or books on topics that interest them, such as antique cars, hiking, or other hobbies, would be appreciated.
4. Hold a client appreciation event. There are many variations and possibilities here that can benefit the Rule of Reciprocation.
5. Send luxury gifts at holiday time. My friend Curt runs a software company, and he sends out high-quality wines, cigars, and chocolates during the holidays that are highly appreciated by his clients. He always has new business pouring in—not just in January. Be aware, though, that some companies have policies forbidding them to accept gifts for fear it will be perceived as a kickback from a vendor or as a bribe.
Master suggestions 2, 3, and 4 because these are the founding principles that govern the relationships you need to get a lot of referrals.
FIRST BE COMPETENT AND JARGON-FREE
Often I like to ask audiences about the people to whom they have referred business. I ask them to think about the qualities of the people they recommend to loved ones. There are only about five or six qualities that come up consistently. Competence is always one of them.
Nobody will recommend you if you are shaky on your subject matter. This is the first area you must be strong in as quickly as possible. There’s a reason why every book on success talks about being a lifelong learner. Knowledge builds trust. As I write this today, I have just come from doing two presentations that were attended by a mere 5 percent of the association’s invited membership—only 5 percent. Few people are committed to continuous self-improvement, and yet that’s exactly what our clients want from us and that’s exactly what will help you avoid being downsized.
I cannot say that the best informed person always runs the strongest business. Knowledge is not the only skill. Knowledge is only meaningful when you use it. But I can say that your knowledge base can only help you and that lack of competence will hurt you and damage your credibility and authenticity.
JUST STARTING OUT
How do you handle the problem of competency if you’re new to your profession? Here are three things you can do: (1) Write down all the questions you’re getting and position yourself as someone who is a learner, who is always taking time to develop professionally, and who has access to the information. (2) Schedule time every day to learn new content and never drop this habit. And (3) inform your prospects about your learning habits and goals and any classes or certifications in the works. This is powerful because everyone knows how rare this is regardless of age or experience.
IGNORANCE CAN BE BLISS
Interestingly, I have heard too many times for me to disbelieve that there are instances when some of your clients will respect you more when you tell them not to expect you to have all the answers. We can’t pretend to know everything and certainly should not pretend to know something we don’t.
Clearly this depends on your field to some extent. For example, I expect my dentist to know how to fix my teeth; I can’t expect him to predict to the exact month how long his repair work on any one tooth will last (especially given my sweet tooth!).
A client of mine was telling me about some work she had done on her basement. While the initial work was done under contract, she had trusted her contractor enough to continue on with a second stage of work without putting anything formal in writing. It turns out that this contractor had never done this kind of work before but did not tell her.
Consequently, my client experienced an endless period of unmet deadlines, broken verbal commitments, and unreturned calls and e-mails because the contractor was trying to figure out how to do the work without admitting it. Needless to say, the frustration levels ran very high.
Even though the contractor was well liked by my client, this experience built up distrust. She recently told me that she could never recommend this contractor to anyone else.
KEEPING CURRENT
Here’s what I recommend: develop the habit of reading something from your field at least three times per week for 30 minutes. First thing in the morning is usually the best time. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly I work in that new knowledge when talking with clients or presenting to groups. The ideas seem to sit there like freshly cooked meals waiting a few moments before being passed out by the wait staff at a busy restaurant and devoured by an appreciative audience.
I was traveling through Philadelphia recently and met a consultant named Joe Sharkey, who works all over the United States for a telecommunications company based in Utah. Thirty years ago Joe trained as an engineer, and so he knew all the technical aspects of his business. But it was only when he started helping the sales team of his company that he learned how to avoid technical jargon. “The bankers I meet with often tell me that I do a really good job explaining things in language they can understand.”
Joe does such a good job explaining everything that now when he meets with investment bankers, his clients will invite peers so they can hear his expertise. His delivery is so compelling that they call him with referrals—although it did take him quite a few years to get to this point! So once you know your stuff, do your best to make sure that your clients truly understand everything you are saying.
In their book Storyselling for Financial Advisors, authors Scott West and Mitch Anthony argue that many clients walk away from meetings with advisors feeling confused because much of the language used was too technical. But the fear some salespeople have is that they are going to come across as unintelligent or average by speaking exclusively in layman’s terms. Your clients do not want to feel foolish and may be wary of asking too many questions. Ask yourself if you might be using jargon as a crutch because you have not found a more effective way to communicate.
EXCEED YOUR CUSTOMER AND EMPLOYEE EXPECTATIONS BY I PERCENT
Underpromise, overdeliver, and keep your word with clients and employees. You can’t expect referrals if your service is simply what your client expects (average). That may sound totally obvious, but the next two points are not. In fact, there are two big problems with doing what you may well be doing now.
SATISFACTION IS AVERAGE
I hear quite a lot from certain people about their customer satisfaction surveys and how well they have performed on them. Yet these people also get very few referrals. Aiming simply for customer satisfaction is no longer adequate—for retention or referrals!
In their book Raving Fans, Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles state that satisfied customers are satisfied sheep “just parked on your doorstep until something better comes along.” You have to do more than that to keep your clients as repeat business and have them endorse you to others.
Sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer makes an amusing point about what’s most important: would you rather have your spouse be loyal, or would you settle for your spouse just being satisfied?
CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NOT ENOUGH
Almost all businesspeople think their customer service is what sets them apart! Please stop and think about this for a moment. How many times have you heard another professional say that what makes his or her business better than the competition is customer service? This can’t be. So be brutally honest with yourself and ask, “Is what I do really any different or better? How is it truly better?” I suspect that often we tell ourselves that simply because we show up, it has to be better. That’s like saying the Audubon Society should put each of us on the endangered species list because there’s only one of us!
Aiming for wow customer service is a worthy goal to pursue from time to time, but it is not a sustainable business practice. If someone comes into an insurance agent’s office to make a monthly car insurance payment, is it fair to expect the agent to send flowers or mail a gift certificate for a steakhouse? That would be absurd.
Many of our frustrations with people who get our business is that they don’t even do what they say they’re going to do. As basic as it sounds, start by keeping your word. I know I’ve made the mistake of casually saying, “Sure, I’ll get that out to you tomorrow,” without bothering to remember that I will be traveling all day tomorrow! It does work much better to suggest that you will have the information somewhat later than even you expect so you exceed their expectations.
HOW CAN I IMPROVE THE SERVICE MY CLIENTS GET?
Three years ago I did a workshop in Massachusetts for a financial advisor and his referral group, which consisted of influential professionals in his community. When I saw his office, he had it all: an electronic sign with the names of clients coming in that day; classical music playing in the background; china cups and quality coffee, muffins, and cookies in a basket; unique artwork and interesting framed pictures; sports memorabilia signed by well-known coaches and athletes from the Red Sox, Celtics, and Patriots; a broad choice of current magazines; and an elaborate aquarium. He also had a highend follow-up system that he implemented once a client had visited. There is likely more that I have forgotten. It was remarkable; it made me feel classy and appreciated. And anyone can start this process. He had been in business for 25 years, and he had instituted many ideas he’d learned from conferences over the years.
Despite the wealth of knowledge available today about best business practices, isn’t it bizarre that most of us have low expectations as customers, that most of the time we expect to be underwhelmed and to deal with people who care little? It is why I believe there is great reason to be optimistic about the future of personal service businesses: We all need quality people we can depend on. We all seek that go-to resource in various areas in a world of rapid change and many fleeting virtual relationships. That businessperson might as well be you. The competition is not all that stiff!
DON’T FORGET ABOUT YOUR EMPLOYEES!
According to Gallup’s Peter Flade, having emotionally engaged employees is as important as having happy customers. How come nobody seems to talk about this?
Sam Walton learned this lesson 30 years ago. His employees had a poor reputation for how well they were treating customers. What he learned was that if his managers treated his employees well, the happy employees would then be nicer to the customers, who would then have a positive shopping experience. In the book Business Leaders and Success, Walton noted “the customers will return again and again, and that is where the real profit in this business lies.” It was an innovative way to gauge customer satisfaction that proved very effective. And it all started at the top.
Advantages also include employees who are more productive, stay with your company longer, are absent less, and have a better safety record. All of which also means lower training and replacement expenses for you.
Sean, one of the sales managers I currently coach to get referrals for recruiting prospects, has started taking one of his reps out for lunch each week. It has been a huge success. He asks them to block out two hours. The bulk of the meeting (and the primary goal) is focused on how they are doing and how he can help them improve in their business.
He takes on the role of coach, offering specific positive feedback, support, accountability, and direction on what they are not seeing about their performance. The atmosphere is more relaxed and conducive to more open dialogue, which means making an emotional connection away from the hustle of the office, the multiple phone calls, and sales appointments. It’s a distraction-free environment (unless the wait staff is cute!) where it is easier to show that he truly cares.
And there is a win for Sean. His reps are expected to come with three referrals for him (he aims high, and they average one quality referral each time). The win for the reps is that they can take on a leadership role in helping the person they recommend succeed because they know they are bringing that person onto a winning team. Sean has created his own additional rewards as well after asking his reps what else would motivate them.
Strong customer (and employee) service is a must in order to earn the right to ask for referrals and to expect them.