From Yellowstone Mishaps to Networking Gold: The Digital Era of Referrals

So this week, we were in a (thankfully very mild) car incident.

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After a LONG day of hiking in Yellowstone, we stopped in McDonald's to grab some cold drinks and a soft serve cone for my son, who crushed over 2 miles of hiking with his little legs.

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I get out of the car and walk to the back door to swap shoes when this car starts doing a reverse u-turn. I literally had to step back and yell at this guy to stop him from hitting me. He then continued into our car.  

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Thankfully it was VERY mild. Turns out Heather was getting Benji out (thankfully on the opposite side of the car).

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And then the guy starts to drive away...that's when I had some choice words for him. My wife, being so amazing, very calmly told me just to get a photo of his license plate as he drove away.

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I go to do that, and he backs up and says he didn't realize he hit my car...

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And honestly, as much as I do PI law, I was still sort of shocked by the whole thing and couldn't focus on what to do. Of course, Heather jumped in, took photos of the accident, and checked on Benji while I recovered to exchange info.

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And after it settled down and we went inside, I just kept thinking - THIS is the benefit of referrals. I didn't need to CALL her because she was standing right there, but holy cow, was it nice to have an expert I could reach out to who wasn't overly emotional about the situation?

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(Aside, the look on the kid's face never really changed during hitting the car, or after not driving away, or when my 4-year-old son came over to see the damage, or anything else until Heather said she does PI law...)

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And honestly, after 11 months of driving across the country, if this is the WORST that happens to our car...I will happily take it.

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So, let's dive into week 2 of our focus on referrals and HOW to find great referral sources.

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9 Ways to Find Referral Sources

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1. People you already know - what better place to start than the people you already know? If you aren't sure what jobs matter or you just want a handy dandy spreadsheet to store them, we have you covered here.

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2. Prior people who have sent you cases - if you're going to focus on getting referrals, send referrals to amazing people who already think of you for cases. Caveat - they have to be AMAZING at what they do AND who they are. If you send clients somewhere because that place sends you business, you risk burning your clients' trust by not sending them to the best options.

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3. Prior clients - if you want clients to refer cases to you, refer work to them - same warnings as above apply

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4. Employees - people who already work FOR your business should be AMAZING referral sources. They have a great idea about how to operate, and they get to hear a ton of feedback from clients about how great you are (or what you can do to be even better). You can't expect all of your employees to become referral sources, but highlighting them and (ethically) rewarding them for doing so is some low-hanging fruit to get more referrals.

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5. Vendors - here are people who work with your business, which means they have some involvement in what you do, and they also own a business and should have an idea about what kind of person you are. Vendors SHOULD be great referral sources (assuming you pay your bills on time and are nice to them). And look, I don't expect the people I use to print my advertising materials to get a TON of questions about people in a car accident. But I expect my court reporter vendors to get those questions, my process servers, and such. A little bit of gratitude and being nice goes a LONG way toward them referring those questions your way.

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6. People your current referral sources know - I think this is obvious, but maybe it's not. If you have people you know, like, and trust who you share work back and forth with...ask them who else they know, like, and trust and share cases with. Because if they already do this with you and do a great job, they probably ALSO know other people who rock at doing work and sharing referrals. (and yes, the Oxford Comma, because as Vampire Weekend sings, "Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?" ME, that's who!)

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7. Organizations you're involved with - if you are consistently showing up to these events and seeing the same people over and over again they MIGHT be great potential referral sources.

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8. Leads Groups - BNI and similar organizations have their place; just remember, if you force people to refer, they send crummy leads and don't care as much about the referral source is great. (yes, this is a generalization, and all generalizations are false...but still).

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9. Social Media - will get to this in a second.

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So, for the most part, I think going down this list from 1-8 is the best way to do it. I didn't set you to be THAT specific, but I think people you already know are better referral sources than people you don't know, those who already refer are better sources than the leads group, etc.

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So there is some method to the madness, but then I left social media for last because 1) I didn't know where to rank it, and 2) I knew it would be the biggest part, and I didn't want to break the flow.

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Finding Referral Sources on Social Media

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When in doubt, don't hesitate to post for a referral on social media.

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"Need someone who does X for a client"

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I think the concern is alienating anyone you know and are close with who does that. But if they comment, you can always apologize and go with them (unless you were avoiding them for a specific reason).

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But here are the benefits of that post

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1) it lets people know you send referrals (so maybe they should refer cases to you or get to know you so that you will refer to them)

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2) it reminds people you exist - I don't agree that content is king, but it's up there, and this is some good content (not even getting to the fact that it asks for a solid and sensible response which then gets it pushed out to more people).

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3) it might remind you about people you had forgotten (or let you know about people's new job changes)

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4) it might help you meet new people

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So let's break #4 down a bit because 3 things will happen when you post

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1) people will tag themselves

2) people will tag other people who are a potential fit

3) people will share they don't know anyone who does this either

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#1 is fine, ABM (always be marketing), but I would take this with a grain of salt

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#3 is fine. If ENOUGH people have this same issue, maybe it's a new offering or company for you (low odds here, though)

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#2 is what you want.

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Why?

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Because who the hell takes time out of their day to help someone else get some more work? Great people!!!!

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So the people tagging other people should be people you want to know you better, so they tag you when someone asks for a referral for stuff you do.

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AND, who gets other people to take the time out of their day to tag someone else to make sure that they get more work? Great people!

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Think about it, if you go to a new restaurant and it's okay...you're not tagging them.

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If you go and it's amazing food, you might.

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If you go and it's amazing food, AND the owner came out and had a nice personal chat with you...you will probably share that restaurant.

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And that's who you want in your network. The company that does a great job AND provides great service.

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Remember, when someone comes to you for a referral, and you give one, you can strengthen the relationship or weaken it; that all depends on your referral results. So honor that wisely.

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And that's it, that's the newsletter! Until next week, may you not get caught up in a decades-long fight with your family over the Iron Throne!

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Next week we will wrap up our dive into referrals UNLESS...UNLESS you have any really good questions about it that I didn't already go over. So if you've got them, please let me know so I can make sure we drive the most value out of this newsletter to you.

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Otherwise, I hope you had a wonderful (short) week and an excellent weekend.

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Until Next Friday

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