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How To Create Superfans So You Get More Referrals

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Purdeep Sangha is my guest on this week’s 2X Podcast episode.

He’s the author of “Superfans,” a book on how to create enormous loyalty within your client base. I highly suggest reading it, it is an awesome book to learn how to serve clients so that referrals flood to you.

How often have you worked with a vendor who you can barely tolerate – and then they ask you for referrals?

You don’t do it, do you? Of course not.

Why subject your friends to average service? Purdeep gives you some thoughts on this big topic!

Learn more about Purdeep’s book at https://createsuperfans.com.

Also mentioned in this podcast:

 

How Do I Stay In Front of My Clients Without Pestering Them?

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This is from a Question & Answer call our team recently did in our program called The Accidental Salesperson. We thought we’d give you a peak inside our thinking when we answer client questions.  (This is a transcription of spoken audio so forgive some of the clunkiness).

Q: What I know is that clients give me referrals and therefore I need to be in front of my clients, but I don’t make time to do it. How do I do so?

A: Well there are two things here. One is the making time and two is what I do with that time that I make.

I’m going to give you a couple of ideas.

If you really believe that you have something of enormous value for your clients and let’s say it’s July and tax season is over and as a CPA, you’re kind of back in the swing of things because you’ve taken the month of May off to just recharge. I think it’s OK to call people up and say,

“Look, we don’t really have any kind of imminent issue here but I was wondering if you would mind if I stop by sometime. I’ve got something I would like to show you.”

I think you should make a call where you’re actually going to be giving value.

You’re not giving a sales pitch. There’s no value in that. You’re stopping by. You’re either writing an article and this is where it gets to number two. You’re either writing content of some kind:

  • An article
  • A white paper
  • A case study
  • Or something where I, as the client, am interested in knowing it.

It could be how somebody does something. It could be new ways to save money on taxes. It could be updates from the IRS on things that I should be concerned about as a business owner or as a taxpayer.

You Must Think About An Expert Strategy

This gets back to being an expert and positioning yourself as an expert. In your profession, there are tons of things that you can do so you have a reason to go meet with them. The issue in a lot of this stuff is, “Do you have a good, compelling reason?” Stopping by to say, “Hey!” is probably not a good, compelling reason and that’s why we don’t do it. It’s also why we can’t make a phone call to bring ourselves to do it.

So the question is: “How are you going to bring value when you show up?”

That’s why I suggest some kind of an article, a white paper, a document. It could be something as simple as a website article that you print off and then you interpret in some way or you add your perspective to it. Don’t just send them a link to an “interesting article” you saw. That’s the coward’s way out. Add to it. Enhance it. Offer your perspective on it. That will differentiate you. Read more

Insurance Sales People–Uggh.

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Let me preface this by saying that I realize the importance of life insurance in our lives.

But, have you been called on lately by a life insurance agent? What do you notice? And can we B2B sales people learn a lesson from them (how not to do things)? The answer is YES!

Last month, a young man called me from a reputable, brand name life insurance company. He was a great guy, trying to make it in a very tough business. I asked him how he got his new clients and, of course, his answer was: Referrals.

Being in the sales training business, I was interested in how he accomplished this since I know that referrals can be difficult to get in that business. Everyone has been ‘hit up’ repeatedly for ‘names of friends.’

What he told me was remarkable.
Remarkable in the sense that it’s the same routine agents have been using for eons. You know the drill: after the discussion (whether a person buys or not) he asks for names of 5 of my friends that he could talk to. No wonder there is such a high turnover among young agents in that business.

Ever wanting to help my friends, here are some suggestions for him and any of us that depend upon referrals for new business.

1. Make it easy. He made it tough. I am sensitive to my brand (and you should be too). If I give one of my clients’ names to him and he treats them shoddily, then I pay the price. We know how valuable good relationships are — don’t make me risk those relationships. He didn’t make it easy for me.

He should have had a product (a CD or a White Paper) stressing the pains that the average insurance consumer has in their life–and what to do about it. He should have given me a few to send my friends so they could become educated prior to ‘the call.’ Had he done that, I might have sent it out to a few people and who knows what would have happened.

2. Invite me to an event. I know everyone says ‘its hard to get people to seminars these days.’ Well, it is if it isn’t compelling. He should have a series of events lined up so that he could invite me to them–then I could get to know him and his team better. This seminar could have been a ‘pain-finding’ exercise where he could have educated me to the problems I have (that I may not know I have.) Don’t make this event a one hour sales pitch.

3.  Focus on solving my problems first. He didn’t ask me any questions about my issues, my future, my concerns. I feel like I have things under control, but maybe I don’t. But he didn’t do that. I felt like he was interested in one thing only and that was ‘getting to my database.’ How can I make an engaged referral to a friend if I didn’t see value in his offer?

My friend, John Jantsch, (Duct Tape Marketing) has written extensively on referrals. One of his great suggestions is to make getting referrals a part of doing business with someone. In other words, when someone buys, tell them upfront that you will be asking them for referrals (how many when and how). But that’s onlyY AFTER YOU DO BUSINESS WITH THEM.

What about you? Are you making it easy for people to refer you to their associates? Or, are you depending upon your charm and good looks to do that? People refer their associates when they think it’s in their best interest to do so–and that probably means that you bring enormous value and solve big problems.

But if your whole sales approach is “me centered” or “product centered” then don’t expect me to open my database. It’s too risky.

(I’m sure I’ll get numerous comments (some ugly) from the insurance market. But this is in the spirit of helping, not shaming.)

Thinking About Referrals

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Why do we make business so damn hard? It doesn’t have to be. Take the idea of referrals. Every company I know is struggling with “new business development.” People whine: “there’s never enough in the funnel; there’s never enough of the right business in the funnel…” On and on it droans.

If you have just one customer, then you have a referral base. But don’t do it the way Willy Loman would have done it–pleading for referrals. Do it the 21st Century Way–create a referral system.

John Jantsch (author of Referral Flood), has great stories. Check out his work. His course is about $100–well worth it.

I especially like his idea of creating strategic alliances so that you can get access to others’ database. But you have to give something of great value for their contacts! And it must be well thought out.

Comment on some ideas to help small businesses grow their customer base via referral. I’d love to hear how you generate referrals–the right way.