Why getting specific will help you get more referrals

You’ll often hear networking professionals like me tell you to be specific and targeted when asking for referrals. Unfortunately so many business people get stuck though. They might accept they should be specific – they just don’t know how to do be specific. Let me help. There is a simple question you can ask yourself that will, in virtually every case, help you be specific.

In your business – who is your best current or recent client?

Then ask yourself: if you could get referrals to more clients like that, would that be good? I’m going to assume the answer would be yes.

So – you’ve got to ask for them. This works in two different ways, depending on whether you sell to other businesses (i.e. you are a business to business operator), or you sell your product / service to the general public (business to consumer). In this article, we’re going to focus on B2B – look out next time when I’ll go into detail on B2C.

Let’s take an example where your good current client is a firm of accountants. All we do then is pick another firm of accountants. You could ask yourself the following questions:

Where do I want the accountants to be based? Getting other people to promote you should lead to better quality business. There’s no sense asking for companies that are based miles away when you only want referrals to people in your locality. Equally, you may be targeting national or international clients.

Which firm of accountants do I want to ask for? Just pick one! Name the firm of accountants you’d like to be referred to. It might be you know of a suitable target, but if you don’t, just Google it. Search for accounting companies in a given location. Check their websites to see what sort of size practice they are, what they specialise in, and where they are based. Then pick one.

What job title / level do I need? Once you know the company, think about the person you need to speak to. If it is a small business, then it might be the owner. In larger businesses, maybe the CEO isn’t necessary, and the head of HR or finance would be more appropriate. Sticking with accountants though, we’ll assume that we need to speak to the Managing Partner.

What is the person’s name? You might think that this isn’t necessary, but I would encourage you to always find the name of the person you’d like to be referred to. Why? Because referrals come from relationships. We might be doing this for business, but one of your contacts is hopefully going to know the person you are targeting. It may be a work relationship, but it might come because they’re mates. Or neighbours. Or their kids go to the same school.

It is often a personal relationship that gets you an introduction, so if you didn’t mention the person’s name, you immediately reduce the likelihood of getting the referral.

So how do you find out the person’s name? Do some research – a quick check on LinkedIn / Google / the company’s website will give you the answer 99% of the time.

We have now got all the ingredients to be specific: A good referral for me would be Adam Loveday, Managing Partner of Murray Accountants, based in Chester.

And that is all. It really is that simple.

However, I do hear business owners tell me that they have one of two challenges. Let’s have a look at each one.

Challenge 1:

People get stuck because their mindset is ‘why would Adam Loveday at Murray Accountants want to talk to me?’ They are approaching this thinking they’ve got to cold call the target. Remember: you will be referred by someone who knows Adam Loveday, and who has a vested interest in helping you. Someone in your network is going to promote you and your service, so Adam Loveday will want to talk to you.

Challenge 2:

I accept that people reading this may still be thinking that this is counterintuitive. If I ask to speak to Adam Loveday of Murray Accountants, am I not cutting out all other accountants, and indeed anyone else who might need my service?

Two things tend to happen when business owners are specific. Firstly, while the chance of people actually knowing Adam Loveday is small, there is a much greater chance that they have a connection to Murray Accountants. Maybe they know someone else who works there, or they have a client who’s done work for the company. All we need now is an in – that person might then be able to connect us on to Adam Loveday.

I used to support a networking group in Hertfordshire, and every time I visited, I would write down any specific referral requests that the businesses were asking for. I would then send an email to the ten people who worked in my office, asking if anyone had any connection to these people or the companies they work for. How many times did I get a positive response? Every single time!

I didn’t create an actual referral every time, but there was always someone in the office with some sort of connection to the targets.

The second thing that tends to happen is your network might not know anyone in the firm you are targeting, but they do play golf with the Managing Partner at Curtis & Sutton accountants. The chances are that would be a good introduction for you.

Remember that by being specific, you are giving your network the tools to promote you and get you referrals. The more you help them by giving them detailed clues of the clients you want, the better. It will give them more to go on. And remember: they want to help you.