Referrals problem
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[00:00:00] Here's what receiving a referral is like you wake up in the morning. You check your email and boom, there's an email from someone and it says, hi, I was referred to you by so-and-so. I'm really looking for help with. Your service. W would you have some time to speak? And you're thinking, yes, I have some time to speak.
[00:00:22] But you're also thinking, thank goodness this referral came in because I needed this business yesterday.
[00:00:29] This is Celina Guerrero. This is the Thrive Biz Chat and today I'm going to talk about the problem with referrals. I am Founder of the LinkedIn Outreach Playbook and My First Sales Hire. I hope that any time you want to build your business beyond referrals, you will reach out. And again, that is the topic today.
[00:00:51] All right. So you've received this referral and to be honest, referrals are what I sometimes call save the day revenue.[00:01:00]
[00:01:00] Don't of course misunderstand. We all know referrals are amazing. We know that they come with a high level of trust because, there was a mutual relationship. And there is a very high probability that someone will hire you if they are referred. It's a proven statistic again and again.
[00:01:20] But here are some reasons five, in fact, why referrals can be a problem in your business. So number one, referrals are very random. They are out of our control and they do not provide a sustainable flow of clients. One month, you might get three referrals and not have enough capacities deliver. And then you could go six months without a referral.
[00:01:44] He causes a feast or famine business when we are solely relying on referrals to generate new clients. Number two.
[00:01:54] You may in fact, begin to fool yourself, fool yourself into believing that [00:02:00] referrals always come in to save your bottom line. And so what happens is you end up not creating a pipeline of new leads and prospects because somehow they always seem to save the day, but if you're really honest with yourself,
[00:02:14] You're really not putting yourself in a position of sustainable growth. When you're waiting, as I say, waiting is not a strategy when you're waiting for opportunities to come your way. Number three reason that referrals could be a problem is when someone comes to you as a referral from a trusted source, you may
[00:02:35] feel really compelled to help them. And so I am certainly guilty of this. I feel so compelled to help them. And I. You know, I feel like, okay, well, they, what they need from me, isn't exactly my zone of genius, but I think I can deliver it. And because there's already this trust built and you don't want to disappoint them.
[00:02:54] And so you take the work, but what ends up happening of course is because it's outside your normal zone of [00:03:00] genius or your typical services that you offer, you're spending a lot of time trying to serve this one client.
[00:03:07] Number four. You take the referral work, as I said earlier, because you need the cashflow. Even if the work isn't right. So sometimes we take these referrals out of obligation and sometimes we take referrals just for the cash. And in both of those situations, we end up spending typically a lot of time on a solution that isn't our strength, that takes an extra amount of effort, which puts us back in a position of not having time to do the lead gen we should be doing so that we're not relying on referrals in the first place.
[00:03:42] And number five. People who were referred to you and I have had this happen. They're so desperate for a solution, right? They don't know what to do. They happen to pick up the phone to a friend. Their friend refers you and they think, oh, thank goodness. Okay. You can solve my problem. Let's where do [00:04:00] I sign the contract? And so what ends up happening is it's actually not a good fit. They didn't properly vet you in a sense, and so they'll just sign up for your program or agree to the services, but not be fully informed about what they're about to get into. And so as a result, you have either extra work to satisfy their needs because as the work together progresses they realize, well, this isn't what I thought I signed up for or worse they end up feeling unsatisfied that you didn't do the work that they needed.
[00:04:29] Does any of this resonate with you?
[00:04:31] If you want to create a strong, sustainable business, try to create a business development plan with a healthy mix of referrals. Yes, because they are awesome in many cases,
[00:04:43] marketing and also sales outreach, prospecting, reaching out to people who we think we can help. And then having that backed up by the authority marketing that we're doing.
[00:04:54] And I'm guessing you're getting referrals and I'm guessing you're doing marketing, but if you're not quite sure how to [00:05:00] integrate sales, outreach, prospecting, but you're curious to learn more because you want a really strong business, and you're really invested in the long-term viability of your business, please reach out to me. I can be found on LinkedIn.
[00:05:12] And please know that reaching out to people especially on LinkedIn, will give you much more choice of clients to work with, and that means you only get to work with your ideal fit clients that you love.
[00:05:27] More opportunity means greater selection ability from you.
[00:05:34] Please reach out to me. I'd love to hear what you have to say about this. And if you want to learn more about reaching out to your ideal client who are waiting for you, who really need your solutions.
[00:05:45] Please reach out to me on LinkedIn at Celina Guerrero. You can find my link in the notes or www.Outreachplaybook.com. You can learn more about how I help you do that on LinkedIn. Have a great day. Bye.
