Referrals are a widely misunderstood phenomenon.

• We think that trust is key to getting referrals, yet sometimes we refer people we barely know.
• We believe that if we do a good job we will earn referrals from our customers but often our best work produces no referrals.
• We tell ourselves we could get more business if we just did a better job of keeping in touch.  So we send out a flood of postcards and Christmas cards and newsletters and yet the referrals only trickle in.
• We see some people get LOTS of referrals, despite providing the same level of service, or perhaps even a lower level and we wonder why OUR phone doesn’t ring more.

Beyond the myths and mysteries are some simple strategies that can ACTUALLY help you consistently get more referrals.

What Works Better

I can’t cover all the secrets of being more referable here but I can give you one of the biggest…and I can reduce it to one simple word:

RECOGNITION

Selling to the Choir & The Sea of Faces

Your clients need to be able to look out into the sea of faces that make up their friends, family, neighbors and associates and RECOGNIZE the people that should be your clients, your CHOIR.  (Your CHOIR is a way to describe your BEST clients…the ones who naturally “get” you and adore you.  They tend to be easier and more pleasant to work for AND more profitable.  It’s o.k. to do business with members of the “Congregation” who kind-of get you, but your CHOIR members are the people you should really focus on finding.)

That means you can’t just tell them its “people who need insurance.”   The more specific you are, the more likely you are to get the referral.

• Not So Great = “people who need insurance.”
• O.k. = “people  who just bought a new house, got a new spouse or had a new baby.”
• Best Yet = “I work with a lot of men who are driver, A-type personalities who probably work too hard and play too hard and do at least one sport that could potentially get them killed.”

I know most of you don’t just work with one type of person.  I’m not saying you should.  But most people, in an effort to get more business, end up with less business or none at all because they’re being too general and too vague.

Look Around the Room

If I tell you to identify EVERYTHING in the room you’re in, you might actually start naming a few objects close to you but you’ll likely quickly blank out.  If I say Name the RED things in the room, your brain AUTOMATICALLY starts looking for red things and making a list.

Referrals work the same way.  You’ve got to help them RECOGNIZE your clients from among the sea of 125 faces.  Being able to recognize your clients doesn’t guarantee they’ll refer them to you, but it goes a LONG way toward that goal.

(Item # 725) WANT MORE GOOD STUFF ON REFERRALS?

This month we’re doing an AWESOME class called Referrals 101.  It will be held live in Denver on April 15^th and again via a webinar on April 21^st.  This class covers some of our BEST information on referrals and how to get more of them.  And, it’s only $47.  Visit our Classes & Books page for details and to get registered.

Get Registered.

Get Results.

(or in this case, get registered & get referrals.)

Words are no small thing. A perfect phrase can stick in your brain, can inspire you, can round up the troops and put out fires. A perfect phrase can change everything. With just over 700 words, Abraham Lincoln turned the public health hazard, the field littered with dead bodies, the horror outside Gettysburg into a turning point of the war.

YOUR WORDS

A simple 60 second commercial might not be quite so simple if it connects you to your biggest client or a lifetime of referrals. Taking the time to find the right words, investing the money to buy the right words if necessary can pay off over and over and over.

FAMOUS EXAMPLES

Consider for a minute some of these famous phrases and how different they could have been. “I have a dream.” Martin Luther King OR “Hey guys, I’ve been thinkin’.” “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” FDR OR “Suck it up you pansies.” “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind OR “Whatever, I’m outta here.” “Give me liberty or give me death.” Patrick Henry OR “Suck it England.”

WORDS MATTER

Make sure you take the time to create words that work as hard as you do. It isn’t about being perfect, but a perfect turn of phrase can make all the difference.

ONE LAST THING

Talk is cheap.Great talk is priceless. And a great 60 second commercial will cost you about 50 bucks. If you’d like to get some great talk of your own, please check out our upcoming classes at www.maverickandcompany.com

Today I’m going to sneak you one of my favorite ones.

Mistake #3: PAPER CRAP

Mistakes are usually made by people who just don’t know a better way to do things. PAPER CRAP is the mistake you make when you give people STUFF THEY DON’T ASK FOR…your brochure, your flier, even your business card. You think you’re giving them valuable treasure, they feel like they’re getting PAPER CRAP. ‘PEOPLE DON’T WANT YOUR STUFF–Here’s the thing. People don’t want your stuff. They’ve got offices full of their own paper crap and mostly, they just don’t need or want yours. Unless they ask for it, DON’T give them stuff. It doesn’t matter how pretty your brochure is, how much you spent on it or how full it is with useful information…they’re probably going to trash it the minute they’re safely our of your sight. To them, it’s just PAPER CRAP. PAPER CRAP VS. THE CHOIR–PAPER CRAP occurs when you’re trying to sell to everyone instead of doing the work to connect with your CHOIR—the people who would just love to buy from you if they only got the chance.

Sell to your CHOIR, create resources that your CHOIR would want and need and don’t bother creating or pushing PAPER CRAP.

Naming a company is a tough thing to do. I picked MAVERICK for a range of reasons (in part, it had been a nickname of mine.) Beyond the unmistakable cool factor of the name itself however, the actual story of Samuel Maverick perfectly highlights two of the core ideas we believe in here at MAVERICK & COMPANY.

THE HISTORY

First a little bit about how the word itself became a part of our culture. The Merriam-Webster Book of New Word Histories MAVERICK: In south Texas in the middle of the 19th century lived a lawyer, Samuel A. Maverick [[1803-1870]], who was to have his name immortalized because of some cattle that happened to come into his possession. He was not a cattleman himself, but a client of his gave him 400 head of cattle in lieu of a $1200 debt. Maverick had no use for the cattle, and so left them in the care of one of his men. The cattle were never branded and were allowed to roam at will. Inclined to take advantage of this situation, neighboring cattlemen burned their own brands on the strays, which were then herded with their own. Although Maverick eventually sold his depleted herd, the term ‘maverick’ to designate any unbranded cattle caught on and spread throughout the West. By 1890 the term had acquired the transferred sense ‘a rootless wanderer.’ American travelers abroad carried this sense of ‘maverick’ with them, and the British were quick to adopt the useful appellation. . . . . .About the same time, ‘maverick’ was applied to a member of a group who refused to accept one or more of the policies espoused by that group. Political mavericks have bolted their parties, religious mavericks have been tried for heresy, and intellectual and artistic mavericks have set independent courses of pursuit, refusing to be ‘branded’ with restrictive or conformist labels.

OUR APPROACH

Here at MAVERICK & COMPANY we take a straightforward approach to working with businesses. We believe two important lessons can be taken from the story of Samuel Maverick and the mythology his story inspired. 1. BE A MAVERICK A maverick is someone who is unafraid of taking risks, breaking rules when necessary and is not someone who has a need to follow the status quo. BE a maverick. Be willing to bend, challenge or break the rules. Don’t just do things that way because you’re supposed to or that’s the way everyone else does them. Especially when it comes to building your business, one of the best things you can do is break some rules, do your own thing, go your own way and then let your competition try to keep up with you. 2. BRAND YOUR CATTLE Sometimes the simplest, most traditional solution is also the best one. Samuel Maverick lost a ton of money because he wouldn’t take the small, simple, rational step of just branding his cattle. So while it’s good to try new things and approaches, one of the other best things you can do as you build your business is to brand your cattle. There is no value in being wild for wild’s sake. Many people associate the word MAVERICK with innovative thinking, a willingness to take risks, and the cool factor often attached to people and ideas “outside the system.” Here at MAVERICK & COMPANY, we believe those things too. Alternately, less commonly and JUST as important for us is the idea that a real MAVERICK must also be willing to do the most revolutionary thing of all, play by the rules. At the heart of our brand is a deliberate tension between the renegade and the conservative. We believe that being willing to do ANYTHING gives you the extraordinary opportunity to do the SMARTEST thing-which is sometimes the flashy, risky, seems-crazy approach and sometimes is a the most simple, boring traditional one. Be a MAVERICK. Brand Your Cattle.

“Life requires no particular genius or courage or faith when it is going well. Any idiot is capable of standing in the warmth of the winner’s circle and soaking up the applause of an adoring crowd (and many of them do.) But life often does not go well. Life is often frustrating, frequently unfair and sometimes downright scary. Happy moments are easy for us all, and can’t be used to predict who will win and who will lose. It is the quiet moments of exhaustion, pain, boredom, fear, uncertainty, THESE are the moments that sort us into the groups of failure and success. Some of us will start out with more money, more advantages, more intelligence even, but all of us will have to deal with tough moments. Few people are willing to work hard enough to handle the bad times moments. Fewer still will do the work to learn to handle them well. But all of us can. Greatness is not learned in the winners circle. Greatness is developed in the storm, by learning to navigate around the tough times that will sink the ships of lesser men. If greatness is what you’re looking for, deal well with the storms that find you and seek storms worthy of the person you wish to become.”

Copywright © 2009 Alecia Huck

For more good stuff, you might also want to visit www.dailydoseofmaverick.com We’re updating our blog so you should be able to subscribe for regular updates soon. Thanks for visiting.

A LITTLE HELP, A LITTLE FAME–If you’ve got a good idea, send it in. I’ll compile a big list of the best and republish them (up to 100.) If you make the list and would like a little bit of fame, I’ll also publish your name, company name and website. Same goes for the final list of the 33 I like most.

SMALL THINGS, BIG FUN–While any suggestion is welcome, I’m especially interested in the little things that you think would make a big difference. Hiking Mt. Everest may have changed YOUR life but odds are it won’t be changing mine. You might instead suggest climbing a single 14’er (mountain with an elevation over 14,000 feet for those of you not from Denver.)  While moving to Maui or spending a month in a monastery might be fun…I’m mostly looking for the little things that have made a big difference in your life. TWEAKS are the small changes that can change everything.  It might be a book you read that changed your life, a movie you can’t forget or the scheduling habit that made your life workable.  It could be the one feng shui idea or the single habit of drinking more water, or the way you started scheduling vacations in advance, limiting the time your phone is on or just that you made a Sunday dinner with the family a priority.

WHATEVER little thing worked for YOU, I want to know about it.   SEND ‘EM IN–I’ll take suggestions for the next week and then publish the big list within the next couple of weeks. I have a feeling people will come up with some pretty good stuff so you may want to check back and look the list over. You may even want to take on doing the final 33 with me, or make your own list. A great life is CREATED. Thanks for helping me create mine and make sure you’re also creating YOURS. Reply to project33@maverickandcompany.com with your suggestions. And stay tuned for updates!

These are what I call your Blue Fish people.  There is something about them, something about you, that just goes together.  When you find these people they tend to stand out in your memory…almost like a Blue Fish in a sea of Red Roses.

If you want to stand out, be remembered and get referred, I recommend you start by seeking out the people who you have that click with…your Blue Fish people.  It’ll be easy to connect with them.  It’ll be easier for them to remember you.  And because you do have that friendly connection, they’re more likely to refer you.  AND because their connections are probably a lot like them, their connections are likely to be more Blue Fish people, people you will naturally connect with as well. Don’t try to impress everyone.

Don’t try to be remembered by everyone.  And CERTAINLY do not seek referrals from everyone.  Find your Blue Fish people, the places where you fit in.  It is there you are most able to Stand Out and reap the rewards of doing so.

1. It was a generic email…which is NOT a problem.  It contained NO personal reference at ALL which IS a problem.  Primarily this is a problem because I had no idea who the person sending the email was.  I meet lots of people and maybe everyone else on her list knew her name immediately but I did not.
2. I received a second email about a week later. Good on the follow up, again bad because I didn’t want the email to begin with, had no idea who was sending it or how I might have met them and therefor the series of communications is now, technically, SPAM.
3. I write a very polite, very nice response letting the sending know I had been a member of a BNI chapter a few years ago and was not currently interested.  I also said I couldn’t remember how we had met and asked her to please remove me from her mailing list.  I added that I wished her great success with her new group. SHE NEVER RESPONDED. This was her big chance to actually communicate with me, build a relationship with me.  She could have apologized, asked questions, asked if there was anyone else I’d like to send, never explained how we knew each other…nothing.
4. Today, the coup de grace. I receive a phone call from a person who sounds like they’re two minutes away from falling asleep or comitting suicide who tells me she’s with a company that sent me an invitation to a BNI meeting.  She could not be LESS enthusiastic about talking to me or her group.  Worse than going thru the motions, she actually sounds like she’s so bored she’s in pain.  I politely inform her that I had received a couple of emails, one of which I’d responded to saying I was formerly a member and not interested in joining at this time.  She then says, “O.k. thanks,” AND HANGS UP. I know we’re all guilty of skipping a couple of steps in the interest of saving time but a couple of hints: 1. As email has become more and more widely USED, it has become more and more widely ABUSED which leads to less use.  A mass email used to have some pull, not anymore.  Any communication will go a LOT further if you can be specific, talk directly to me and at least fill in any missing information about how we know each other.  Adding a detail or two to a generic email means that yes, you sent a generic email but you also gave enough of a damn to tweak it for ME.  The least I can do is read it for you. I once watched an insurance salesman send out 500 personally signed Christmas cards, not a single one of which contained a personal message.  Better strategy, send out 50 with a personal note.  They’ll actually get read, you’ll actually forward those relationships and you’ll save at least one tree and and a bunch of stamps. 2. Respond to any response communication. It’s an opening you worked hard to create, make sure you USE it. 3. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, at least be interested in your own invitation!  If you don’t care, why should I?  You don’t have to jump up and down like a cheerleader on speed, but you could at least be interested in talking to me, somewhat happy, excited about your own event, your life, your phone, the possibility of caffeine in your future.  Sound alive…please.

Invitations are powerful tools for building relationships.  Even if people don’t accept them, it’s a real reason to be in touch, to communicate their value to you, to be on the lookout for what might benefit them…all things that help solidify their connection to you. As with all powerful things however, you must use your power for good and not evil.  Used carelessly, a badly made invitation can do a lot of damage to your relationships and reputation. Invite well and prosper.

Don’t be too hard on yourself.  Many people make the mistake you may currently be making.  As we become experts in our profession, as we read more and learn more and study more, we become afflicted with THE CURSE OF KNOWLEDGE (muah ah ah ah.)

The Curse of Knowledge is explained brilliantly in the book “Made to Stick” by Chip & Dan Heath.  Essentially, it is the problem that occurs when you know a bit too much.  You view things with an expert’s eyes.  You’re able to see subtleties and distinctions that most people can’t.  You’re the interior designer who sees burnt ochre while the rest of us see a red wall.Worse, when you write emails, brochures and websites, when you talk at meetings, you probably make a second deadly mistake…you try to sound smart.  We all do it.  It’s the main reason I always try to get verbal testimonials that I can write out and send to clients for their approval.

Whenever people write things, whenever they speak in front of a group they want to impress, they tend to try to sound smart.  (This affliction is known as the Impulse to Impress.) Unfortunately, marketing is not about sounding smart.When you combine the Curse of Knowledge with the Impulse to Impress you get a particularly deadly combination.  You get blank looks and missed opportunities. You get good clients who walk away from the burnt ochre because they really just wanted a red wall.It can be very challenging to set aside the Curse of Knowledge and the Impulse to Impress but effective marketing requires it.  Think about your customers and the way they talk about their problems, your solution and you.  Then talk to them in the language they speak.  It’s not about dumbing down your message.  It’s about communicating effectively in the language THEY speak and understand best.  I call it Client English.  And providers who speak it are always more successful than people who sound smart but don’t really say anything.What’s your version of the “burnt ochre” mistake?  How can you translate your expertise into “red” for the people trying to hire you?