Listening to the news last night, I watched the stories on the incredible ice storms that hit Oklahoma. From one lense, the ice laden trees are crytalized beauties ... glistening like glass in the sunlight. From another lense, the ice laden trees are deadly killers and a serious threat to a community. It makes me wonder ... how can something be so beautiful and so dangerous all at the same time? And, is there a connection to referral business. I think so.
Imagine that you find a wonderful referral partner ... someone very excited about helping you grow your business by word of mouth. This person is perfect in almost every way ... especially in the fact that they are in front of your target market all day, every day. They have plenty of opportunities to refer you! It truly is a beautiful thing!!
Now imagine that this over-zealous individual begins to turn people off when they're talking to someone about you because they start to sound like an info-mercial on the home-shopping network! They are selling too much, too hard, and too fast and people are turning away from them. This is NOT a beautiful thing and in fact can be very dangerous to your business.
What do you do? It's all about education. You've got to take the bull by the horns and give this person your time. If they're successful at referring you, it's because of how well you taught them to refer you. If they're not successful, it's because you still have work to do!!
Don't let the bull in a china store without extensive training ... or you might regret it.
1 comment:
Michelle, it amazes me that so many of us just expect that people know how to refer us. We want referrals but we don't want to take the time to TEACH our partners how to do it. Thanks for the reminder that it takes our time to teach them.
Post a Comment