Referral Marketing: Too Much Rain!

The mighty Mississippi River is raging into farmlands and flooding anything in its path. Homes, businesses and complete towns are underwater. Where I live in Pittsburgh, we have seen 24 of 30 days in April with rainfall and more than twice the amount of rain we should have in May! Nature has gone mad! There's just too much rain and today it's 50 degrees in the middle of May. Ughhhh.

People are beginning to wonder if the sun will ever shine again long enough to dry the ponded lawns and warm the flowers that should be bright and beautiful by now. I can only watch in wonder at how the robins and bluebirds are keeping their babies warm and dry. Is Mother Nature mad at us?

What happens when it rains referrals on your business? Can you ever get to the point of having too many referrals? My short answer is YES, you can get to that point. HOW you get to that point is for another rainy day. WHAT you do when you get this is today's topic.

If you focus on a specific niche market that suits you to a tee, you are likely to get more referrals than you can handle. Then what?! You need to have a way of handling the excess so it doesn't flood your reputation. You can only handle so much until important things start to give ... follow-up gets slack, customer service suffers,etc. Now is the time to have great referral relationships! Who do you know that you can refer some of these clients to who will care for them as well as you? Who do you know who would partner with you in some way to handle the clients that aren't the best match for you? Who can handle your overflow?

Strategic alliances like this make for good business. You win ... your clients/prospects win ... your colleague wins ... and your relationships win. What more could you want? And the best part is ... nobody drowns from the rain.

Referral Marketing: Too Much of a Good Thing!

"All things in moderation" or "Too much of a good thing" or "The more the merrier"

How many times have you heard these before? All you have to do is listen to the news to experience the reality of "too much of a good thing". For some reason, our society has implanted in our brains that more is better. Well, I believe that in many, many cases ... more is NOT better. Here's what I mean:

1. In Pittsburgh, we had record snowfalls this winter. More snow than we've ever seen!! Fun? Yes, for some (me). A pain? Yes, for many. But what will happen when all that snow melts into our three rivers and it creates record flooding? More is not always better.

2. This weekend, a young man died on the Carnegie Mellon University campus. Most likely from drinking too much. A beer once in a while tastes great. Too much of a good thing is deadly.

3. Food. Food is a good thing. We need it to survive. But do we need SUPER SIZED food to survive? I don't think so. All things in moderation.

How about referrals? Can you have too many referrals? Can referrals be a bad thing?

From my perspective, yes you can have too many referrals! Imagine that! Too many referrals being a bad thing?! Consider that if you're getting too many of the wrong kind of referrals, you're going to be spinning your wheels alot and chasing down potential prospects who shouldn't be working with you. This is going to waste your time and give you headaches along the way. Not to mention those people will be taking up space that could be occupied by the RIGHT referred prospect!

Too many referrals can also be a bad thing if you're not equipped to handle them all. If business is coming into you faster than you can manage, on the surface it's great, but something is going to give. Perhaps your customer service starts to slack off, your follow-up system gets clogged, or your referral thank you system gets left behind.

Just like so many other things, too much of a good thing can hurt you and your reputation if you're not careful! More is not always better. I'd rather have just enough of the right kind of referrals than too many of the wrong kind.

Referral Marketing: Economic Stimulus

Have you heard of the economic stimulus strategy called "Make A Referral Week"?

Make a referral week runs from March 9-13, 2009. The goal for the week is to generate 1000 referred leads to 1000 deserving small businesses in an effort to highlight the impact of a simple action that could blossom into millions of dollars in new business. Small businesses are the lifeblood of our country and a job-creating engine of the economy. Make a referral week is the small business approach to helping revive the economy.

From my perspective, passing referrals should be a lifetime business strategy. It should remain top of mind every day ... not just for a week. Perhaps developing a catching viral referral strategy will help people to realize what those of us who focus on referrals have known for a long time ... referral business truly is recession proof! During a recession, people not only stay close to home physically, but mentally as well. Generally, people will take less risk during a recession and that includes who they choose to do business with when they have a need. Because of this tendency, it's smart business to begin to spend more time with those people who know you, like you and already trust you ... for those people will have a greater potential of referring you.

So, if you need to focus on passing referrals for a week in order to get that ball rolling for yourself ... then do it! Circle March 9-13 on your calendar and pass as many qualified referrals as you can during that week to help the economy. But from where I sit ... why wait until March 9th to get started? There's a lot of people you can help now ... today ... so why not start NOW?!

If you want more details, have a look at Make A Referral Week

Referral Marketing: Christmas Trees!

This is one of my favorite times of year ... Christmas! I love everything about it ... family, friends, traditions, snow, lights, giving, decorating, HO trains, cookies, parties, gifts, and the smell of a freshly cut Christmas tree!

Every year, the first Saturday of December is booked for "tree day!" We typically make a day of it and drive about an hour to a massive tree farm. This year, it was a perfect day ... cold with some light snow in the air. Our new dog went along for the first time (what a trip!) If you've ever searched a "wild" tree farm for your perfect tree ... you can envision the challenge. We don't like to hop from farm to farm so knowing what we want before we leave the house is important.

For me, the "right tree" is about 9 ft. tall (to allow some trimming), spruce of some kind (stiff branches allow for heavy ornaments), lots of air space (for LOTS of ornaments), straight trunk, and nice top to hold the star. Knowing what we're looking for makes it alot easier to find the tree. This one? No. This one? No. This one? YES! (Yes ... that's the one we brought home!)

Imagine how much easier it could be for your referral partners to find the RIGHT referrals for you if you knew exactly what you wanted? I talk to too many people who can't really describe their preferred client. If YOU can't describe your preferred client ... how can anyone find it for you?! It has to be frustrating to your referral partners when they work so hard to bring you a referral only to find out that it's not what you wanted. Help them to help you ... know exactly what you want and teach them how to find it for you!