8 PROVEN STEPS TO DOUBLE YOUR REFERRALS
Be sure your assistant asks a few
questions of your potential referral
source:
·
·
·
Who is your ideal client? What
kind of client do you enjoy
working with the most?
Do you currently have a
________ attorney you refer
cases / clients to?
Are you open to discussing
developing
a
referral
relationship with a law firm
like ours if there’s a good
connection?
some tips:
6. The goal is to set three to six
face-to-face meetings per month. At
the face-to-face meeting you want to
spend 80% of the time getting to know
them and their practice to determine if
it’s a good fit.
Ask them LOTS of questions:
·
How did you first get started in
_____?
·
What do you like best / least
about your work?
·
Do you seek to make referrals
to
other
non-competing
professionals?
What’s the biggest challenge
you are facing?
·
How do you find most of your
clients?
·
How many clients do you serve
in a typical year?
·
What does your typical client
look like?
·
Where is your office located?
·
If they are not interested, tell them, “No
problem. I’m sorry to have bothered
you. We will immediately remove you
from our list of referral sources.”
Here’s the truth...the vast majority will
WELCOME your call! We have made
thousands of follow up calls for our
clients and scheduled hundreds of face
to face meetings for them and only a
handful have said ‘No.’ Remember—
this is NOT a sales pitch—it’s just lunch!
Another option is to set up a brief
meeting at first just to see if there’s a
good connection. Offer to meet them
at their office for 30 minutes (lower risk
and very convenient for them plus you
get to see their office and meet their
team). The first meeting or two needs
to be face to face in order to establish
rapport and build the relationship.
Your assistant will need to call each
contact three to four times just to
get through. Don’t get discouraged!
Remember, they are very busy
28
professionals just like you.
CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL
And the most important referral
question of all: How would I know
if someone would be a great referral
for you?
7. Invite them to a second meeting
if the first meeting goes well. If your
initial meeting goes well, immediately
invite them to a second one where
you can go into more detail about
your practice area and how the two of
you could start cross-referring some
business.
Remember—you
cannot
promise
them referrals, you cannot guarantee
referrals, nor can you pay them a
referral fee (unless they are an attorney
and you meet your state’s guidelines)!
However, the vast majority of them
don’t want a referral fee and their
professional code of ethics doesn’t
allow one either. What they want is a
referral back from you.
8. Follow up! When it comes to getting
more referrals from other professionals,
the fortune is in the follow-up! Here are
Winter 2016
·
Send an email immediately
after you meet with them. Send
it the same day when possible.
·
Send a handwritten thank you
card or form letter about 2-3
days after your initial meeting.
·
After your meeting put a “to do”
or task item in your Outlook for
approximately 6-8 weeks after
your initial meeting.
·
Set up “lunch and learns”
where several professionals
informally get together over
lunch to exchange leads,
discuss
business,
and
encourage each other.
·
Make your next meeting more
about the relationship than
business. Meet at the golf
course, over drinks or a casual
place.
·
Send them a copy of your
published articles.
·
Create and send out a separate
monthly newsletter just for
Referral Sources
·
Use social media to stay
connected – invite them to
connect to you on LinkedIn,
Facebook, Twitter, etc.
At the Rainmaker Institute, we have
taught this easy step-by-step system
to thousands of bankruptcy attorneys
and they have used this exact process
to quickly build networks of 50-60 new
referral sources in 90 days.
Imagine what would happen to your law
practice if you could have 10, 20, 30, or
even more new referral sources every
single year who consistently send you
new clients. You can make it happen
if you create a referral system that
delivers real – not random – results.
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys