We all love getting referrals, right?

In fact, referral business is my absolute FAVOURITE way to get new clients!

When a referral comes in, someone else has done most of the “selling” for you, so you often don’t need to do your typical “sales pitch”.  In fact, when I had my rent roll, referrals usually meant I would turn up at the house, have a cuppa with the owner and sign the paperwork with them – without needing to talk much (even at all) about my company’s property management services.

If only you could get ALL your business through referrals, right?

When I owned my rent roll, I actually DID get all my new clients (with the exception of four clients) through referrals.

So, let me show you how it’s done….

I used a very specific method of getting referrals into my business, and this was largely because I was LAZY!

I hated cold calling

I didn’t mind door knocking – but it took a lot of time and didn’t get many results!

I didn’t get great responses from letterbox drops (I did have some success with a very particular formula for letterboxing, but I’ll share that with you another day)

I didn’t have a sales team (I owned a property management only agency)

PLUS, I’m an introvert!

So, I had to find a better way to bring landlords into my business, without doing all the stuff I hated.  I had to find a way that allowed me to stay introverted and lazy!

That’s when I designed the referral marketing blueprint

Now, I’ve spoken about the referral marketing blueprint in a previous blog, but today I’m going to step you through the ENTIRE process, so that you can get more referrals THIS MONTH!

Here are the steps you need to take right now, to get more referrals into your business THIS MONTH!

Step 1 – List all possible referral partners

Consider ANYONE who might come into contact with property investors: accountants, solicitors, conveyancers, mortgage brokers, financial planners, independent sales people, tradespeople, builders, local business owners.  Remember, you don’t actually need to know these people yet, we’ll find ways to connect with them in the following steps.

Step 2 – Research these businesses

If you already know these people, this step will be easy.  If you don’t know these people yet, make an effort to research their businesses by checking out their website and social media platforms.  Formulate some ideas on how you could create some cross-promotions with these businesses.

For example, you might offer to write an article for your mortgage broker’s newsletter, and in return they might write an article for your newsletter.  This is a great (free) way to get exposure to each other’s databases.  You might also like to interview a local business owner on video to share on both your social media accounts and email out to your databases. 

Remember that this cross-promotion concept must be mutually beneficial – it must help BOTH businesses.  Otherwise, this concept won’t work in the long run – trust me.

Step 3 – Look for common connections

Thanks to social media (Facebook and LinkedIn, in particular), you can find out if you have any common connections/friends with these people.  If you do know someone in common, ask for an introduction.  Having this introduction will make it easier to make that first point of contact.  If you don’t have any common connections, then you’ll need to approach these referral partners “cold”. 

Try using this script:  “Hi NAME, this is NAME from AGENCY.  I’ve had an idea about how we might be able to help each other grow our businesses a little faster by working together.  Would you be open to hearing about my ideas?”  From there, you can organize to have a coffee or schedule a time to chat on the phone further about creating a referral partnership.  I found that having a coffee face-to-face is usually the best way to start this relationship, so suggest a 30-minute coffee catch up (and stick to the 30 minute time allocation, out of respect for their time).

Step 4 – Present cross-promotion idea

Once you get to meet with the referral partner, present your idea for cross-promotion.  Remember, if it’s your idea, you’ll probably have to do most of the leg-work.  For example, if you suggest you’d like to interview them on video, you’ll need to organize the video and microphone set up and the agenda for the interview, then organize the editing of the video afterward (unless you do a live video, of course!)

Create a timeline for this cross promotion, schedule in dates and times into your calendars, so that you ensure that the promotion happens.

Step 5 – Implement, measure and repeat

Implement your plans with your new referral partner.  Follow up with them to measure the results and feedback they received as a result of the promotion and then schedule a time to repeat the same (or similar) promotion.

Stay in contact with your referral partners on a regular basis (I found that a monthly coffee was ideal), keep these reminders in your CRM software and ensure that you’re following them up, as though they were a landlord themselves.  Understand that these people are key for helping you get more landlords, so treat them like GOLD!

Step 6 – Reward referrals

Create a system for rewarding any referrals you receive.  For me, I paid my referral partners one week’s rent for each new landlord they referred to me (who signed with me, of course), but I know agencies who pay more and less, or give a VISA Gift Card instead.  You just need to find what works for your referral partners.  Stay consistent! It’s important to always send a “thank you” every time you get a referral to re-enforce your gratitude.

You can download my Referral Marketing Blueprint here and print it out as a reminder to keep following up your referral partners.

If you haven’t seen my last blog titled How To Choose Your Focus be sure to check that out next!