A Challenge to All Referral Givers Everywhere

True confessions. I’ve been a member of several business referral networking chapters off and on since April, 2007. Looking back over the years, I can honestly say I could have been a better referral giver. I could have given more and tried harder to make more significant connections for my networking partners.

I believe, in general, that I’m not alone.

I’d like to ask… How have you been showing up as a networking partner, and what can you do to increase your referral giving? I want the time you invest in referral networking to be extremely valuable to you and the meetings you attend to be not only fun, but highly productive and effective. (I think that’s what we all want!)

The challenge. I’d like to challenge all referral givers everywhere to level up and give a minimum of 2+ good referrals a week.

What do I mean by that?

A good referral is connecting your networking partners with an opportunity to do new business with the people in your life.

Focus on: “Who in my life needs the service my networking partner is offering?” “Who is a potential power partner I can introduce to my networking partner?” “Who is the most valuable connection I can make for this person?”

What a good referral is not:

“I will LIKE your Facebook page.”

“I’m going to refer you (again) for the seventh massage I’ve had with you.”

“I will attend the workshop you are hosting.”

“I would like to get together with you one-on-one for a coaching session.”

Those are okay referrals, and you could easily include them as the third (fourth, fifth, sixth…) referral you are giving for the week.

I realize you need your networking partners to help you out as you strive to give good referrals. They need to deliver a big, specific “ask” each week in their one- minute business commercial. If they only ask you to LIKE their Facebook Page (or the equivalent each and every week), it makes challenging for you to bring them a good referral. (At a minimum, you can include this request as an additional okay referral.) Truly, we all must communicate at a higher level to achieve higher results in our referrals.

A word on Coaching Sessions. At TEAM Referral Network, a coaching session is when you get together outside of the meeting with a networking partner to explore how you can help each other. While coaching sessions are a critical part of setting the foundation of your referral giving, I’d like to suggest you count them as an okay referral for the sake of your referral goals. You should be scheduling regular coaching sessions with your networking partners anyway, right?

How can you make this happen? It’s all about focus and intention. Don’t wait until your networking meeting to decide what referrals you will give this week. Be thinking about who you will give to all week long. If you start focusing on giving good referrals, you will easily be able to give more than 2 a week. We can all dig deeper, and when we do, we will be able to make these connections. After all, you get what you focus on.

It’s time to decide. Do you really want to increase your intention and level up your referral giving? I hope your answer is yes. I hope if you’re going to take the time to come together every week with your networking partners that you want more and better results.

I invite you to rate yourself on a scale from one to 10. How have you been showing up in your referral giving? A “1” would be—I haven’t been trying very hard. A “10” would be—I totally get what you’re saying, and I’m totally on it! Truthfully examine how you are showing up and ask yourself what you can do to have a higher impact. Even if you check in at a “7”, ask yourself how you can raise your efforts.

Working together, we can all make a higher impact and achieve higher income and results.

Terilee Harrison helps entrepreneurs and small business owners get referrals, clients, and leads through proven offline and online marketing strategies. Book your referral strategy session here.