I’m sure most of you would agree that selling to someone who has been referred to you is much easier and more enjoyable than those generated through traditional sales efforts such as direct mail and cold calling. The success rate is higher because they are in the market for your services and are also much less price sensitive because the referring party has told them the value and benefits that you can deliver.
Anyone who works in the Financial Services such as Accountants, Financial Planners and Trades and Services realizes the potential of well managed relationships. Many have built very successful businesses simply by managing a handful of alliances and have little need or desire to do any other form of marketing. Yet there are also a lot of people out there who try the same thing but it just never seems to work.
So why do they work for some people but not for others?
Successful alliances grow from good relationships with people who have a similar mindset, similar values and similar ethics. They are based on mutual trust which is built up and managed over time; having one meeting and following up with a phone call a month later just won’t work. Would you refer your clients to someone you hardly know?
It is also about your expectations of the alliance and how you position the relationship. It should never be about how many referrals you can get but rather how you can add value each others business and clients.
Here are some tips to help you maximize your alliance relationships:
- Don’t attempt to set up an alliance with someone just because they are in a complimentary business. Do they have similar values, ethics and mindset as you?
- Discuss your client base, do you have the type of clients they are looking for and vice versa?
- Discuss the expectations of the alliance, how you would like to see the relationship work and why you think there is potential for both parties.
- Give you alliances time to mature and develop and be willing to put the effort in, it can take 6-12 months before you really understand each others business.
- Develop a system on how you will maintain contact and communicate. In the first 6 months aim to meet face to face at least every 2 months and have phone or email contact in between.
- Don’t expect any referrals in the short-term, expect only to be informed and educated on their business, their clients, what is a good referral, how to find them and what to say when you do.
- Develop ‘cheat sheets’ for their staff that outlines what to ‘look out’ for or ‘listen to’. Take it one step further and write a script on what they can say to introduce you. For example, “Mary why don’t I get John from XYZ to call you, he has helped a lot of our clients who have had similar problems...” It might seem obvious but it’s about making the process as easy as possible. There are many people who feel that introducing a third party is being pushy or rude.
- Ensure everyone has a pile of your business cards to hand out. It helps the client to remember who you are when you call.
- If you have been given a referral, communicate the progress to your alliance so they are aware of whether it was a good referral. Explain why it was such a good referral or why it wasn’t. Remember it’s about ongoing education until you get it right.
- Once the relationship is established meet regularly to inform them of changes to your business such as new products or services and for you to learn of changes to their business, particularly staff changes.
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