Building a Referral Program

Most sellers do referral prospecting backwards. Smart referral prospecting is NOT asking your warm network "Is there anyone in your network who might find value in taking a look at our Legal Time Tracking software?" You're almost always going to hear "Hm, nobody immediately comes to mind, but let me think about it." (They're not gonna think about it) Asking someone to scan through their entire mental rolodex of every single person they know isn't going to get you good referrals. You're asking for too much of the referrer.  -- Here's how I do outbound referral prospecting: 1. Start with the end in mind. Identify the prospect you want to talk to. (If you don't start with the end in mind, you're going to get a bunch of random non-ICP or out of territory intros, if you get any at all) - 2. Find mutual connections who actually know your target prospect. I like mutuals who have shared work history (you can find this in Sales Nav). If that fails, I'll look for shared membership in trade association groups or folks who have spoken on a panel/event together. - 3. Ask your shared contact for permission to make the introduction. Here's what I send: 𝘕𝘈𝘔𝘌, 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩? 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 30 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵'𝘴 𝘊𝘭𝘶𝘣 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘕𝘈𝘔𝘌 𝘢𝘵 𝘈𝘊𝘔𝘌. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵, 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯? - 4. If your referrer says yes, ghostwrite them a message in THEIR voice. This helps remove as much friction as possible for the person who is making the introduction. Don't worry about including pleasantries in the message you draft (Ex. "Hope you have been well since our days working together at ACME!). I've found that most people delete the pleasantries you write on their behalf so it's not a good use of your time. - 5. If someone makes a referral for you, send them a thank you note + a gift. Seems obvious but this goes a long way. - 6. If you start to find success with outbound referral prospecting, consider adding an "outbound referral blitz" to your weekly prospecting cadence. -- Anything else you'd add re: prospecting for referrals?

How To Turn Networking Conversations Into Referrals (7 Simple Steps): 1. Getting “Stuck” After A Great Call Most of us get stuck in this trap. You worked so hard to get this call. You jump on, ask your questions, and it went great! Then you realize you have no idea what to say or do to keep the relationship going. 2. The “Open Door” Strategy I ran into this same problem during my job search. And I created the “Open Door” Strategy as a solution. Once I began implementing it, I always knew exactly what step to take next. That led to referrals and, eventually, job offers. 3. The Overarching Concept At a high level, the goal of the “Open Door” Strategy is to create a plan to keep the door open for the next step. When you set this as an intention, you can proactively plan around it. This gives you multiple options to “open the door” no matter how the conversation goes. 4. Start With A Brainstorm First, start by brainstorming different ways you could use to create a “Door Opener.” Ex: You could ask for a piece of advice, then you could ask if it’s ok to follow up after you take action on it. You could ask about a specific challenge, then ask if it’d be ok to follow up with some ideas around it. 5. Keep Several Options On Hand When you book your next networking conversation, keep you list of “Door Openers” on hand. When it feels natural in the conversation, introduce one of them and see what kind of response you get. If they don’t bite on one, introduce another option from your list when it makes sense. 6. Get A Follow Up Commitment This is the most important part. After you use the “Door Opener,” ask if it’s ok to follow up by X date. When they say “yes,” you’ve essentially added a placeholder in their mind for the next step in the relationship. Now you can confidently follow up knowing you both agreed to it! 7. Repeat At Each Relationship Stage The best part about this strategy is that it works at every stage and touchpoint. Your goal should be to never leave a networking conversation without leveraging it. If you adopt that approach, you’ll always know the next step you need to take and your contact will have the same expectations set on their end!

Referrals are by far the highest ROI channel for B2B businesses. So why aren’t you getting more of them? I use a dead-simple, but incredibly effective method to double my inbound referrals. 1 — Be Direct. The biggest mistake people make is relying on “automated emails” and “programs”. They take the easy way out because they are afraid. They wait for a follow-up email and send vague requests like, “If you think of anyone, let me know!” The reality is people don’t have time to brainstorm referrals for you! 2 — here’s what I do: make a specific and direct ask. And when possible, do it face-to-face right on the video call. Yes, you can do this over email, but asking directly, person-to-person, makes a stronger impact. 3 — Instead of leading with an ask, start by GIVING a lead first. Before ending a call, try this: “Before we wrap up, I’d like to give you two leads I think would benefit from your service. Would you mind sharing two people on your client roster who might find us interesting? I’ll send you a tailored email for easy forwarding.” Even better, do your homework: “I noticed these logos on your website. These two companies look like they’d be a great fit for us because [reason]. Would you mind making an introduction?” Be specific. Be proactive. Be intentional. What’s your go-to approach when asking for referrals? Let me know in the comments.

I wrote a book called The Referral Engine to make the case that referrals should be your #1 lead source—but there’s a catch. Early in my career, I thought doing great work was enough to keep clients coming. And for a while, it worked. One happy client led to another, and I stayed busy. Then, one day, the referrals slowed down. And I found myself wondering: Where’s the next client coming from? That’s when I realized something many business owners eventually figure out: Referrals don’t just happen. They have to be built into your marketing system. Too many businesses think referrals are random. They do great work, cross their fingers, and hope happy clients will spread the word. Yes, that better be happening. But that’s not a strategy. I started asking myself some different questions. ~ How do I make referring me the easiest thing my clients can do? ~ How do I teach my best customers to tell the right story about me? ~ How do I bake referrals into every stage of my client experience? Just thinking this way changed everything. Instead of waiting for referrals, I created a system to generate them. Here’s what I figured out. First, people don’t refer businesses. They refer experiences. If your work is just “good,” no one is talking about it. If your process is clunky, no one is bringing their best contacts into it. The easiest way to get more referrals is to create something worth talking about. Second, most people would be happy to refer you, but they don’t know how. If you want more referrals, you have to make it easy. Give people the right language to use. Create a process that naturally encourages introductions. Make referring you feel like a win for them, not a favor to you. Finally, the best way to generate more referrals is to teach before you sell. Create content that positions you as the expert people want to send their friends to. Be the person people naturally think of when someone asks, “Who do you know that does great work in this space?” When someone tells me their lead generation is inconsistent, I don’t tell them to start cold calling. I tell them to make referrals a system, not an accident. So I’m curious—what’s one thing you do to make referrals a natural part of the customer journey?

How I took a bootstrapped startup from 0 to 21 logos in 9 months without customer testimonials. The data is clear - social proof, testimonials and referrals are GOLD in sales. Which means trying to sell without them is HARD. Trying to grow a company from the essential 0 to 10 customer milestone is TOUGH. 👉 I joined a bootstrapped startup as employee # 1. I was asked to create the MVP & GTM strategy. I did not come from the startup world and it wasn't a tech company. Meaning I had ZERO idea how wild this ask was. Instead I said yes and agreed to bring a new product with zero customers to life in a super saturated market that I'd never sold into before. 👉 How was I still able to leverage social proof? My # 1 to leverage testimonials at a company with no customers in an industry I'd never worked in was to rely heavily on trust I'd build with former customers. I reached out to former customers who had bought a different product and were in a very different industry (energy versus hospitality) and asked if they would do referral calls for me. I created a shortlist of 4 former customers who were happy to take referral calls on my behalf. No, they couldn't speak to the product I was currently selling. No, they didn't understand the new industry I was selling to. ✅ They could talk about TRUST. They talked about what it was like to work with me. They shared why they would hire me, why they would buy from me again, why it was worth betting on me. 👉 The reason that social proof works so well is because it makes decisions feel safer. Your prospects are afraid of making the wrong decision. The crave social proof and testimonials because it reduces the perceived risk in making a decision. If you are in the difficult "first 10 customers" growth phase and struggling to leverage social proof, this is your sign to get creative. Look outside of your company and current industry. Look for creative ways to build trust and reduce your prospects' fear of messing up. 📌 How do you increase trust with your prospects? ✨ Enjoyed this post? Reshare it & follow Leslie Venetz for more!

Massive but often overlooked reality check for fractional execs/consultants: Your greatest source of profitable “new” clients are nearly always current and past clients, colleagues, and those in their immediate circle. They know you, they know your work, it’s familiar. Yes, it’s important to be sharing knowledge / success / setbacks / hopes and dreams with the world on LinkedIn, and “shooting your shot” with some occasional cold outreach. But with extremely few options (like literally two), I can trace ten years of client “trees and roots” growth and probably 70% of revenue to my first major client retainer in 2015. Here’s 5 practical prioritization tips: 1) Focus on delivering amazing results for clients always, 2) Dedicate most of your biz dev efforts on your closest circle i.e. people and places that already know and trust you. Ask these people for referrals. 3) When doing cold or lukewarm outreach, focus on direct adjacent sector or similar work streams and be precise “In 9 months, I helped _____build an sustainable community engagement program that [insert very specific results]. 4) Share what you know and love on social and accept speaking invites to events and platforms. 5) Make referrals and get referrals. When something is outside of your wheelhouse, be diligent in connecting the potential client with someone who can knock it out of the park. I guarantee you both parties will remember when they’ll need your skillset. ———————————— And that’s it for now! Anything else folks want to add?

A common partnership snafu is that companies want partnership success, but don’t provide the resources to get there. I heard of a case where a whole marketing team quit, the partnerships team was given no marketing support, and they didn't yet have an integration with product -- and yet, the CEO expected the partnership strategy to deliver instant revenue. Wild. But not uncommon. Partnerships can't thrive in a vacuum. They need cross-functional support—marketing, product integration, sales enablement—all aligned to succeed. Before you set revenue targets for your partnerships, ask yourself: Do we have the resources to support them? If the answer is no, you have to help your leadership teams to reconsider their expectations. To help create the cross-functional support needed for partnerships to thrive, here are four strategies: 1. Involve Cross-Functional Leaders from the Very Beginning Bring key leaders from marketing, sales, and product into the partnership planning phase. Early involvement gives them a sense of ownership and ensures they understand how partnerships align with their own goals. Strategy: Schedule a kick-off meeting with stakeholders from each relevant department. Create a shared roadmap that outlines how partnerships will impact each team and their specific contributions. 2. Tie Partnership Success to Department KPIs To gain buy-in, tie partnership goals directly to the KPIs of each department. Aligning partnership outcomes with what each team is measured on ensures they have skin in the game. Strategy: During planning sessions, ask each department head how partnerships can contribute to their targets. Build specific KPIs for each function into the overall partnership strategy. 3. Create a Resource Exchange Agreement Formalize the support needed from each department with a resource exchange agreement. This sets clear expectations on what each function will contribute—whether it's a dedicated product team member for integrations or marketing resources for co-branded campaigns. It turns vague promises into commitments. Strategy: Draft a simple document that outlines the roles, responsibilities, and deliverables each team will provide, then get sign-off from department heads and the executive team. 4. Demonstrate Early Wins for Buy-In Quick wins go a long way toward securing ongoing resources. Identify a small pilot project with an internal team that shows immediate impact. Whether it's a small co-marketing campaign or a limited integration, these early successes build momentum and demonstrate the value of supporting partnerships. Strategy: Select one or two partners to run a pilot with, focused on delivering measurable outcomes like leads generated or product adoption. Use this success story to demonstrate value to other departments and secure further commitment. Partnership success requires cross-functional alignment. Because partnerships don’t happen in a silo.

The Art of the Referral: Putting your clients first 🥇 At the heart of every successful referral strategy is a simple, timeless principle: putting your clients first. But why is focusing on your clients' success the key to building a thriving business through referrals? 1) Client-Centric Service: The Foundation of Trust Clients entrust advisors with their secrets and concerns. By prioritizing their needs and dedicating yourself to their success, you don't just provide a service; you build a relationship founded on trust. This trust becomes the bedrock of your reputation, a critical factor in word-of-mouth recommendations. 2)Cultivating a Referral Network: Beyond Transactions Referrals are not transactions; they are the natural outcomes of your exceptional value and service. Here are strategies to foster a referral culture: - Exceed Expectations: Go beyond the basic expectations of financial advice. Offer personalized insights, be proactive in communication, and provide educational resources that empower your clients. Exceptional service inspires clients to share their experiences. - Build Relationships: Deepen your client relationships beyond the numbers. Understanding their life goals, milestones, and challenges creates a connection that extends beyond professional advice to genuine care. - Ask for Feedback: Regularly solicit feedback to improve your services. Show your clients that their opinions matter, and you're committed to evolving based on their needs. A happy client is your best advocate. - Referral as a Service: Frame referrals not as a favor to you but as an extension of your service. Educate your clients on how their referrals allow you to help others achieve financial wellness. - Acknowledge and Appreciate: Always thank your clients for referrals. Whether it's a personalized note, a small token of appreciation, or a simple call, acknowledgment reinforces your value for the relationship. 3) Encouraging Word-of-Mouth: Best Practices - Seamless Experience: Ensure every client interaction is smooth, from onboarding to regular check-ins. A seamless experience is memorable and shareable. - Empower with Knowledge: Clients who feel informed and empowered are more likely to refer others. Use layman's terms to explain complex concepts and update clients on relevant financial news. - Be Visible: Maintain an active presence where your clients and their networks spend time, be it LinkedIn, community events, or financial seminars. Visibility keeps you top of mind. Final thoughts In essence, referrals in the financial advisory sector are about relationship-building. By focusing on delivering outstanding service that puts clients' interests first, you foster loyalty and create a culture of advocacy. Remember, when clients win, you win, and nothing speaks louder than the success stories of those you've helped navigate their financial journeys. #clients #referals #advisor #financialadvisor

3 biggest levers you have to pull when scaling your influencer-affiliate community: 1. Customer referrals - activate the creator in every customer Create a referral program to incentivize your customers to create content and get rewarded when they refer a friend Stay away from points, most people don't know what to do with points Provide store credit, free product at different milestones, and branded merch. 2. Recruit Macro influencers on a mix of cash, commission, and product seeding Bigger influencers have the ability to produce more sales because they have a larger audience (seems obvious) Before paying them any cash it's best to model out the sales you expect them to drive. Agree to a lower cash floor with a rich commission structure that is inline with your ROAS/ CPA goal, but can scale past their standard rate. Give them incentives to beat your projections. 3. Ramp net-new influencer recruitment First, you should always be recruiting more net new recruiters monthly than your churn %. Once you find the verticals that are performing best, triple the amount of influencers you reach out to on a monthly basis. Set up email sequences, build bigger upfront lists, and be ready to jump on responses right when they come in so you can nurture influencers to opt-in to your community. Excited to see more and more brands see the opportunity to work with influencers to drive performance. 2024 is the year of influencer-affiliate communities.

Plot twist: Your top performer isn't even on payroll. While you're grinding through cold calls and perfecting pitch decks, your actual sales superstars are sitting in your customer base, and most companies completely ignore them. Think about it: Who's more convincing? ❌ You explaining why your product is amazing ✅ A customer explaining how it transformed their business Here's the playbook that's turning customers into commission-free closers: 🎯 Turn success into content: Skip the generic thank-you note. Get that win in front of eyeballs; case studies, LinkedIn posts, video testimonials. Success is contagious. 🎤 Hand them the microphone: A 2-minute customer video explaining their transformation beats your entire sales deck. Let them tell the story in their words. 🔄 Build the referral machine: Make customer intros part of every quarterly check-in. The best reps I know cut their sales cycles in half with warm introductions. 💬 Steal their language: Stop using marketing speak. Use the exact words your customers use to describe their problems and wins. That's what resonates with prospects. 🏆 Make them famous: Customer of the month. Slack shoutouts. Social media features. People love recognition, and others want to be next. The reality check: Your customers aren't just buying your product; they're betting their reputation on it. When they succeed, they become walking proof that you deliver. And in a world where everyone's selling, proof beats promises every time. Your customers already said yes once. Now make them want to repeat it for you. #sales #customersuccess