by Steven Zyskowski, CaerusNet Meeting Facilitator
SE MICHIGAN
I freely share this information with you because of my personal conviction that every great, "main-street" salesperson and/or small business owner should seek out and become a part of a great referral team if your business is built on referrals.
By "main-street", I'm talking about the core business providers in a community ... like real estate agents, attorneys, accountants, insurance agents, website designers, skin care professionals, computer repair professionals, day care providers, carpet cleaners, a handyman, electricians, etc. The basic business service providers who will always be around, in a good economy and bad.
The benefits of belonging to a successful business referral team are countless, far beyond the financially obvious one. The trick is … finding a great one in your local market.
The purpose of this exploration is to help you determine if the referral team you are considering searching for, belonging to, or starting up, has the proper foundation in place for it to consistently deliver the goods (referrals) for its members over the long haul.
BURNING QUESTIONS HELP BRING OUT THE ANSWERS
Prior to setting out to create great referral teams as a passion and profession, I took the opportunity to reflect on my personal experiences. This allowed me think things through very carefully, as I laid out the initial framework for my foundational formula.
The questions I pondered:
• Who are the right types of people that will succeed on referral teams?
• Why is it that some referral teams perform at high levels for a period of sustained time while others fade out and break up?
• Is there a tipping point between “ok/great and “ok/bad” referral teams?
• Why do some referral teams seem cliquish or political?
In this complimentary blog post, I intend to reveal my answers to these questions.
TRUTH IS: FINDING THE RIGHT PEOPLE IS HARD!
Author of the book, Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business, and personal friend, Gino Wickman often states, “Leaders don’t often function well as part of a team.”
On the surface, it would appear that it could be fairly easy to assemble a group of quality professionals who may all be willing to help each other grow their businesses by referral. The reality is that it’s an incredibly challenging feat as most of these people are used to acting like leaders, not necessarily as team players. To get these people, who are somewhat prideful, to spend time thinking about helping others, not themselves, requires a bit of friendly reverse pyschology and deprogramming ... what I fondly call “re-thinking”.
Anyone who has ever been part of an initial referral team formation or who has attempted to startup a referral team by themselves or with a small group of professional friends, should know exactly what I’m referring to in the previous paragraph. I hope this writing helps provide clarity of vision and reassurance that you can get exactly what you want from a referral team, provided the right structure is in place. The structure will produce common traits that are shared by all great referral teams.
COMMON TRAIT #1:
Great teams have great members.
So, who are the “right types of people” who will succeed on referral teams? In examining the referral teams that did very well over long periods of time, one major common trait was apparent: they had great people as members.
Characteristics I’d use to classify “great people”:
• They’re fun to be around!
• They understand commitment. And if asked, they could easily cite examples of times they’ve given a commitment to other things in their past and have lived up to their word.
• They’re driven! They don’t have to be motivated or “bribed” to be their best. Being their best is what they’re best at!
• They’re professional and ethical.
• They tend to avoid gossip and negative people.
• Being a part of a winning team is important to them.
• Their product(s) and/or service(s) provide a true value to their customer.
• They are admired and respected by their peers.
• They get excited about helping other people and they are “wired” in a way that makes them think about others, yes others, perhaps more than they really think of themselves.
• They’re determined.
• They’re coachable / teachable.
• Humbly confident; never arrogant.
• They’re realized that giving fantastic service is what keeps customers happy.
If eight out of ten members on a referral team possessed 80% or more of the above qualities, they’d have a great team in the making. The sad reality is that most referral teams are so concerned about just adding new members to their
“network”, that they fatally add the wrong types of people on their teams in an effort to simply grow in membership size, thinking more people must mean ... more referrals. Wrong! The side effects of attracting the wrong people can be permanently damaging.
One common trait amongst “great people” is they tend to personally know other great people. The same can be said of people who aren’t a good fit for referral team.
COMMON TRAIT #2:
Great teams have great meetings.
Great people are attracted to being a part of winning teams. Winning teams productively use their time together to learn how to effectively market the businesses of their fellow team members.
Characteristics I’d use to classify “great meetings”:
• They happen regularly and frequently.
• They have a shared objective (purpose), agenda and goal.
• Every member participates and/or contributes to the meeting.
• Visitors are present and invited to participate.
• Members deepen their understanding of the products and/or services provided by their fellow members.
• There are moments of good, healthy laughter … remember, just because it’s a business meeting doesn’t mean it can’t be fun.
• Referrals between members are highlighted and acknowledged.
• They start and end on time.
• 80% or more of the members are present at each meeting.
Put great people onto a team that doesn’t have its meeting-act together and watch those great people leave. Whether the length of the meeting is one hour – or two hours long, or if it starts really early in the morning or in the mid-afternoon … it doesn’t really matter. What DOES matter is that the time spent together has a true purpose and that the team accomplishes a lot during their time together.
COMMON TRAIT #3:
Great teams create a lot of great, legitimate referral opportunities.
Great referral teams focus on developing their ability to produce referrals for each other. They’re “Opportunity Hunters”. Members should be encouraged and rewarded based on how well they leverage their abilities.
Most of the referral teams I belonged to, even the great ones, had a certain percentage of what I call “junk referrals” getting passed at the weekly meetings. What’s a junk referral? A junk referral is what someone who belongs to the team passes during the weekly meeting in an effort to “save face” and make the other team members think they actually brought a referral to pass at the meeting. It’s one of the worst things a person can do because it undermines the entire effort of creating trust within the team. “Let’s do lunch!” or “I want to talk with you”, or, “I know someone” doesn’t count as a legitimate referral in my book.
Great referral teams pass mostly quality referrals where there is a legitimate opportunity to help a fellow team mate land a sale. They’re warmed up by your team mate and the client is expecting your call. The prospective client is even excited to speak to you because the referring team member did such a great job educating them about why you’re the expert deserving of their business.
Referrals are not an entitlement; they’re a gift and the result of trust building efforts between people. Great opportunities are abundant … especially on teams who have great people.
COMMON TRAIT #4:
Great teams exhibit great leadership;
Most referral organizations that exist today are “member-ran” organizations. Meaning, the members also run the show. They elect officers from within: presidents, vice-presidents, treasurers, secretaries, committee heads, greeters, etc. The calamity that often exists is that many of these “elected” officers are simply “doing time” and aren’t built to do the job they’ve taken on very well. They’re serving to “save face”. The result can be a “Leadership Team” absent of real leadership.
If the leadership team in place is genuinely excited and competent, the referral team can move forward and succeed. When a great leadership team transfers duties to a “so/so” leadership team; the entire membership will suffer. If you are considering joining a member-ran organization, carefully study the leadership skills of the members who currently belong, as they will have a direct impact on the effectiveness, or lack of, for the team.
Facilitated referral teams are lead by a professional facilitator who is driven to see the team successful. Faciliators are often people who have business networking in their blood and who are great at getting people together who rally around a common vision. In this scenario, they run the meetings, track attendance and referrals, give educational training presentations, follows-up with visitors and does additional marketing for the team. This allows the members to simply participate in the system, without having to learn how to run the daily house keeping tasks related to developing a healthy, long term referral team.
Both systems; Member Ran vs Facilitated, can work. However, if it’s a member-ran organization you are considering joining; hopefully a lot of the “right people” mentioned earlier in this report are easily visible on your team, eager and willing to take turns being officers when their (your) time comes.
Some of the strongest teams are strong simply because their leaders develop a positive culture from within.
Good luck to you in your efforts and quest to grow by referral!
Please leave a post with your comments and/or your experiences.
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