Control Your Referral Flow

The following article is a reprint of a recent article written by Tim Houston, author, speaker, coach and BNI Area Director.

As an author, his work appeared in The New York Times Best Seller and multiple #1 Best Seller,  Masters of Sales, the latest book written by New York Times & Wall Street Journal authors, Dr. Ivan Misner and Don Morgan. His articles on the topic of business networking and word-of-mouth marketing have been translated and published in magazines, newspapers and blogs around the world  His first book, Level Up Networking: Produce, Profit and Prosper From Your Everyday Business Relationships, will  debut in 2010. For more information on working with Tim, visit his website at http://www.tmhouston.com.

About a year ago, I went to a local networking group. They were excited to have a new plumber in their group, (I’ll call him Artie). In talking to Artie, I found out that his business was a two man operation; he and his brother managed the business, did the technical work on each job and also did the marketing for the business. He was happy to be a part of the group which also had a general contractor, and electrician and a painter – all people who shared a similar client base As the meeting progressed, I watched this plumber get, at least, 6 referrals that day. He was very happy to be getting the referrals.

Tim Houston

Two months later, I visited the group and Artie announced that would be his final meeting. People were surprised and shocked to hear it. He explained that he was getting too many referrals - more than he and his brother could handle! It did not leave a good impression with most people as they interpreted this to mean that all he wanted to do was score a “quick hit” and move on.

Later that day, I called Artie I asked if I could speak to him about his decision. As we spoke, I told Artie that one of the biggest challenges for networkers who have a small operation – regardless of their profession – is that they can find themselves overwhelmed with receiving too many referrals. In their haste, too many make the fatal mistake of telling everyone to stop giving them referrals. They ultimately end up at a time in the future with little or no business because people assume that they no longer want referrals. In the worst case, they cut themselves off from their referral sources.

Being Artie was a plumber, I used the analogy that, just like in plumbing, you need to learn how to control the flow of referrals I explained that even in networking, just as in plumbing, there are certain “valves” or “taps” that are used with “knobs” that adjust how fast or slow the referrals will flow.

• Tell your network when to give you referrals: One October morning, George Alonso, a decorative artist and designer (www.ofhandandsoul.com) told the members of his weekly networking meeting that A good referral for him would be “a person who is looking for a decorative mural in their home or business – anytime after February!” He explained that he had too many jobs to handle at the moment but he was booking jobs for February. George knew that he had to let his network know that he still wanted referrals – just not the kind that needed his services right now. He was still keeping his pipeline full so that he didn’t experience a referral shortage once the jobs he was currently working on were completed.
• Refer your “overflow” work to someone else in your profession that you trust: If you find yourself with too many referrals, before turning away the business, talk to both the source and the person being referred and let them know that although you can’t handle the work now, you know someone else in your profession who could. Make sure that you introduce the prospect to your collaborator, and ask to stay involved with the progress. The impression you will make on both the source of the referral and the prospect will help you in the long-run. Also, your collaborator will likely remember you when they’re experiencing overflow and want to refer work to you.

• Prevent Back-flow: Back-flow occurs when there’s a drop of pressure and contaminated water begins to flow from the ground or a storage system into the clean water system of the building or water supply. In plumbing, there are devices known as “check valves” which prevent this from happening. Artie thought that if he stopped the flow of referrals at the source, (i.e. if he quit) , it would provide him with the breathing room he needed to catch up. Then he, said, he can go back to networking. I told him he was actually creating back-flow. In Networking, negative word-of-mouth results in back-flow. Too often this will occur when someone takes on a job that they cannot handle, causing problems, delays, and headaches, resulting in ill-will for all involved. It also occurs when people are perceiving that the person only cares about themselves. In Artie’s case, he got a lot of referrals and the people in his networking group saw his quitting as giving up on them. They became “contaminated” with the notion that all Artie wanted was to take from the table and give anything in return. I suggested that one way he could install a “check valve” to prevent the back-flow was to give referrals to others and to introduce them to potential referral partners and sources for their respective businesses.