The Why and the Who.

The first step is is all about discovering who your ideal referrers are and why they would want to refer you. What drives them?

Removing ‘the ick’ from referrals.

But first we look at the ‘why not’. Why is it that you and your team aren’t asking for referrals as often, or with as much conviction, as you should. We look at any mental blockers and work through them so we can get on with growing your business.

Why

From there, it's why do people refer? It's rarely because of a reward, almost always because they love what you do and want to support you, but there'll often be secondary drivers that are really powerful to understand.

Who

And finally the who. The range of people available to you to ask for introductions is always a much bigger pool of people than you'd ever thought before. At this stage, we'll start to identify some immediate opportunities for requests (and therefore leads in your business).alue based way.

The systems, structure, and software that support your referral efforts.

This is rarely the step that gains you referrals early, but it is the thing that will get people referring you repeatedly. The little things really do matter. It's all about setting things up right and then remembering to do the things that you really want to do but maybe sometimes forget.

Structure.

How do you reward referrers? It's the number one question most people have.
But incentivising referral requests up front will almost always have the opposite impact to the one you're looking for. Understanding the psychology at play here from the Discovery step and putting that into a practical reward mechanism is key. It means your referral strategy will fly, rather than launching a client referral programme that no one wants to join. .

We'll also look at your internal processes for how you can support, scale, and embed the culture of referrals we’ll build within your team.

Systems and Software.

It's better to have a spreadsheet you use than a CRM system you don't, but it is vital that you not only track referrals into your business, but requests made and introductions promised. Every time someone introduces you, they're trusting you with their reputation, and having the right systems and processes in place ensures that you respect that trust, which is the key to getting repeat referrals. As for tracking requests, the fortune is in the follow-up, and so this is here to ensure you don’t let opportunities slip away.

The When.

This step of the framework is all about your communications and relationship with your referrers and it's split into two distinct sections:

When to ask, and once you have asked, all the communication that follows from there to keep the relationship strong and the referrals flowing

When to Ask

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when asking for referrals is waiting until late into the relationship, missing out on both the hottest time to capture someone's goodwill, and potential multiple introductions that could have been made while they wait. Only one person decides if you've delivered enough value to make an introduction, and it's not you, it's the person you're speaking to. We'll map out all the potentially perfect times to ask for introductions (your wow moments and obligation points) also uncovering wow moments that you’re not in the room for; giving the opportunity to build in unique customer touchpoints that can add value right across your business.

When to Communicate

The trust we spoke about in the Assembly step, one of the key factors in maintaining this is to nurture your referrers by keeping them in the loop with what's going on with their introductions. We'll map out all the various post-introduction communication channels so that you not only receive more referrals but convert more as well.

The What. This step is all about how we make it easy for our referrers to connect us with the people we want introductions to. What we're actually asking for, because it's not ‘anyone who might not need our services’.

We'll also look at how we can better support those willing to make referrals so it's as simple a process as possible for them.

The 5 Asks

There are five specific asks you can make of your clients and wider network. We'll run through these and look at when the best time to use each ask is, so that it feels natural to both you and the person you're asking, and the person they're speaking to.

The key to these asks is being ultra specific but sounding completely human and natural.

These asks aren't mutually exclusive, so for different scenarios will look at the order you can use them in to gain the best results in the shortest amount of time.

Supporting Your Referrers

Sometimes someone will say yes and genuinely mean it, but then struggle when it comes to actually making the introduction. We'll look at how you can overcome this to make sure people follow through on their good intentions, and you receive great introductions into your business.

The How.

In this final step, we'll tie everything together and engage our referrers.

What formats you'll use, the words you'll use for each, and finally, campaign planning so that the work we do together delivers quick wins.

The Words You’ll Use

Based on the ‘5 asks’ identified in the ‘Connection’ step, the unique timings identified in ‘Nurturing’, and the type of contact identified in Discovery, you'll come away with the exact words you'll use for each type request. Meaning, you and your team feel confident in asking your contacts, they feel comfortable in saying yes to you (with a clear idea of how they can help or who they'll refer) and their contacts are glad to accept the introduction.

If the Connection step was about making your requests super specific and therefore easy for your contacts to understand, this step is all about making those requests feel completely human, so that it feels like asking a favour from a friend.

Other Messaging
On top of the proactive referral requests, we'll also look at supporting messaging, be that digital or elsewhere, so that referrals stay front of mind with your audience.

Campaign Planning

Piecing together everything we've spoken about across the rest of the framework to detail immediate opportunities for referral requests. We'll map the contact, with the ask, the words, the format of the request, as well as who's responsible for making that request, and when they’ll do it.

Ensuring your business receives a healthy influx of new ideal prospects as quickly as possible.

Building a culture of referrals from the top so that the 15 most relevant individuals identified have the skills & confidence to ask for referrals, and the business has the systems and processes to support & then scale this.

It encompasses four live sessions, but these can be broken down into a higher number of shorter sessions, and not everyone will need to be involved in all sessions.

We work through the complete DANCE framework, and the sessions are backed up by outside of session support to ensure implementation. This can be via email, phone, or any internal comms channels you may have (such as Slack, or Teams).

*Strategy, Systems, Process

(This session would be a smaller number of people)

A day (or 2x half day) with relevant members of the team to look at the structure of the programme, and any issues that may need resolving.

The complexity of your reward structure will be a big a part of this.

We’ll also look at the systems and processes required to make this an ingrained part of your lead generation strategy.

Internally this would include how referral opportunities are built into discussions that are already taking. place (like 121’s) and how referrals are being tracked. Also what the flow of a referral would look like if received, or identified, from another section of the business.

Externally it would include communication strategies with your referrers (both pre and post)

*Team Training

(everyone)

Highly interactive 4hr session team where we work through the proactive parts of the framework to begin to build the Culture of Referrals that can have a huge impact.

A chance for people to work through their challenges, share their ideas, and come away with practical skills they can start using right away.

We’ll specifically cover:

-Any mindset blocks to asking

-The types of people available for us to ask & what drives them

-The Aura customer journey, and when the ideal times to ask are

-Which of the 5 specific asks to use and when

-How to ask - the words to use so you feel comfortable in making the request, and your referrer feels clear about who they’re going to refer, and excited to do so

-Communicating the behind the scenes structure agreed in from the first session

*Campaign Planning Workshop

(Everyone, ideally ran the afternoon after the team training)

A further session with the team where we take a deeper dive into planning out specific outbound referral campaigns, both digital and in person, brand led and individual, to ensure the momentum built in the workshop follows through into action and ultimately results.

For each member of the team we’ll identify specific individuals they can ask, what the ask will be, when they’ll do it, and the exact words to use - ensuring the best possible outcomes from our work together.

At an absolute minimum I would expect everyone participating to gain 1 extra referral then they otherwise would within a maximum of 3 months of the session. The reality is that the average will be higher, with a compound effect that lasts for may years

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Team Follow Up Session

An hour long online session where people can feedback on any successes they’ve had, share challenges, and support each other in embedding best practice.

All the support provided above, with an additional 10 hours of support.

This can be used for a mix of additional team feedback sessions (great for the cultural piece),  121 sessions to either support those that need a bit more help, or to give even more impetus to your referral superstars

All backed up by additional digital support over the extended time working together.

Also included is a referral review where we’ll take the data gained over the period and assess what’s worked best over the period, taking into account a number of factors such as timing, referral flow, the person making the request, the format, whether the request was successful, the quality of the lead etc. This will then be presented back so it can be used to plan out how Aura would scale the referral approach accross the organisation.

Rolling out the referral programme across the organisation, embedding a culture of referrals that drives long term commercial growth.

Everyone in the organisation will understand what to listen out for to know a referral request is appropriate.

In each situation, depending on their role in the business they’ll:

• Understand when a referral request would be appropriate

• Feel confident in how to ask in the right way (and track the referral)

• Know the internal process to flag it to someone else

• Feel clear and confident in what happens next

This would be delivered via the training workshop already detailed.

Each workshop would be business function specific, maximum of 20 attendees (ideally 15) and three hours long.

Cost per workshop: £1,500-£2500 dependant on volume of attendees and workshops.

For those most keen additional campaign planning workshops, team follow up sessions or 121 support could be agreed.