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.

A full day workshop followed up with an accountability / support session that focuses on the quick wins closest to you and gives you the practical tactics and human skills to make the most of them.

It’s an intense session, and here’s what we’ll cover

Referral Mindset

Removing ‘the ick’ from referrals so everyone’s excited about the potential for growth.

Contact Mapping

This takes aspects from the Discovery section of the framework:

Who’s available to us to make requests from, and which opportunity are they best placed to help us with?

Humanising Referral Requests

Taking parts of the Connection step from the framework:

Being specific is the key to getting quick wins, but often where requests never get made for fear of feeling pushy.

We’ll run through the 5 Asks and map them to the contacts identified previously.

As well as this we’ll work on the exact words to use (the Engagement step from the framework)

Campaign Planning

Rounding of the session by planning which members of the team are asking which contacts, for what type referral. Not only that but what words are they going to use, and when are they going to do it.

We’ll set actions and ensure the whole team are ready to go and implement.

Follow Up Session

Getting the team back together to ensure requests have been made, and find out what worked and what was a struggle. Learning from each other and beginning to embed the culture.

Building a culture of referrals so that your team have the skills & confidence to ask for referrals, and the business has the systems and processes to support this.

Five live sessions working through the complete DANCE framework, backed up by outside of session support to ensure implementation.

Strategy, Systems, Process

An up to 3hr session with relevant members of the team to look at the existing set up, identify areas of opportunity, and any issues that may need resolving. We’ll also look at the systems, processes and structure required to make this an ingrained part of your lead generation strategy.

Team Workshop

Highly interactive full day session with the 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 send everyone away with specific actions as well if you would like (I strongly suggest you do!)

Campaign Planning & Contact Mapping

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.

2x Team Follow Up Session

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


*Note - cost can be spread over 3 months

All the support provided above, with an additional 10 hours of 121 or group support and extended digital support.

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

This time could also be used on a strategy for your introducer / partners with the new focus of the agency, and you can find more detail on that further down the page.

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

*Note: Cost can be split over 6  month period

There’s 3 main things to think about here and it sets up everything else that we work on:

Why are you partnering? We need to be crystal clear on the outcome you’re looking to achieve. How highly qualified do you need the leads to be, and at what volume?

We need to know what a successful partner program looks like for you so we can help you achieve it.

Who’s your ideal client? Again, we need to be as specific as possible, if we don’t know who your ideal (or chosen target) client is, and the services you want to sell to them, how can we uncover who the perfect partner is?

Who are your Perfect Partners? It’s not about saying we won’t work with anyone else, but about really identifying where we focus our proactive efforts. Where they’ll pass the right quality of lead, at the right volume, and at the right time. It’s much more than just having the right audience for you; it’s about the nature of their relationship, how they communicate, their values, and so much more.

We’ll not only uncover who they are, but also your unique Partner Value Proposition which allows you to engage with potential partners quickly and effortlessly.

This value proposition is the key to unlocking partners who want to proactively put you in front of each of their clients.

For a partnership programme to flourish, and then scale, you need to ensure you have the behind the scenes set up in order. From internal systems, software and personnel, tracking partner leads and performance, to the structure of your agreements - covering things like how we reward your partners.

We’ll make sure no stone is left unturned so you can be sure of delivering a consistent level of service to your partners.

The simple things really do matter, get this wrong and your partners will immediately lose trust, get it right and you’ll have partners for life.

You may not be ready to have everything in place on day one, but we’ll ensure there’s a road map to best in class that will serve you well along the way.

Your partners could become as important to the future of your business as your most key clients, so we need to make sure you treat them as such.

Communication is key and we’ll look at the various channels each partner type will need to ensure a rock solid relationship is formed that only builds over time.

From setting expectations at outset, and a seamless onboarding process; to reviews and regular updates that keep you front of mind, and the partnership moving in the right direction.

It’s about getting the right mix of automation and personal contact. Functional messages and value add communications. Formal reviews or forming relationships.

We’ll ensure your partners are left feeling loved, valued, and informed; so that when they’re approached by other potential partners there’s not even a thought in their mind about working with anyone but you.

A successful partnership doesn’t just happen. You need to help your partners connect their audience to you. Do the heavy lifting, make it easy for them, and you’ll reap the rewards.

Don’t, and you may well find your partnership experience an underwhelming one.

Depending on the partner and how they engage with their audience you’ll need to provide the right level of support.

Is this internal marketing support?

Partner facing materials where you share the benefit of your experience to enhance the ability of the partner and their team to refer you.

Or

Is it external, customer facing support?

All the materials and activities your partners may need to connect you with their audience through successful co-marketing campaigns.

From static materials like sales emails, to more immersive experiences like events.

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We’ll look at all this and more, including how you can really integrate your offering into your partners processes so the lead generation process happens seamlessly and repeatedly.

With confidence in both the existing offering, and the road map to an even stronger partner programme, it’s time to build your partner acquisition strategy.

Using the partner value propositions we identified during the Discovery stage we’ll cover how to get your first partners on board, how to then leverage them and your network to grow your partner base, before looking at advanced strategies to really scale your programme when the time is right.

Within this we’ll look at the supporting materials and messaging required - but by this point it’s all systems go.

Our simple 3 step process will provide you with all the partner leads you need to grow your programme and your business.