Effortless Networking

The most effective source of good quality referrals are your satisfied customers.

It’s hard to beat the genuine enthusiasm of delighted customers.

And yet, many people invest a lot of time and money trying to generate referrals through other means — while ignoring this excellent source of qualified referrals.

Here’s what I mean:

When looking for a recommendation about a product or service, most people look for someone who has already had some experience with that product or service.

They want to have a sense of what their experience might be like with that product or service, before they spend their money on it.

So what would you do in this situation?

1. If you were about to buy a house, and needed to find a home-inspector, whom would you ask for a recommendation? Your realtor, or your friend who just bought a house?
2. And if you got 2 recommendations, one from your realtor who hadn’t personally used this home-inspector’s services but knew that he was very good, and one from your friend who was delighted with their home-inspector’s services during their house buying process, which inspector would you choose? Why is this?

My point is this: If your customers are delighted with you, they’re much more like to whole-heartedly recommend you, whenever the opportunity arises.

And you will get a great referral - because that person will most likely trust their friend’s judgment and go with what he or she recommends.

By the way, the opposite is also true: how many times have you avoided doing business with someone, or buying a product, because a friend told you about his or her horrible experience with it?

But you know what? You probably you know all this already.

So, if you’re using business networking to mainly get referrals, are you tapping into your customers’ network?

Are you cultivating this most effective source of good quality referrals? If not, why not?

My sister-in-law in India is starting a business. Last week she asked me if I could help her find some books with some technical information.

I replied saying that I had a client (based in the US) who is an expert consultant on the topic. Would she be interested in talking with him instead?

Well, here’s the email reply I got:

“Thanks Didi….YOU ROCK!!

I’ve written to Tom, asking him how much he would charge for a consultation on this project. Am now waiting for him to get back to me.

Hopefully I can get this ball rolling soon. Am very excited. Hope he can help!”

And you know, this email made my day! (I know, simple things make me happy.)

So why am I sharing this story with YOU?

To make two points:

1. First, this is an example of business networking in real life — outside business mixers and networking groups.

   You have no control over when such opportunities will show you. But when they show up, and you can act on it, it really makes a difference to all the people involved.

   My sister-in-law is clearly excited, my client Tom will be happy to get new business I’m sure, and as I already mentioned, it made my day to connect these 2 people.

   Also, even though I didn’t gain anything tangible in this interaction, I gained something very important (besides personal satisfaction): goodwill — with 2 people.

2. Second, I was able to refer my sister-in-law to Tom because I have a good understanding of exactly what he does.

   I know it sounds obvious — but think of how many times someone has told you what they do, and you have no idea what it means.

   For instance, many years ago at a business mixer, a gentleman told me that he runs a “full service print shop”. When I heard this I wondered, what does “full” include, and does that mean there “partial” service places? And why would a business offer partial services?

   My impression is that most people in such situations don’t ask for clarification (although if you did, that would be an great way to start a worthwhile networking conversation).

   My point is, if you’re not clear about what a person really does, how can you recognize an opportunity to refer business to him or her?

So I’m curious to know: what has been your experience in this area?