How to Get More Accurate Inbound Referrals
What if there was a way you could increase the number of accurate inbound referrals you receive? Would you believe us if we told you there is? It all has to do with discovering your "why" to build + clarify your brand online.
Our owner + founder Michele was recently on Scott Love’s The Rainmaking Podcast to discuss what business professionals should keep top of mind to get more high-quality referrals. Listen below + keep scrolling for episode highlights:
Clarifying Your Brand
What should professionals and business development professionals keep top of mind to get more accurate inbound referrals?
“My goal with our clients and other professional service firms and service professionals is to help them clarify their brand online and in person, wherever they're networking so that people can better understand what they do and who they serve. Then they can get more accurate inbound referrals.
It's all about really getting clear on A. Who is your ideal client? Who do you like to work with? And B. What's your messaging to attract that client? And also to relay to other people: that's the kind of client that you're working with, this is the kind of service we offer, and this is what you should come to me for.”
Goals of Brand Awareness
“When people become aware of you and what you do, your services, or your company, that's when they build this brand awareness. And then over time, as they get to know you and like you and trust you and work with you, they build a preference to working with you.
The goal you want to hit is brand loyalty. You want people to be loyal to your brand, you want people to be sending referrals to you, and you want customers to constantly come back to you for work. So essentially the goal of building this brand recognition is: over time people are going to know and like you and understand you, and they will know how to refer things to you and they'll know when to come to you for help.”
Ideal Client Profile
What is an Ideal Client Profile?
“At the very least with all of our clients now, we touch on that to a certain extent, but now we do offer a whole service for it as well for clients that want to really dive deep into it. What we're getting into there is essentially the breakdown of who they would love to work with. And I'm not just talking about, I like to work with this company and this industry at this size.
We're breaking it down to who is the touchpoint person at that company that you're working with, or what are their personality traits? We're breaking it down to see the kind of person you want to be working with and this is the person that we should be gearing our messaging towards. We should be focusing on them and what they would want to hear, and what's keeping them up at night. All the things that can provide really valuable content to focus on them.”
Action Steps for Inbound Referrals
What would be three action steps you would give to our listeners where they can really kind of sink their teeth into this and get started on this right away?
“I would say the first thing is if you don't know what an ideal client profile is, give it a Google or give me a call—and if you don't really want to look up an exercise or want to work with someone like me, sit down and think about your favorite clients and start writing out the attributes that they have. Think about what makes them a really good client and why you would want to multiply them by a hundred to work with a hundred of them.
Then I would say the next step is to take a close look at your messaging and make sure it's attracting that ideal client. I also like to remind people with this step, make sure the messaging that you're saying when you're networking or when you're talking to someone matches your website, your LinkedIn—everything. Everything should match and if it doesn't, that means you've been refining your messaging probably verbally, but not updating anything online. So, people are going to talk to you and they're going to say, that sounds great. Then they're going to go check your website—because all of us do before we hire someone, even to check, you know, contact information—and if that messaging doesn't apply, we think that doesn't match anything they told me about. So, definitely take a close look at your messaging and make sure it's attracting your ideal client.
Then the third step I would say is to start posting consistently online to build that brand awareness and that association that we talked about for prospects and referrals. Just start getting in the habit of posting and think about your ideal client and what they would want to hear, and if you need help with that, we do have a couple of free downloadable offers on our website. One is "Questions to Consider to Build + Clarify Your Brand". So that's something that can help you think about your messaging.
And then also we have "LinkedIn Tips for Posting" so if you're kind of at a dead end for where to start there, you can take a look at that and maybe get some inspiration.”
Looking for help to bring in more referrals? Learn more about our branding services, and contact us to get started on defining your “why” and building your ideal client profile.
