Five Tips for Giving Referrals

Business referrals are some of the principal tools and the valued currency of networking. As a business professional, you want to be sure that your referrals are both timely and appropriate. 

Here are five important tips to consider in giving a good referral to your networking partners:

1. Listen for needs from the people you meet.
   When you are with someone who expresses a need, tell them you know a person whose business can provide the product or service they are looking for. Tell them about your own business experience (if any) with that person or about the testimonials you have heard from others. Give them the business card of the person you are referring them to and ask for their card or contact information if you don’t already have it.
2. Ask if it is okay for the person or business you are recommending to call them.
   This will help you determine how serious (hot) the referral is. If they say yes, fill out a referral slip and give it to the person you referred. Or call your networking partner with the information and then send it through text or email.
3. When you give a referral to someone, be careful not to misrepresent the quality of the referral.
   Your honesty about the prospective customer will be appreciated, even if the referral is tepid. Avoid raising expectations about the size of the referral or how quickly it might turn into closed business by simply stating the facts and making the connection.
4. Whenever you have a hot referral for someone, do not hold onto it.
   Call the person you referred right away; hot referrals have a way of cooling off quickly. Provide as much information as possible about the prospect, including the their name, address, phone number, occupation, and any relevant information about the product or service the prospect is looking for.
5. Avoid giving bad referrals, such as:

• News about a meeting for business owners, a chamber of commerce mixer, or any other business meeting. This is an announcement, and while it is potentially good information to share, it is not a referral.
• Providing someone with a better source for obtaining products.  Again, this is good information for someone, but it is not a business referral about a prospective new client.
• Giving the same referral to three different people in the same profession. Don’t do it.
• Referring someone to a prospect without telling the prospect that you have done so. You must communicate clearly and openly to avoid surprises in the referral process.

• Giving someone a referral and then telling them not to use your name with the prospect. That is not how legitimate referral marketing works.

These tips will help you get on the right track, and stay on it, in regard to giving referrals to your networking partners. If you have any additional referral-giving tips to share, I would love to see them in the comments below.