Strengthening Relationships with Referral Sources
To be an effective networker, you should always be working on strengthening your relationships with your referral sources. So, what’s the best way to do this? It really depends on the referral source and what he or she responds to.
There are a number of actions you can take to build good will and credibility in your relationships, and the list below contains an array of examples. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, so you should feel free to add your own actions to it.
- Send a thank-you card.
- Send a gift.
- Call a referral source.
- Arrange a one-on-one meeting.
- Extend an invitation.
- Set up an activity.
- Offer a referral.
- Send an article of interest.
- Arrange a group activity for clients.
- Nominate a referral source.
- Display a source’s brochure.
- Include a source in your newsletter.
- Arrange a speaking engagement.
- Invite a source to join your advisory board.
This is an important topic so, in the coming weeks, I’ll be posting a handful of blogs explaining in more detail how to do each of these things effectively. Be sure to come back to find out more about this. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your comments about what actions have been fruitful for you when working on strengthening relationships with your network partners.
Great article! Strengthening relationships with referral sources through strategic social media marketing is becoming trendy.
For example, we might consider combining Amy Kilpatrick’s & David Crumbaugh’s “Connect the Dots” with Twitter or Facebook to market local referral teams within a 25-50 mile radius. Referral sources who engage with each using social media might gain greater visibility online for their target market(s).
Social media marketing and word of mouth marketing have a lot in common and strategy is key to success.
Great list – we currently do the thank you cards and have great success from it.
Its always important to remember that being the introducer is always more value that being introduced 🙂
it was very interesting to read networking.entrepreneur.com
I want to quote your post in my blog. It can?
And you et an account on Twitter?
Great article. Best part was its focus on what you can do for others. People think networking (or generating interest from others at events) starts with “I’d like to do business with you.” The better approach is finding out what is important to then and finding out how you can further their goals and interests. Then they will be more receptive to how they can help you, i.e. do business with you.
Thanks for the great post!