Identify Your Dream Referral | Dr. Ivan Misner®

An effective way to grow your business is with referral marketing. A referral is the opportunity to do business with someone who is in the market to buy your product or service and has been told about you by a mutual friend or associate. Business referrals made with a warm introduction are much more effective than an unsolicited cold call to a prospect.

Referrals in business are good; Dream Referrals are great! What IS a Dream Referral? A Dream Referral is one of those clients who will make a significant impact on your revenues for the year. It’s that wonderful customer that makes your smile, AND your company’s profits, bigger. However, before you can get your Dream Referral, you have to know who or what it is.

First – Identify Your Dream Referral

Have you ever said, “I want to meet anyone who needs my services.”? If you answered yes, has your generic request for a new contact ever resulted in a referral? Probably not. That type of ‘anyone’ request is much too vague.

One of the skills of networking is to remember that Specific is Terrific.
Describe your Dream Referral in detail:

Are they a person or a company?
What is their name or their title?
Where are they located?
What do they look like?
What is the exact type of business or profession that they are in?
How can you help them, what problem do they have?
Which of your products or services do they need?
What benefit will they receive from each of your products or services?

Next – Tell Others About Your Dream Referral

Now that you have identified exactly who and what you are looking for, teach your network what your Dream Referral looks like.

When referral marketing, if you use a catch phrase that is too broad and generic it will limit the effectiveness of the results that you get. Instead, be very descriptive as you talk to your networking partners, so descriptive that it is like that person is in the room with you. The more details you provide, the greater the likelihood that your referral partners will recognize that person when they come across them outside of the business networking meeting!

To increase and grow business through referrals, it is important that YOU know your own personal Dream Referral. Then you can educate your network on how to help you find it. If you do not know precisely who that ideal client is, your networking partners are unable to go out looking for them and connect you to them.

I would love to hear about YOUR Dream Referral in the comments below.