How to Develop an Ideal Referral Partner Profile (IRPP)
How to Develop an Ideal Referral Partner Profile (IRPP)
High-quality referrals need to be cultivated over time. Just like your favorite mechanic probably didn’t earn a 5-star Google review by fixing one carburetor, obtaining a high-quality referral is a multi-step process. If you’re looking for referrals that will deliver on ROI, you need to talk with the right people and then earn the right to ask for and receive referrals. This won’t happen overnight, but you can certainly speed up the process by selecting the right people to talk to.
Based on your ideal client profile, we want to build a list of people who serve the same target market. Not everyone is a good referral partner. Some people take without giving. Others will miss opportunities to refer you. Then, there will be associates who do business differently from how you do and may not be a good collaborative partner in the long run.
This list of questions will help you identify the right referral partners in your existing network:
Next, let’s explore how to answer each of these questions in more detail.
Does this person serve the same target market?
Picture your target market. Now let’s break this down into ideal companies and demographics:
Does this person talk to the right people at the right companies?
If your main contact at a company is the CEO, but your contact focuses on the director of marketing, this may not work well. In this situation, you need to be referred up to the CEO, and this is never as powerful as an introduction to the CEO from a trusted advisor.
Does this person seem like a giver?
You want to learn if this person will actually refer you when the opportunity arises. If they like to help people, then they may help you—if you earn it. If they are focused solely on what will drive business for them, the odds of a referral go down.
To clarify their capacity to give, you can ask them any of the following leading questions:
In my experience, this is the type of person you want to avoid. This person will farm you for referrals but won’t give you much in return.
Do you believe they are genuinely interested in helping you?
Our “gut” has evolved over millennia to help us spot people who want to take but not give. If you pay attention, your gut is probably giving you a very strong sense of the person in front of you. According to a study in Psychological Science, our unconscious mind or intuition may be more accurate than our conscious mind at spotting dishonesty. While this isn’t to say logic and analytics don’t have their place, it can be helpful to home in on first impressions and “gut instincts.” Do you really believe this person will be interested in helping you, or do you feel something is “off”? Humans have survived and thrived over hundreds of thousands of years by learning to trust our instincts. If both your brain and/or gut are telling you something isn’t right, listen up!
Another effective way to gauge a potential network partner is to ask yourself, “Would I refer this person to my clients?” If you aren’t willing to refer someone, it may be time to take your referral search elsewhere.
Based on your ideal client profile, we want to build a list of people who serve the same target market. Not everyone is a good referral partner. Some people take without giving. Others will miss opportunities to refer you. Then, there will be associates who do business differently from how you do and may not be a good collaborative partner in the long run.
This list of questions will help you identify the right referral partners in your existing network:
- Does this person serve the same target market?
- Does this person talk to the right people at the right companies?
- Does this person seem like a giver?
- Do you believe they are interested in helping you?
- Would you refer this person to your clients?
Next, let’s explore how to answer each of these questions in more detail.
Does this person serve the same target market?
Picture your target market. Now let’s break this down into ideal companies and demographics:
- How many employees does the company have?
- How much revenue does the company generate?
- Is the company B2B or B2C? Does this matter?
- Fractional CFO
- Outsourced IT
- Outsourced accounting firm
- Fractional HR leaders
- Fractional revenue leaders (CRO/CMO/CSO/VP of Sales)
- EOS Implementer
Does this person talk to the right people at the right companies?
If your main contact at a company is the CEO, but your contact focuses on the director of marketing, this may not work well. In this situation, you need to be referred up to the CEO, and this is never as powerful as an introduction to the CEO from a trusted advisor.
Does this person seem like a giver?
You want to learn if this person will actually refer you when the opportunity arises. If they like to help people, then they may help you—if you earn it. If they are focused solely on what will drive business for them, the odds of a referral go down.
To clarify their capacity to give, you can ask them any of the following leading questions:
- Tell me about your network.
- What do you hope to get out of your networking relationships?
- How do you serve your network?
- How do you spot an opportunity to refer someone to your clients?
- How do you vet the people you might refer to your clients?
In my experience, this is the type of person you want to avoid. This person will farm you for referrals but won’t give you much in return.
Do you believe they are genuinely interested in helping you?
Our “gut” has evolved over millennia to help us spot people who want to take but not give. If you pay attention, your gut is probably giving you a very strong sense of the person in front of you. According to a study in Psychological Science, our unconscious mind or intuition may be more accurate than our conscious mind at spotting dishonesty. While this isn’t to say logic and analytics don’t have their place, it can be helpful to home in on first impressions and “gut instincts.” Do you really believe this person will be interested in helping you, or do you feel something is “off”? Humans have survived and thrived over hundreds of thousands of years by learning to trust our instincts. If both your brain and/or gut are telling you something isn’t right, listen up!
Another effective way to gauge a potential network partner is to ask yourself, “Would I refer this person to my clients?” If you aren’t willing to refer someone, it may be time to take your referral search elsewhere.
Article #6 Reflections & Activities:
This week, we will apply our learning in real life.
The next time you’re at a networking event or coffee, I want you to pick 3–4 of the leading questions. Pepper these questions into your interactions and gauge their response. Using this information and your intuition, evaluate whether this person would actually refer me if the opportunity arose.