Imagine this. You’re in a meeting with a client, and they share about a situation that needs resolving by a third party. They ask you if you know somebody who could assist. You scan your brain for your top-of-mind candidate. You check with your client to see if they would be happy to take the call from your contact.
You generate a referral for a colleague, a trusted contact or a strategic partner, and make the warm introduction. Job done, and weeks go by. Did anything happen? Did the two meet up? Did it go well, or not? Do you need to follow up?
How often does this happen to you?
Recipients of your referrals need to know how to treat you and your clients.
Here are some simple rules.
- Its your client. Just because you have introduced your client to your contact, your contact must treat them like they are your client. They must keep you in the loop with activity, and communicate with you that something has happened, when its happened.
- If your contact discovers another need that your client has, from an additional third-party provider, they must come back to you first and ask if you have someone you would like to refer them to. This builds trust and loyalty between you and your contact.
- They must treat your client like you would. Consistency is important to give the client comfort that you have sent them to a similar standard of provider.
- They must do a good job. Your reputation is on the line with the providers you recommend. To make sure your contacts are still up to scratch, you need to catch up with them frequently enough to keep across their situation, their capacity, and their skillset.
- They must not make more work for you. By that I mean that you shouldn’t need to be following up with them to find out if anything has happened. You shouldn’t need to mediate between your contact and your client.
You will need to educate your referral sources about how to behave, because most people have no idea. If you do, you will find that your client is calling you to say thank you for the introduction, how well its gone, and by the way, who else do you know?
