If you don't want to pay for referrals or be slimy or greasy, you just have to wait for them to come, no? There's no way to control or manage how often you get referrals, right?
No! Wrong! Incorrect! You can control and manage your referrals, you can put a system and process in place and Stacey Brown Randall is here to show us how. In this episode, Stacey breaks down the five steps to getting referrals without asking. If you run a service or a product-based business, this episode will help you increase your client base so that you won't be desperate for clients again.
My Guest: Stacey Brown Randall
Stacey Brown Randall is a member of the business failure club, a contrarian on how to generate referrals and a supporter of the entrepreneurial dream.
She is a three-time entrepreneur, award-winning author of Generating Business Referrals Without Asking, host of the Roadmap to Grow Your Business podcast and national speaker.
Stacey’s programs help small business owners and solopreneurs take control of their referrals, their client experience and their business.
She has had the privilege of helping well-known corporations and franchises such as Bank of America, Mass Mutual, and International Minute Press but her focus is on small business owners and solopreneurs from companies including HM Properties, Financial Symmetry, O’Connor Insurance Associates, Tyra Law Firm, Farris Cooke CPA, Slater Interiors, Rae Images, CAJA Bookkeeping, and hundreds more.
Stacey has been featured in national publications like Entrepreneur magazine, Investor Business Daily, Forbes, CEO World, Fox News, Cheddar TV Network and more.
She received her Master’s in Organizational Communication and is married with three kids.
Episode Highlights:
02:49 I don't mean that to hurt anyone out there who like has the dream of owning your own catering company or restaurant business or a bar, whatever. I think you're crazy. And I can say that because I've worked in them. I've watched them.
06:41 I did a lot of networking. It's like the 7 million cups of coffee and eating rubber chicken every day for lunch and dinner at different networking events. And that's really how I built my business.
23:46 69 months later, we were kind of done. The [issue] was she actually has a lot of arthritis in her hands. And so we would go through big stretches where she couldn't use them. And guess what, her business partner didn't have a clue about to pick up the slack.
27:11 So I'm not going to go to the first date like all dolled up as if this is my real self: Grungy, no makeup, sweaty, hair kind of fuzzy and maybe a little smelly, because at some point in the relationship, this is what I'm going to look like, so it wouldn't be fair for me to present any other way. That's obviously ridiculous. Because if you do that you look like a psychopath.
36:43 I didn't start my coaching practice thinking I'm going to one day have an online program that teaches people how to get referrals without asking. But when I realized that had become my superpower in growing my business myself, I was like, and now I have my scalability idea.
46:59 So the other mindset that I have to fight is that "Oh, referrals just happen. If I don't want to ask or pay or be gimmicky, they just happen, and they're sporadic and you can't control them." Absolutely not. They are not sporadic. You can control them. No, you cannot snap your fingers and have someone give you a referral. That's not how it works. But there is a process you can put in place.
1:06:42 When you're new, starting out and you go to people and you ask for help, I need help. But the people who care about you, is a very small circle. It is not everybody in your email list, which is why you don't blast it out there like crazy, right?
Quote:
Ask yourself the question: Was I brave today?
Resources & Links:
For Part 2 of this episode, where you can hear more business advice from Stacey, go to estierand.com/85-2.
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