If you’re a professional practitioner of any kind — bookkeeper, accountant, business consultant, insurance broker, financial planner, even personal trainer — you can generate extra income by connecting with others whose clients would be perfect customers for you. Developing your own network of noncompetitive service providers who can refer business — and who, in return, you can refer business to — is an ideal situation to be in.
One of the best types of joint venture situations is a loosely associated group of professionals who are each in a different line of work or who specialize in a different niche of a single area. A homebuilders’ association is a good example of such a group.
While a referral circle is an informal group whose members typically pay no compensation to one another, a professional consortium is a defined group of people who act almost as business partners — visiting clients together, writing proposals that include each other’s services, delivering joint services under one contract, and even distributing a brochure that details all their expertise.
When an individual member lands a big contract, that member will typically pay other consortium members on a subcontractor basis for services provided.
The best possible group members for you are professionals whose clients fit your target market for your service and whose frequent marketing activity is reaching a constant stream of qualified clients.
Think about the businesses that call on you on a regular basis and ask yourself, “Are they also calling on and mailing to my prospective clients?”
Is there a retail location or regular service provider from whom your potential clients buy whose shopping bag or monthly invoices would be an ideal place to include your special offer?
When you first approach a potential member, remember that the relationship has to be a winning scenario for both sides. This is critical.
To ensure that it is, think through how you can help others yet at the same time generate lots of new referrals for yourself. Remember you’re not begging or selling. This is a cooperative situtation that you are initiating.
Create a plan for approaching these other businesses, then articulate an appealing offer that has and leads with a big promise of what’s in it for them. These people can be so influential that they keep you busy for years with their referrals.
To find the names of these influencers, ask your customers whom they turn to when they are making a buying decision in your niche, then do some creative thinking about how to get these influencers on your side.
When you send referrals to other businesses and bring them value on a regular basis, you’ll become a valuable referral source that they’ll want to acknowledge in turn—by sending business your way.
One deepening of this strategy that has worked well for me is getting these influential people as clients. Once I’ve proved how valuable and useful my services are, as well as sending business their way, they naturally recommend other business to me.
Here’s a few more thoughts about this:
How Effective is Your Sales Cycle? – If you are an independent professional or small business owner providing services, here is a simple four step sales process you can use to close more sales and expand your business. 1. Generate Leads. Developing a list of prospects to …
Offline Marketing; A “Systems” Approach for NES Associates – First, if you are ready to ramp up your business with low-cost offline lead generation, it’s important that you have a dedicated 800 number acting as your home office voicemail. You won’t want your leads calling at 2 am in the morning. …