In his best selling book, E-Myth, author Michael Gerber describes one of the biggest mistakes new business owners make. They spend more time working in the business rather than on their business. This leaves them overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated. That's why most businesses fail.
The businesses owners who succeed are able to remove themselves from the day to day work and orchestrate a system that produces results, money, and freedom.
Likewise, when we're running a business that depends on “word of mouth”, we have to learn to orchestrate referrals.
We can't leave it up to chance that people will be happy with our work and tell their friends about us. Instead, we have to be intentional, create a system, and orchestrate referrals.
In this article you'll see how you can orchestrate referrals with a simple podcast system:
- Why do people hate asking for referrals?
- Have you heard of “Return On Effort?”
- Give them a reason to brag
We have to talk to people to make sales
Anyone who runs a client business knows they need to talk to people if they want to make sales. Most people have trouble keeping their pipeline full. Not only that, but they're limited by the number of coffee meetings and lunches they can have each week.
But, what if there was a way to have more meetings without leaving the comfort of your home (or office?) How many more sales opportunities would you have? Good news, there is a way. We'll explore it in this article.
Why do people hate asking for referrals?
Is it because they don't like to ask for help? Maybe it's because they don't want to sound like they're begging? Perhaps, asking for referrals makes you feel like a nuisance? I've heard all these excuses and more when talking with our clients. These are all valid points, if you're only purpose for calling on someone is to ask for referrals.
Whenever I was invited to someone's house, my parents taught me to always show up with a gift in hand. It's the same when we're looking for referrals. We have to show up with something useful for our clients. One of the best ways we've found to add value to our clients is to invite them for an interview on our podcast.
In a world where people are more distracted than ever, inviting someone on your show, and listening to them for thirty minutes is a powerful tool. But, having someone on your show isn't always enough to get referrals. Let's look at how we can leverage the time together to orchestrate more referrals in the next section.
Have you heard of “Return On Effort?”
I was first introduced to this idea from a multi-millionaire who ran multiple successful companies. Essentially, he looks at the activities he does daily, and identifies the ones that give him the maximum return on effort. For my multi-millionaire friend, it was having 15 minute meetings once per week with the C.E.O.'s of all his companies. For you it could be this podcast interview system.
Having someone on your show is only the beginning. To get maximum return on effort we have to leverage this opportunity to keep the conversation going. A quick eMail thanking them for being on the show is a great start. One of the tricks we like to use is to ask our guests if there's anyone else in their network who would be good to invite onto our show. BoOm! Instant referral.
In addition to the Thank You eMail, we also send another eMail when their show is airing. Inside that eMail we share several assets we created from the interview including Power Notes and Power Quotes they can share with their network. This system makes you unforgettable.
Now let's look at more ways we can leverage our interviews to orchestrate referrals.
Give them a reason to brag
If we've done a good job with our interview, our guests will want to brag about it. It's our job to make it easy for them to share it. As we mentioned in the last section, giving them assets to share is a good first step. But it would be a mistake to leave it up to them to get the word out.
One of the easiest ways to get referrals is to post your interviews on Social Media and tag your guests. This accomplishes two things:
- Social Proof: When we post our interview assets online, it validates our guest as a Subject Matter Expert.
- Stealth Referrals: One of the coolest parts about tagging our guests is how easy it is for them to share with their network. While it may not seem like it, anytime our guest shares our interview they are essentially giving us a referral to their entire network.
There's no simpler way to orchestrate referrals than using a podcast system like this one. We covered a lot, so let's do a quick recap.
Orchestrating Referrals with your Podcast
In E-Myth, Michael Gerber talks about creating systems that deliver consistent results without relying on back breaking work. The simplest way to make more sales is to have a system that orchestrates referrals for us. Want more referrals from your podcast? Try this:
- Book Interviews with your best clients and partners
- Ask your guests who else you should have on your show
- Create assets from your interviews and make them easy to share
Not that we've done a recap I bet you're wondering, “What's Next?”
What happens when we run out of clients and partners to interview?
In this article we talked about interviewing clients and partners to orchestrate referrals. That's only the beginning. You can continue to use this interview system to grow your network and your opportunities. Check out THIS ARTICLE to see how you can book influential guests on your podcast.
Don't have a podcast yet? No worries. Our team has helped 60+ experts just like you get their podcast up and running in 30 days. I can show you how it works on a quick 30 minute call. Grab a time that works for you at https://thepodcastfactory.com/start/
