You can grow your business faster with a killer referral marketing strategy to produce massively effective referrals. Referrals breakthrough the trust barrier for those that don’t already know you. Watch this video to learn seven key attributes and a process for identifying your killer referral opportunities.

Picture the Marketing Boardroom. Everyone is at the table with notebook and pen or digital tablet or laptop at hand. They’ve all got their coffee, there’s a speaker phone on the and a pitcher of water in the center of the conference table. It’s the “Big Marketing Presentation“.

On the screen in big bold underlined words is “Target Market“. These days it might be a really spruced up slide with animations and graphics winging in from the side.

Beneath the Target Market Headline is one line describing the target and it says: Women 18-49.

And someone at the table says: You’re right. That does leave out men and boomers. Maybe we should target everyone in the known universe!

David Ogilvy

Everyone’s heard the expression, “You can’t be all things to all people.” Or as ad legend David Ogilvy put it, “Try to appeal to everyone, and you will end up appealing to no one.”  But ask many institutions to define their target audience and you will often hear something like, “All people ages 18-55.” They might say:  “it skews slightly towards women.”

This is essentially the same thing as saying: “We’re targeting everyone with money and a pulse.” That isn’t a targeted market segmentation strategy.  When you define your target audience too broadly, you’ve committed a major error in branding.

Copywriter Tom Fishburne comments: “A target market is not the same as anyone who could conceivably buy your product. It’s not a catch-all classification. A target market is deliberately exclusive — that’s what gives it teeth. It is what compels consumers to identify with your brand. It is what gives you insight to speak to them so clearly.”

Your Role as a leader

This marketing story applies to prospects. And illustrates a key principle. As the leader of your firm you have limited resources. You’re ability to judiciously select how you will use those resources determines your success.

Marketing to your target market is more time and cost effective than marketing to everyone. Your target market represents the prospects that will most benefit from your products and services.
You can still serve everyone and anyone that comes knocking on your door and wants to buy. But don’t spend time and money marketing to them.

Further down I list 7 key attributes for identifying your ideal clients and then I’m going to share how to leverage the process to identify your ideal referral partners. Referrals are awesome lead sources because they’ve broken through the trust barrier.

First, please realize that any referral party strategies falls apart completely if you haven’t established the foundation that I shared in last week’s video. If you haven’t seen that video yet go here https://www.businesswhitt.com/orchestrating-killer-referrals/

In my next videos I’ll share:
• How to effectively pre-frame the killer referral conversation.
• How to overcome client referral fears.
• When and how to ask for referrals.
• How to execute the killer referral process without pre-framing.
• How to close the loop and create a continuous refillable cycle of killer referrals.

Seven keys to identifying your Ideal Client

You’re ideal client:

1. Can and will buy from you: Willing and able to pay within a reasonable period of time.
2. Must have a genuine need: Without a genuine need willingness to pay means nothing.
3. Is willing and able to act quickly: Willing to make a buying decision in the near future.
4. Knows, Likes and Respects you and aligns with your values. Be diligent in building a positive personal brand.
5. Perceives High Value: Build a powerful corporate Brand
6. Understands that your product or service benefits outweigh the price. The value of your service is worth more than the money they have to invest. It’s a positive return on investment.
7. Is an excellent source of leads for further sales and future referrals.

All of these are true for your ideal prospect/client.

The Process

The process for generating your target market for killer referrals is as follows:

• Scour your client list to identify you’re “A” list Ideal referral clients. The reason being is that people often know others like themselves. “A: list ideal clients will now to other “A” list ideal clients.
• Apply Pareto’s law – often referred to as the 80/20 rule where 20% of your clients represent 80% of your results. For more information on Pareto’s Law: Respond with a comment below or a quick email message john@busnesswhitt.com.
• Answer this question: Why do your best customers buy from you? If you don’t know with certainty go ask your five favorite clients. What you don’t know may surprise you.

“A” list clients aren’t just your highest revenue producing clients. Apply the seven keys above to identify all of your ideal clients.

Consider what three or four referrals to like minded prospects might do for your business. When You’ve got that number in your head, multiply by the number of clients that you’ve identified as ideal referral partners and you’ll see just how valuable this strategy really is.

These aren’t just any referrals, These are killer referrals. Take time to analyze your client list and identify those that will likely provide the best referrals.

Next Week

I’ll outline the blueprint beginning with the Pre-Frame conversation because you want this to go off like clockwork, so you can count on this lead source to grow your business. Referrals shouldn’t be your only lead source but they can be your most powerful lead source.

Here’s what you should do now:

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Lastly scroll down and leave a comment. Let me know you were here and how this content works for you.

Cheers to your success.

John