This article originally appeared in the Trial Lawyer\u2019s Journal, Vol. I. Visit our website to subscribe and learn more. \u00a0 For as long as you have been in business, you have been taught there are a limited number of ways to generate referrals. Ask your clients and contacts \u2013 anyone in your database (or rolodex) [\u2026]<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared in the Trial Lawyer\u2019s Journal, Vol. I. <\/i>Visit our website<\/i><\/a> to subscribe and learn more.<\/i><\/p>\n For as long as you have been in business, you have been taught there are a limited number of ways to generate referrals.<\/p>\n Have you ever thought about why?\u00a0<\/p>\n Why have you only been taught to ask for referrals, or be promotional, or network constantly to receive them?\u00a0 You know if you\u2019ve ever tried those methods, they either didn\u2019t work, took way too much time or felt awkward and uncomfortable to do consistently.\u00a0<\/p>\n Most attorneys want referrals, they just do not want to ask or be overly gimmicky to receive them. So, if you know you deserve referrals and do not want to follow the decades-old, traditional advice on how to receive them, what are you left with?\u00a0 Hope.\u00a0 To hope you receive some referrals from time to time because you do a great job.\u00a0<\/p>\n But as the saying goes, hope is not a strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n So where does the traditional advice (asking, promotional or constant networking) come from on how to generate referrals?\u00a0 It comes from how we have been taught to deploy an overall sales strategy in our business. What we have been taught is that a typical sales strategy has two parts \u2013 the prospecting plan and the marketing plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n Within a sales strategy, the typical prospecting plan include activities such as cold calling, joining leads groups, attending live or virtual networking events like the Bar Association, and more.\u00a0 The mentality you bring to the prospecting activities you do is short-term\u2026 meaning you hope by participating in that networking event you\u2019ll meet someone who wants to talk about hiring you. The end user of your prospecting activities is the prospect, i.e. your potential new client. When prospecting you want to reach the prospect.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n On the other side of the sales strategy is the marketing plan.\u00a0 In the typical marketing plan, the activities include advertising, sponsorships, trying to get publicity (PR), social media, and more.\u00a0 The mentality is a little bit longer term than prospecting but the end user of your marketing message \u2013 the one you want to see it and respond \u2013 are potential clients.<\/p>\n Make no mistake both prospecting and marketing are important.\u00a0 But your sales strategy is not a two-legged stool.\u00a0 It is a three-legged stool and the third leg should be your referral strategy. Which means that you have to pull all referral activities out from your prospecting and marketing and create a stand-alone referral strategy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n When others attempt to teach us to force the activity of generating referrals into our prospecting plan or marketing plan, the tactics they provide are the old-school or traditional ones.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n With the short-term mentality of the prospecting plan \u2013 trying to get to the prospect as quick as possible \u2013 the resulting tactics is to ask for referrals.\u00a0 That advice includes who to ask, when to ask, how often to ask and how to get over being uncomfortable with asking.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet, we don\u2019t want to ask. We don\u2019t enjoy it. We know it makes who we are asking uncomfortable. And we also know it doesn\u2019t work. Most people we ask don\u2019t get back to us with quality prospects.\u00a0 And as attorneys, you don\u2019t even have the benefit of following up with people who haven\u2019t reached out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n On the other side of the sales strategy, we have been taught that referrals should fit within the marketing plan.\u00a0 Which provides us with tactics like being promotional or overly gimmicky and network all the time so you are constantly seen and remembered.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Tactics include gimmicky messages like adding \u201cGreatest compliment you can give me is a referral\u201d to your email signature.\u00a0 Or to include a \u201cReferral Corner\u201d in your eNewsletter where people can click to refer you.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both of these strategies \u2013 forcing referrals into the prospecting mentality or within the marketing message \u2013 ultimately forces you to become salesy with your referral strategy which misses the point of who the end user is \u2013 the one sending you referrals.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The end user \u2013 or receiver of your message and actions in the referral plan is your referral source (the person who refers you).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The end user of a prospecting plan or marketing plan is the prospect.\u00a0<\/p>\n Two totally different types of people with very different needs.<\/p>\n When you pull your referral strategy out of prospecting and marketing, you can create a fully functioning sales strategy by adding the third leg to your sales strategy stool focused on referrals.\u00a0<\/p>\n With referrals, you are focused on developing and strengthening relationships with your referral sources which removes the need to ask, be promotional or gimmicky or salesy.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, what does this mean? What does it look like and how do you deepen relationships with your referral sources?\u00a0<\/p>\n Well, let me start with what will not cut it. You are not strengthening relationships by just emailing your newsletter every month or mailing an occasional tri-fold brochure or postcard. Or hoping to see them randomly at a virtual or in-person networking event. Texting or calling every quarter won\u2019t produce the results you are looking for either.\u00a0<\/p>\n When we look at our relationships, we have to focus on being memorable and meaningful and staying top of mind. Yes, sending the handwritten thank you card for each referral received is necessary. But also connecting with your referral sources differently \u2013 with an intentionality \u2013 to be consistent (not every day or even every month, but approximately 5 to 7 times a year).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n To know how you\u2019ll create your outreach, starts with identifying who are your referral sources. Then you will know how best to serve them with your outreach giving you opportunities to plant referral seeds.<\/p>\n When creating a referral plan for Amanda Mingo, a personal injury attorney in Charlotte \u2013 we consider who her referral sources are, what is authentic to her and what will work with how she runs her practice.\u00a0 Which means her plan was very different from Neil Tyra \u2013 an estate planning attorney out of Maryland.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Maybe the best way to connect with your referral sources is recognizing Mother\u2019s Day with a Wonder Woman water bottle or hosting some of your best referral sources for a virtual beer tasting complete with a knowledgeable brewer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maybe events make you shutter, or you don\u2019t have the budget for gifts.\u00a0 No problem.\u00a0 The different types of outreach and opportunities to connect are endless.\u00a0 Where you start \u2013 as I do with all attorneys I work with \u2013 is we first gain clarity of \u201cwhat to do\u201d once they know the \u201cwho\u201d they are doing it for.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Remember, we should not apply the prospecting or marketing mentality or activities to how we generate referrals. Anything you do to generate referrals is directed at the referral source, the human who refers new clients to you.\u00a0 Which means everything should be different \u2013 what you do, what you say and when you do it.\u00a0 Because when a referral source refers you, they are ultimately putting their reputation on the line and recommending you because they trust you.\u00a0<\/p>\n Referrals only come from relationships, so your tactics to cultivate those relationships must be different. I encourage you to spend some time right now to decide what your referral strategy will look like as you create your third leg of your sales strategy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Stacey Brown Randall is the author of the multiple award-winning book, Generating Business Referrals Without Asking, host of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast and national speaker.\u00a0 You can find her at <\/i>www.StaceyBrownRandall.com<\/i><\/a> or on LinkedIn at <\/i>www.linkedin.com\/in\/staceybrandall\/<\/i><\/a>. \u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This article originally appeared in the Trial Lawyer\u2019s Journal, Vol. I. Visit our website to subscribe and learn more. \u00a0 For as long as you have been in business, you have been taught there are a limited number of ways to generate referrals. 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Traditional Overall Sales Strategy<\/h4>\n
What\u2019s Wrong with Forcing Referrals into Prospecting or Marketing?<\/h4>\n
How Referrals Are Different<\/h4>\n
Final Considerations for a Referral Explosion<\/h4>\n