Power teams, everyone wants to build one because they believe it is the answer to all of their referral problems. Get 10-12 people in a power team and soon you will be passing referrals, right? Wrong! Often “power teams” start meeting, they share information, they do a little work but rarely is it consistent or productive.
On the other hand, referral partners who have been trained will be proactive, consistent and accountable. Criteria for good referral partners, work in your target market, understand your mission, know how you want to be referred, open their network to you, have influence with our “target market” and work on the right side of the sales cycle. Instead of 10-12 all you really need is 4-8.
What about your hub firm? Have you taken the time to work on and develop your hub firm? This is the group of business professionals who win when you win. They work in the same target market, but they tend to be on the wrong side of the sales cycle, making it impossible for them to send you proactive referrals, in fact many times it is difficult for them to pass any referrals at all.
That being said, why would you really want to develop a hub firm. What value do they bring to the table? How can they help you? Let’s take a look at a list of things that you can ask your hub firm to do to help you win more clients;
Allow you to guest blog on their blog
Let you sponsor their newsletter
Put your literature in front of their clients
Have you as a sponsor on their website
Be a sponsor for one of your events
Host a networking event with you and their clients
Introduce you to other referral sources
Promote your events or programs
Share the cost of other marketing activities with you
Survey of their clients for you
Invite you to attend an event with them
Make an announcement for you
Promote your blog to their clients
The list could go on and on. Your hub firm is one of the most valuable networks of people that you can put together. Many business people work at finding referral sources and power teams yet they completely neglect putting together a good hub firm.
Hazel is a member of The National Speakers Association and travels the world to speak at conferences and association meetings on the topic of “Working Your Network”. As a 15 year BNI Director and a Master Trainer for the Referral Institute, Hazel has taught thousands of people how to go beyond networking to creating a system that generates referrals. Contact her at Thereferralstrategist@gmail.com
Read more of Hazel’s networking and referral tips on her blog http://www.hazelmwalker.com