Download MP3

Dear Friend, 

This week we’re going to continue a conversation we started 2 weeks ago. 

In that Podcast, I brought up the concept of referrals and I shared an observation that there are 3 types of referrals. 

Passive Referrals, where you get a phone call from someone who says “My friend John told me you could help me sell my house” — or “My friend Mary told me you could help us lower our mortgage payment.” 

Those calls are great…and you love to get them because it’s like finding some FREE MONEY! They’re already sold on you, and they’re calling to get help. 

When I really look at referral business, these type of referrals make up 80% of all referrals. The longer you’ve been in business — and the more people you’ve helped, the more of those calls you get. 

The Passive referral’s first cousin, is Repeat Business. 

Those are most often passive, out of the blue calls as well, and when people say their business is mostly repeat and referral, this is what they’re talking about. 

The second type of referral is the Reactive referral. This is where you get a phone call from a friend or client, and they say “Hey Dean, my friend John is thinking or selling his house — you should give him a call.” 

Or, “I was telling my friend John how you helped us lower our mortgage payment, and you should give him a call.” 

Now, reactive referrals are not quite as fun as Passive referrals, because you’ve got to do something to make it happen. 

You’ve got to take the initiative, and call John to introduce yourself, and see how you might be able to help. 

Reactive referrals make up 20% of all the referrals I see. 

The third type of referral — the one we’re going to talk about today, is the orchestrated referral. 

The orchestrated referral is the biggest opportunity you probably have in your business — because you’re probably not doing anything right now to take advantage of it. 

Basically, an orchestrated referral is when you ask for a very specific type of referral — and GET it. 

I call it Orchestrated, because YOU are the one who is in complete control of it happening — and YOU are the one who can start getting orchestrated referrals any time you want. 

2 weeks ago — I asked people to send in the breakdown of a referral experiment, I asked them to write down the names of their last 10 referred clients, and send me an email with how many referrals were passive, how many were reactive, and how many were orchestrated. 

I got hundreds of replies, which all followed exactly the pattern I’ve been tracking since I started talking about this concept. 

80% passive…and 20% reactive. 

Out of the hundreds of results — there were only 3 orchestrated referrals in the bunch, and I promised I would show you a simple system you could test for 30 days — that will help you build the habit of generating orchestrated referrals at will. 

On demand. 

Whenever you want them. 

So, here’s what we’re going to do… 

I’m going to lay out the step-by-step plans for you. You’re going to try it for 30 days, and report your results to me at the end of 30 days, and we’ll see what kind of improvement we can make on the orchestrated referral number. 

First thing we need to do is make a decision. 

What type of referrals do we want? 

Specifically. 

Do we want first time homebuyers? 

Do we want country home buyers? 

Condo buyers? 

Lakefront home buyers? 

Investment property buyers? 

What do we want SPECIFICALLY? 

See, Referral is a fluffy, fuzzy word. 

It doesn’t bring to mind any images. 

You can’t close your eyes and picture a referral. 

But you can close your eyes and picture a first time home buyer — and the kind of home they’ll purchase in your market. 

T this decision is going to be the foundation for our 30-day challenge, so make sure you are crystal clear on who you’re going to focus on attracting. 

For this example, I’m going to focus on first time buyers. 

Now, the first time buyers are going to be my complete focus for 30 days. 

I’m going to think about them all the time, and I’m going to set my sights on getting as many first time buyer referrals as i can. 

This step is so important because it makes the rest of the steps so simple. 

Clarity is a powerful thing. 

In fact, the reason we don’t get orchestrated referrals is because we’re not actively pursuing a single type of referral. 

So, if I’m focussed on first time buyers, it’s going to be easier for me to remember my objective. 

The next step is to decide what my offer is going to be. 

I like the idea of “Zero Down Home Loans For First Time Buyers.” 

Talk to your lender and ask them about loan programs for first time buyers. 

Zero down programs. 

103% programs. 

Interest only programs. 

Variable rate programs. 

Option Arms. 

Whatever would be most compelling for first time buyers. 

Let’s say we find a suitable zero down program. 

Now, we can get some simple lead generating business cards printed. Just Black ink on white, or yellow…or pink card stock. 

it doesn’t have to be fancy.  

In fact it’s better if it isn’t fancy. 

At all. 

Just text. 

in my example, I would print up business cards that said: 

New! Zero Down Payment Home Loans

For First Time Buyers…up to $450,000 

Free Recorded Message

1-800-555-5555 x 101 

That’s it. 

Simple. Quick, and easy. 

It’s only purpose is to start a dialogue, and act as a reference tool, to point people to the recorded message. 

And the only purpose of the recorded message is to have an easy way for the first time buyers who are listening to leave their contact information so you can get in touch with them and start a dialogue. 

So, you’re recorded message might say. 
 
Hello, and thank you for calling about the zero down payment home loans for first time buyers in Winter Haven. 

These home loans may be used to buy single family homes, townhomes, or condos anywhere in Winter Haven up to $450,000. 

To get a Free Report with all the details — just leave your name, address, telephone number and email address if you have one…and we’ll mail your report right away. 

That’s it. 

Simple. 

The cards you get printed at staples, or kinkos, or office depot or a local print shop. 

You’ll need a voice mail system to record the message and track your results. 

You can get exactly what you need at MoneyMakingVoiceMail.com 

If you’re a By Referral Only member, you can use the MyPhoneLeads system that’s included with your membership. 

Once you’ve got your cards printed — and your message recorded…it’s all about getting in to conversation with as many people as you can. 

So think for a second about how many people you talk to in the course of a day ‐ probably a lot.  Your clients, your friends, the barista at Starbucks, your server at lunch, the dry cleaner, you know some of your clients that you might have not talked to in a while, people you run into at the grocery store. 

All these people and interactions you have on a daily basis are going to be the fuel for your orchestrated referral machine.  

Now I’m going to outline a three step process for you to test just for 30 days.   and you tell me at the end of the 30 days what it was worth to you.  

First is the opening dialogue, so the first opportunity you get, try to segue in your opening dialogue.  It goes something like this; “Hey that reminds me, who do you know that’s looking to buy their first home right now?”  and then pause. 

Now the pause is to observe the reaction you get and what you’ll notice is that their eyes will probably start looking up, which means they’re searching their mental rolodex to see if anyone comes to mind. 

As they’re doing this, you continue on. 

The reason I ask is that we just found a new zero down home loan program where you can get about 25% more house for the same monthly payment as a regular mortgage, it’s perfect for someone who’s maybe renting right now…or maybe saving to buy their first home. 

Who comes to mind first? 

Then stop. 

You just don’t say anything, and they’ll think for a minute and one of two things will happen. 

They’ll either come up with a name or they’ll say I can’t think of anyone right now.  Those are the two, the only two things that could happen. 

if they have someone that’s great.  If they don’t, which they probably won’t, you just smile and say that’s okay, would you do me a favor? 

Sure they’ll say. 

Would you keep that thought at the front of your mind and when you think about or run into someone like that, would you give them one of these cards and hand them three cards… and you say there’s a free recorded message they can call right here with all the information on that program I was just telling you about. 

You hand them the three little cards, with the phone number they can call to get the information 24 hours a day. 

Now you’ll use your 24 hour voice mail service, your hotline service for that. 

If you did that with even 3 people a day, that’s about 100 experiences you’d have with this dialogue.  Now if you give each these people you talk to three of those cards you’ll have three times the reach of just the people you talk to personally. 

Now what would happen if you had that conversation with 5 people a day, or 10 people a day?  You know how many times could you have that conversation if you made a concentrated effort for 30 days to really focus on this? 

You know the key to getting orchestrated referrals is to think about it consciously for 30 days so that you can unconsciously bring up that dialogue at just the right time. 

See a lot of times even with the best intentions often we don’t think about asking for referrals until it’s too late.  So we want to decide in advance what type of referrals you’d like to get, then think about a new reason to bring it up in conversation. 

See in that home loan example which will work equally as well for realtors as it does for lenders, the fact that it was a brand new program made it newsworthy. 

Most people like to have insider information so they look smarter than their friends and that’s what you’re giving the people you talk to, you’re giving them some inside information.  Then script out and practice your dialogue until it rolls off your tongue. 

You need a smooth transition to get into it, so you say you know 

“hey that reminds me…”, or 

“hey let me ask you something”, or 

“oh I almost forgot…” 

Then you go into part 1  

“who do you know that’s looking to buy their first home right now?” 

  Or who do you know that’s looking to build a new home? 

Whatever you decide, just ask the question and pause just long enough for them to engage the search engine in their mind then follow up with 

“the reason I ask is I just found out about this new zero down home loan program where you can get about 25% more house for the same monthly payment as a regular mortgage…It’s perfect for someone who’s looking for their first home or a bigger home.  Who comes to mind first?” 

Then stop, 

and if they say I can’t think of anyone right now, just move on to step 3,

“that’s okay would you do me a favour and keep that thought at the front of your mind and when you think about or run into someone like that would you give them one of these cards?”  

Practice that dialogue and commit to trying this for 30 days.   

I think you’re going to be surprised at how willing people are to help…and how easily it will come to you after a few days of conscious effort. 

Try it for 30 days. 

Then, if you like it, try it for another 30 days with another target market. 

I can’t wait to hear how it works out for you. 

 
PS- this will be the last Marketing Monday for this year…while I take some time off for the holidays — but I’ll be back in the new year…and I’ll talk to you then!