Why it is okay to be self-serving and refer people

First let me state that in many ways, this blog entry is self-serving, but it also should give a very clear reason why a client should refer people to people they do business with.

Let’s first look at the three parts to a referral situation.
1) The Provider: This is the person or the entity that is providing the product and/or service.
2) The Referrer: This is your new client who has the initial experience with your service
3) The Referee: This is the associated individual(s) who is referred to you to experience your
product and or service.

In sales of any kind, one is always told to ask for referrals. Moreover, one is told that if you do a good job then the new client should be drooling to sic you on everyone they know – WRONG. I have never seen a situation where it has made sense to pester a new client into opening up their phonebook and printing off all of their connections for you. Not only that, you do not want that.

My belief is that if the client has benefitted from the opportunity to employ your services, then the client should feel indebted and want to tell the world how amazing you are so that others can share in the benefit.

One of the benefits of the Internet has been the ability to “rate” and “comment” on your experiences. In fact there is a whole industry that has cropped up as a result of this need to help others with your own experiences. Aside from the fact that you can have a ‘love it’ and a ‘hate it’ rating for the same thing, people rely on these things for their own decisions – from food to cell phones to vacation destinations. The key is that they are a name on the page or a first name and an initial or just an alias. The anonymity allows for the referral.

So why is it different if there is no anonymity? Let’s look at the possible reasons that people are hesitant to refer. I believe that there are two primary reasons that people do not refer more often. The first is that the client will feel responsible if the referee does not have the same ‘Wow’ experience as they did. And second, if you fail to take care of the referee then the client looks like an idiot. Beyond these two issues, I am at a loss as to why more referrals are not made by everyone.

This is not to belittle the concerns but they are easily avoided. To negate the first item, when you refer someone simply say, “I am not sure if you will benefit the same way, but the provider really … for me and I hope you have that experience too”. For the second concern, address it with the provider. Confirm that the provider understands the importance of keeping the ball in the air and not dropping it. These two strategies should work.

Now let’s look at why it behooves everyone to refer. What is the most important thing when you are looking for a product/service – that you will have a good experience. The good experience can take many shapes from a ‘steal’ price-wise to great service to comfort with a difficult process etc. If you have had such a great experience would you not want to make sure that those you care about also have the opportunity to experience the same thing?