Ep 176: How To Get Referred On Repeat Without A Huge Network

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We share a simple system to turn referrals from random to reliable using clear positioning, fast community engagement, a signature talk, and steady partner touchpoints. Clarity beats volume, and speed plus usefulness earns trust and repeat mentions.

• defining a one-line positioning that states problem, audience, and method
• putting positioning everywhere for repetition and recall
• answering niche community questions quickly using keyword alerts
• prioritising speed, usefulness, and a narrow lane to build equity
• crafting a signature talk with one problem, one audience, one outcome
• pitching talks with a clear promise to borrow trust
• scheduling quarterly referral partner catch-ups with an ask and a give
• keeping relationships warm without sales pressure
• using existing networks and systems to make referrals predictable

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:36):
I'm Serena Block.
This show is made for soloconsultants who want to get
booked out without burning out.
If you've ever thought, I justwant this to feel easier, you're
not alone.
Around here, we focus on simple,sustainable growth that actually
fits into your life so growthfeels doable instead of
overwhelming.

(00:56):
Hello, hello, hello.
Welcome to episode 176.
I am Sarah Nawellblock, and thisis the Tiny Marketing Show.
Have you ever heard someone whosays, I know someone who does
that and realized it wasn't you,even though it should have been?
Referrals don't fail becausepeople don't like you.
They fail because people don'tremember you clearly enough.

So here's the thing (01:19):
referrals are not luck, they are about a
positioning outcome.
People need to just understandwhat you can do and repeat it at
the drop of a hat.
So today we are going to talkabout how to become the default
name that comes up when yourspecific expertise is mentioned.

(01:44):
Referrals are triggered byclarity, not volume.
So people don't refer to thebest, they refer the clearest
person.
So here's how referrals actuallyhappen.
Someone is in a conversation, aspecific problem comes up, and
then your name either fitsinstantly or it doesn't.

(02:06):
So how do you make sure thatyour name is one that pops out
of someone's mouth?
You need to use your positioningeverywhere.
So why does everywhere matter?
Because repetition matters.
People need to see your positionin multiple places and multiple

(02:26):
times in order to remember it.
So this is what your lifeprobably looks like currently,
because it was my life also fora little while.
I would have connection calls.
There were like 15 to 20 minuteswith people that I met in
networking groups or nichecommunities, things like that.
LinkedIn.
We would have a conversation,and then they forgot I existed.

(02:51):
I could have been the perfectperson to solve their friend,
their coworker, theircompetitors' problem, but they
didn't remember me.
And it was because mypositioning was either unclear
or they had no reason toremember it.
So I started building out asystem to make sure that people

(03:14):
remembered my positioning.
So when you find that perfectpositioning, and positioning
should be something like theproblem that you solve, who you
solve it for, and how you solveit, one sentence, make it super
clear.
It should feel like almost likea tagline.
So you can use it in as manyplaces as possible.

(03:35):
So I like to use my positioningstatement in my niche community
bios.
So that headline that you seeright next to my name.
So you automatically associateme with the thing that I do in
my social media headlines, theends of my social media posts.
So as a super signature, I havemy positioning in there.

(03:58):
Right in my email signature.
So every single email that Isend out, there's a reminder of
what I do, who I do it for, andhow I do it.
So this process of sharing yourpositioning everywhere, it is
not annoying, I promise, becausenot a lot of people are even

(04:20):
going to notice that you do it.
It's you being memorable.
It's how people remember.
They need to be able to see thatthing associated with you
multiple times in order for itto get in their head.
So if someone read one randomthing of yours, would they know
exactly who to refer you to?
Think about that.

(04:41):
Think about the last LinkedInpost that you posted.
If someone were to read that andthey didn't know you, would they
know what you do, who you do itfor, and how you do it from that
post?
You need to be as easy to referas possible.
Next, you want to be quick toanswer questions in niche

(05:04):
communities where your idealclients are hanging out.
So the key idea here isvisibility plus usefulness
equals trust-based referrals.
I've seen this in one of mycommunities.
There is a woman in there whodoes sales training.
And anytime somebody asks aquestion about sales, multiple

(05:27):
people are tagging her in that.
Like, you need to talk to thisperson, you need to talk to this
person.
That is such a great example ofwhat happens when people
understand your positioning.
It's automatic, multiple peopleare tagging her when anyone asks
that question.
And here's the reason why theydo that.
She is the first person toanswer questions related to her

(05:51):
expertise.
She probably sets keyword alertsso she can be there as fast as
possible.
She speaks in these communities.
So she's an expert speaker whocomes in and does master classes
and trainings for thosecommunities.
So she is showing up regularly.
She's showing her expertise andshe is building trust with that

(06:12):
community.
So when people have thatquestion, of course they're
going to tag her.
The biggest missed opportunityyou can have is when you're a
lurker or you wait for theperfect moment or perfect
question to answer.
What actually builds referralson repeat is equity.
So answering questions beforeyou're asked, you just answer

(06:36):
them because you have thosekeyword alerts in your Slack
community and you're the firstperson to see that that question
was asked.
Showing up consistently andbeing really narrow in your
lane.
So pick that thing that you arean expert at and make sure that
you are repeatedly adding valuewithin that community about that

(06:56):
topic.
And you want speed overperfection.
The first person who answersthat question is most likely the
first person to get a responseor get a call based off of the
answer.
So be as fast as possible.
That's why I love keywordalerts.
So I'm the first person toanswer questions.
And let's reframe contributiontoo.

(07:18):
You're not giving away freeadvice.
So many people are like, oh, Idon't want to give it all away.
I hear that time and time again.
I don't want to give it allaway.
But you are not.
You are just adding value,building trust, and building
your reputation as an expert.
So don't worry about that.
You're teaching people when tothink of you.

(07:40):
Think of it that way.
Let's just adjust our thinkingon it.
Next, I want you to have asignature talk.
So talks are a shortcut to trustand scale referrals.
So if you are finding, and youshould, if you're part of my
world, you should know thisalready.

(08:00):
If you're finding nichecommunities where your ideal
clients are hanging out, have asignature talk and pitch the
community leader to see if theywould be interested in having
you as a speaker.
Try and do this quarterly, whereyou can every three months or so
put on a talk that will helpyour community.

(08:23):
This gives you exposure to theentire community because they're
marketing it and promoting it tothe entire community.
It gives you a captive audienceof your specific ICP listening
to the solution to the problemthat you solve.
And people will startautomatically thinking of you
when someone has the problemthat you solve.

(08:44):
So a signature talk is one clearproblem, one clear audience, and
one clear outcome.
By the end of that signaturetalk, they should have
accomplished something, whetherit is an understanding of their
problem or solving one specificthing.
Like by the end of this talk,you'll be able to have your

(09:07):
one-liner nailed, something likethat.
Talks work really well forreferrals because you have a
built-in audience when you aredoing a talk for a niche
community.
You're getting borrowed trusttoo, because people who are in
that community already trustthat community.
So you get an automatic gimme onthe trust.

(09:32):
And last, it's easy for peopleto explain you to others because
they have seen you multipletimes.
You're answering questions inthat community.
You are a go-to resource.
You are speaking in thatcommunity.
So you become an automaticthought when someone hears that
someone has the problem that yousolve.

(09:52):
And don't be afraid to pitch.
So you can pitch imperfectly,and it's perfectly fine.
You don't need to have abeautiful sales deck or a
slideshow.
You don't need any of that.
You don't need to be superpolished.
You need to have a clearpromise, and that's all.

(10:12):
That's what sells it.
By the end of this talk, youwill be able to X.
That clear promise is what willsell it to those community
leaders.
So think about your positioninglike this.
I teach X how to solve Y so thatthey can achieve Z.
You are explaining what you do,who you do it for, and how you

(10:35):
do it.
The last thing that I want youto do to start bringing in
referrals on repeat is to setquarterly calls with your
referral partners.
Now, these can be superinformal.
I literally just set a boomerangevery three months.
So I remember to ping them andsee if they want to hop on a
catch up call for like 15, 20minutes.

(10:57):
The idea is to maintain thatrelationship and you do it
within a system.
Every three months, I'm having aconversation with people who
have referred me within the lastyear.
And it's not to automaticallybring in new referrals, although
that would be nice.
It's to remind them what you do,who you do it for, and how you

(11:20):
do it.
So they can continue sendingreferrals your way.
And obviously, it goes bothways.
So you need to understand whatthey are doing?
Has anything changed?
Who do they do it for?
How do they do it?
So you can bring them referralstoo.
So don't assume that yourreferral partners are going to

(11:42):
remember you forever.
Building relationships andmaintaining relationships takes
time.
And that's just something thatyou have to do.
You don't want them to be salescalls.
You want them to be more of analignment call and a catch up.
So you are just going toreiterate like what it is that

(12:04):
you do and who do you serve andlearn about the same from them
and ask them, what do you need?
Come prepared with an ask and agive.
What are you looking for rightnow?
Are you looking for newcommunities, new speaking
engagements, new clients?
Ask them what they are lookingfor too and be prepared.
What can you offer them so youcan present that to them on the

(12:28):
call?
So keep it, keep it tight, keepit less than 30 minutes.
And you want to be able to coverwho you're best positioned to
serve right now, what to listenfor in those conversations, and
any shifts in your offer orfocus from the last time you
guys talked.

(12:49):
Quarterly beats annually,because you want to be able to
be consistent, make sure thatyou are on their mind and that
you maintain that familiaritywith that person because it
breeds more referrals.
By pulling all of these thingstogether, you become the obvious
choice for referrals.
So let's just reiterateeverything that we just talked

(13:12):
about.
You want clear positioning,visible expertise, scalable
trust, maintained relationships,and you don't need more people
necessarily involved in that.
You don't need to have a hugenetwork.
You don't need to necessarilyadd additional niche communities

(13:35):
or referral partners.
Your existing might be perfectlyfine.
You might just need a bettersystem if your referrals are
drying up.
So let's say you need fewerpeople to send those referrals,
but you need them to knowexactly what it is that you do
and when they should say yourname, I guess is my point.

(13:58):
Okay.
So this month I am hostingreferrals on repeat workshop.
And if you're listening to thisright now and you're thinking,
okay, but I want this systembuilt for me, then you want to
join me for that workshop.
It's hands-on, it's practical.
There's no fluff.

(14:19):
And right now there's early birdpricing.
It is only$37 for a limitedtime.
And you will walk away knowingexactly how to clarify your
referral positioning, how toactivate or reactivate in the
right places, and how to createa referral system that compounds
over time.

(14:40):
So in my LinkedIn bio, you mightnotice that I say something
like, referrals are great, but asystem is better.
Systems can be built forreferrals.
So many people in the B2B spacerely on referrals, but don't
have a system around that.
This workshop builds thatsystem.

(15:00):
So if your referrals are dryingup, this will reactivate them.
So if referrals feel randomright now, this is how we're
going to make them morepredictable.
I love a system.
So head to the show notes andsign up for that workshop.
You won't want to miss it.
You will also, if you can'tattend live, you can catch the

(15:24):
replay.
Your ticket includes the repay.
So we're good there.
Thank you so much for joining metoday.
I hope you enjoyed my soloepisode.
I think it's only my second ofthe year.
And I hope to see you at theworkshop.
It'll be live.
Me, you, and whoever else iscoming.
And by the end of it, you'regonna have a system to be able

(15:47):
to get those referrals onrepeat, which is pretty damn
good.
If this episode made things feela little more doable, I'd love
to help you take the next stepwith the booked out blueprint.
It's a practical, low pressuresession to clarify your offers,
your marketing, and whatactually moves the needle.
You can book yours through thelink in the show notes.
You don't have to figure it outalone.