October 27, 2025 • 33 mins
B.D. interviews Stacey Brown Randall, who he likes to call the referral ninja.
Feeling stuck when it comes to referrals? Want to finally unlock the secret to consistent, high-quality business growth—WITHOUT having to awkwardly ask or pay for leads? The “Referral Ninja” herself, Stacy, just dropped ALL the gold on our latest episode of Grow, Sell and Retire!
Tune in as Stacy shares: 🌱 Her proven strategies for building a REFERRABLE client experience (it’s NOT just about doing great work!) 💡 The real KPIs you MUST track to know if you’re missing out (and how to skyrocket your ROI) 💌 Creative ways to wow clients that actually turn them into referral machines 🧠 The #1 mistake that’s leaving referrals and $$$ on the table… and HOW to fix it 🔥
Plus: What makes her technique binge-worthy for ANY business owner!If you’re tired of outdated, awkward referral tactics and want actionable, genuine ways to create lasting growth, THIS is the episode you can’t afford to miss.
Website:
Her main website, which features both her books and more about her methodologies, is:
https://www.stacybrownrandall.comBook – The Referable Client Experience:
More details and purchasing options for her latest book can be found here:
https://www.referableclientexperience.comLinkedIn:
You can connect with Stacy directly on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacybrownrandall
Feeling stuck when it comes to referrals? Want to finally unlock the secret to consistent, high-quality business growth—WITHOUT having to awkwardly ask or pay for leads? The “Referral Ninja” herself, Stacy, just dropped ALL the gold on our latest episode of Grow, Sell and Retire!
Tune in as Stacy shares: 🌱 Her proven strategies for building a REFERRABLE client experience (it’s NOT just about doing great work!) 💡 The real KPIs you MUST track to know if you’re missing out (and how to skyrocket your ROI) 💌 Creative ways to wow clients that actually turn them into referral machines 🧠 The #1 mistake that’s leaving referrals and $$$ on the table… and HOW to fix it 🔥
Plus: What makes her technique binge-worthy for ANY business owner!If you’re tired of outdated, awkward referral tactics and want actionable, genuine ways to create lasting growth, THIS is the episode you can’t afford to miss.
Website:
Her main website, which features both her books and more about her methodologies, is:
https://www.stacybrownrandall.comBook – The Referable Client Experience:
More details and purchasing options for her latest book can be found here:
https://www.referableclientexperience.comLinkedIn:
You can connect with Stacy directly on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacybrownrandall
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Grow, Sell and Retire is the podcast for the lazy overachiever.
Bead Dalton, author of the assistant Purchase, True Gravity and Grow,
Sell and Retire, is here to give his twenty five
years of secrets, tips and assistants to take your business
to the next level. This podcast is for anyone who
wants to sell more, work less and make better business.
(00:24):
Now here's your host, Bead with today's GSR podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hey, everybody, Beaty Dalton here Grows, Sell and Retire podcast.
Have the referral ninja here on the show with me.
We talk about it. I love that because stealthy and
getting referrals and things like that. Back on the show again,
we've got Stacy Brown Randall and we're going to talk
about your new book. But we're in hard times right now.
(00:50):
I mean, it depends on how you view it, but
people are talking about all sorts of processions and all
things like that, So referrals are definitely something that needs
to be top of mind in people's things. So Stacy
tell us a little bit about your background and about
your new book, and then we'll go into some questions
and talk about how people can actually work referrals back
into their business.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting that I think the kind
of the setup for that question is really important because
you know, I always remind people that referrals are evergreen.
You want referrals whether you're in a great economy or
a down economy, or a global pandemic or a political unrest. Like,
referrals should always be a part of how you grow
your business. Doesn't have to be the biggest part, or
(01:33):
it can be the biggest part, but regardless of how
you choose to look at it, it needs to be
a part of how you generate business because most of
the time, some of your best clients are going to
come that way, and then of course they come the
easiest way as well when they are referred to you.
So it's just an important thing for people to pay
attention to, regardless of what's happening in the world in
the economy and where you know, your area of where
(01:54):
you live in the world as well. So it's crazy
to think I have been teaching my client it's all
around the globe my referral strategies now for over a decade.
We hit twelve years this year, So that's kind of
crazy to think about, and I can't believe it took
so long to get my second book out after my
first book. So, but you know, I work with small
(02:16):
business owners, mostly in the professional services industries and within
the creative industries. When it's you know, your clients have
to trust you to decide to work with you, and
you build relationships with them, and working with you is
no small investment, so to speak, whether that's of their trust,
of their time and their energy, or the money. And
I show you how to make sure that you have
(02:38):
the right relationships in place, and you understand the science
behind referrals to be able to generate referrals without asking
When did.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
You figure out that you were actually good at this?
What was what was your kind of light bulb moment
that said, you know what, I'm actually pretty darn good
at this. I got I got fifty out without asking
I do. What was the thing that made you say, actually,
I'm not just good at sales, I'm good at on
saling and getting other people to buy into me and
my pusiness.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
That's such a great question. So it's funny, as with
most things in my life. So maybe some other people
are better at this than I am, but I'm really
good upon reflection. I don't always see things in the
moment when they're happening. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.
And so this was the case with the referral piece.
I noticed, like I was seven months into my business
and I was like, oh wow, I just surpassed my
(03:26):
corporate salary. And I was like, Okay, this is amazing, right,
Like it felt like, oh, I'm going to make it
this time, because you know, my first business was a
business failure after four years. So with my second business,
I'd be like, oh my god, I passed my corporate salary.
This is amazing. And then I was actually looking back
after my first year in business, like I teach my
clients to do to this day, where did your business
come from? Look back over the last year, where did
(03:48):
your clients come from? And I started paying attention to
you know, back then, I was just doing it for myself,
and I was like, oh my gosh, I got one
hundred and twelve referrals my first year in business that
I didn't ask for and didn't know it while was happening,
I just knew I was growing more easily, and I
knew I was growing faster, and I was like, something's different.
And then I realized, oh, I'm getting these referrals and
(04:08):
I'm not doing anything. I don't like to receive them.
I'm not asking, i'm not paying for them, I'm not
being gimmicky and promotional. I've been able to pull back
on a lot of the networking that I was doing,
so I started paying attention to that and I was like, wow,
look at this one hundred and twelve referrals first year
in business. And that's when I started realizing that I
may be getting referrals differently than most people.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So recap your first book. We'll move into your second book.
But recap your first book and think. So we'll come
into your second book saying, okay, I left something on
the table here. So my first book was this, and
I'm good, but guess what there's more. So your first
book is kind of recap it and what made you
write the second book? So let's go to the first
(04:51):
book first.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting people ask that question and
they're like, because people will get my book and they'll
be like, Okay, I read your book. I got it all.
I'm like, oh well no, wait, no you don't. You
don't have it all. What's crazy? That people. One thing
that people don't understand about how sometimes when they're new
to me, is that I teach referrals like an ecosystem.
It lives. Referrals lives in so many areas of your business,
(05:14):
and you need to have strategies. Sometimes it's strategies and plans.
Sometimes it's just processes that operate in the background, and
sometimes it's just situational things where you know what to
say when something happens. And so I teach referrals from
an ecosystem perspective, which means for my clients, I'm teaching
actually twenty different strategies. And so the first book is
actually only dedicated to one of those strategies. Now it's
(05:37):
part of my foundational strategies, as is book two. Right,
both of my books are dedicated to two of my
three foundational strategies. And one of those foundational strategies is, Hey,
you're already getting referrals now? Are you already getting referrals?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Now?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
You're getting them from people. Do you know what it
would look like to cultivate them better so that you
can get more referrals from them? And so the first
book focuses on existing referrals and what you do to
get more referrals from people already referring you. The second book,
of course, because it's in the title for this one.
I get better at this stuff as you go along, right,
you just get wiser exactly how to title things. This
(06:11):
second book is based on another group of people who
can refer you, which are your clients. So first group,
first book, people who are already referring you, which could
be clients, but also it's probably centers of influence as well.
Second book is just dedicated to actually making sure you
are referrable and then how do you bridge the gap
to referrals from your clients? Now the third foundational strategy,
(06:34):
So the third out of three of our foundational strategies
is how do you get new people to start referring you?
So those are the foundational strategies I have been teaching
my clients for over a decade. But the third strategy,
new people Referring You is not yet out in book form,
and it'll be a while because this process takes a while.
From that respective, yeah, but after these three, like I
(06:56):
always tell folks, I'm like, these are the plans, right,
These are strategies that break down into plans that you
put into place and you run them year after year
after year. I tell my clients you should be learning
them and then wash like, let's wash runs repeat, because
these are the strategies that you always want running to
generate referrals. Everything else that comes from out all the
(07:17):
situational and next level strategies that I teach, then we're
dealing about like refinement or making sure're making improvements. So
it's making sure that when you get word of mouth
buzz you know that what you're supposed to say right
to flip that into a referral or looking at quality
or looking at conversion. Are you closing enough of your
referral sources? Do you know what to say in social
(07:37):
media from a referral perspective? Like, there's so many. I mean,
the rest of the twenty strategies outside of these three
are made up of situational and specific things needed in
terms of taking you to the next level. So it's
it's interesting when people say, Okay, wait, did you leave
stuff out of the book? I'm like out of the
first book, I'm like, yes, so much because it was
only targeted to one strategy. And of course the second
(08:00):
book is targeted to a different strategy.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
So if we're sitting back and we're looking at our business, now,
what are some KPIs. What are some numbers that we
need to be looking at, not just missus Smith referred
me missus Johnson. So what are some numbers that if
we just sat back and they pulled their business apart
and looked at their last one hundred days last year
or whatever else it is, what are some KPIs that
(08:22):
they should be looking at to say, actually, I'm actually
okay at this, or I suck at this, or you know,
how do we start?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, oh, I love the numbers questions.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I know.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Data diving is not sexy. It's not fun. Tracking is
not fun either, but man, when you do it right,
when you do it, it tells you so much about
your business. It is so so very important. So and
my clients know this. We have a massive spreadsheet, like
there's nothing fancy about it. It is just a spreadsheet. But
we track everything because that's how we know what's working
and we know where things aren't working, so that we
(08:55):
know what other strategies or tactics to deploy to fix things.
So here's a couple of the metric The KPIs that
I always tell folks they should be tracking. Number one,
you should know the average number of referrals you receive
in a year. Now, you probably won't know your average
number of referrals unless you actually go back and look, like, Okay,
(09:15):
how many referrals did I receive in twenty twenty two?
How many did I get in twenty twenty three? How
many did I get in twenty twenty four? Because we
like to look at full years so we don't throw
off our averages. If you've been in business that long, right,
you should be able to pull this is how many
referrals I received each of these three years, and then
you should be able to come up with an average
when I work with a client. That's my baseline. I'm like, okay,
(09:36):
so let's just say BD for sake of argument. You've
got twenty referrals one year, and then the next year
you got twenty five, and the next year you got thirty.
I'm going to keep this really math easy because me
doing public math means I'll make a mistake. So I
got twenty twenty five and thirty, right, So if we
got one year, we got twenty one year, we got thirty.
Another you got twenty five. That averages out to twenty
five referrals on average in a year. That is your
(09:57):
baseline metric. Everybody should know that number. Now when people
start working with me, I have to have that number
because then I use a formula to dictate, Okay, this
is where you are. Now, let's pay attention to where
we're going, like, here's how we're going to get your
growth and get your ROI when you work with me.
So that number is really important. The next number of
people have to know is the who do you like?
How many people right now are actively referring you? And
(10:20):
to us, we consider an active referral source. It means
they've referred you at least once in the last two years.
So someone referred you in twenty twenty four but hasn't
yet in twenty twenty five. That doesn't mean they won't, right,
So then we're looking at how many people are actively
or or active referral sources. So they've referred in the
past two years at least once, hopefully they've referred multiple.
(10:42):
That number of people like how many people are referring
you is really important in terms of where we can
go from a projection of growth with your referrals. But
if we can dig in a little bit more, there's
a few other KPIs or metrics that I always like
to pay attention to with my clients, and that is
one you know who's referring you and how often they're
(11:02):
referring you, then we can pay attention to. Okay, so
this is the number of referrals you received in a year.
What's your closing ratio with referrals? Do you get one
hundred referrals in a year, but you only close twenty
of them into clients. That's a red flag for me.
I'm gonna be like, wait a minute, we have a
closing issue. Maybe it's a quality issue so it's like
what you're receiving, or maybe it's a U issue because
(11:23):
you don't know how to close the right way or
referred prospect like. But we can solve both those problems.
So I'm going to look at your closing ratio of
referrals overall. Then we're going to dig in and say, Okay,
let's see what your closing ratio is by individual referral source,
by the individual humans that refer to you. What's your
individual closing ratio last year, you get five referrals from Ellen,
(11:44):
but you close none of them. Something's going on there, right,
probably need to solve something in that referral source relationship.
But you got you know, three referrals from Bob and
you close them all and they're all your ideal client.
So then we start paying attention to closing ratio by
the individual referral source referring to you as well. That
tells us how we can solve some additional problems and
(12:04):
kind of look at some other things going on. So
really important metrics, but they all you can't tell me
any of these KPIs until you're tracking it correctly.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
That's cool. Okay, Now I want to move into this
because this last time we took like thirty six minutes,
which is a long podcast for me, so we had
a lot of time. So let's talk about the client
experience we have ours. We call it a wow client experience,
you know, kind of want them to say wow, but
then then go talk to people about us. But so
tell us about client experience ux UI whatever you want
(12:36):
to call it, and how people are supposed to treat
their clients and how do they make them feel through
a good process.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, So here's the thing I always tell folks is
that your client experience is defined by how your clients feel. Right,
is the emotional reaction they have. It is how they
feel while they are working with you. And so what
you just said when you said, oh, we want our
clients to be like wow, Right, that's a descriptor, that's
an adjective, that's an emotion you want your clients to
(13:05):
have when they work with you. Most clients leave that
up I mean most business owners leave that up to chance.
They just are like, we hope they love it, like
we do our best, Like we're trying to do our
best work. Here, we're doing like and most people think
that they're amazing because they do great work. And that
is only one part of the referrable client experience equation.
The other part of the formula is do great work, yes,
but also build relationships. And you have to have both
(13:27):
pieces to be able to bridge the gap to referrals.
But the other thing is is that understanding like wow
is a reaction you want from your clients. Being very
intentional with what you want their reactions to be is important.
We actually walk people through this in chapter three of
the book, where I say, this is the exercise I
teach my clients on how to come up with your
(13:47):
ideal reactions? Like what do you want your the ideal
reactions you want your clients to have, Like there's a
process to figure that out so that you and you
may come down with just one, you may have two
or three. I tell people, don't have like five or six,
like it's just too many. But like, what do you
want your clients to react with? And a lot of
that has to do with what you do for them. Right,
a personal injury attorney is going to evoke different emotions
(14:09):
and want to evoke different emotions than like the financial advisor. Right,
it's just different. So you have to be considered a
this This is not like, oh, all financial advisors are all,
you know, architects, they should want to evoke these five emotions.
Like that's not how it works. It's based on you
and your business.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
So when you're when you're teaching people this, what are
some elements of a client experience that get them from
either you know, starting off with the writing the check
or thinking about writing a check to ooh wow, uh,
peace of mind whatever whatever that end goal is. How
do we how do you. What are some of the
(14:47):
steps that you suggest that we take people on a
journey to get them to refer without having to ask
them and beg them for it.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yeah, so there's two parts here, right. So the first
thing is is how do we get them to feel
the way we want them to feel? And then how
do we bridge the gap to referrals? Feeling the way
you want me to feel will not necessarily equal me
then referring you. So there's something else we have to
do from that perspective. But I'm not going to refer
you if I don't have that feeling. So the feeling matters.
The emotions that you are evoking for me matter. And
(15:18):
the number one thing that people need to pay attention
to in their client experience is your client has and
most clients that work with you collectively go through certain
emotional states when they're new, right when they first start
working with you and they're in the new client stage.
Then they have different emotional states when they are in
the active client stage, and then they have different emotional
(15:39):
states when they exit that active stage. If your clients
end working with you and move to alumni, you need
to be able to see them where they are with
what they are actually experiencing. And so when I talk
about the work you do matters, the work touch points matter.
But the second part of the formula is the relationship building.
This is where we spend all our time seeing our
(15:59):
client right. And it could be the handwritten note that
you write at the very beginning of a client engagement
that sees them, that understands you. Maybe having buyers remorse,
and you're definitely thinking things you're not telling to me,
which I call the quiet voice. There's things running through
your head, you're just not saying them to me. And
so it's recognizing where your clients are and then showing
up in a way that makes them feel seen and
(16:21):
makes them confident in you and makes them feel cared for.
And so it looks different in different businesses between the
new act of and alumni stage, but that is the
number one thing people can do is being really really
intentional about what are our relationship building touch points through
those three stages.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So, what are some things you just said a great thing?
Handwritten notes? Nobody gets those anymore unless somebody's really concentrating
on building a good client experience. What are a couple
of other things that are not EMAILI that are not
what people considered maybe cheesy, But what are some other
things that are build trust and build that next stage
(16:59):
to get people to believe that you're more than just
a paycheck to me.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, so here's the thing that I would here's a
couple of ideas. So one of the things I always
tell folks is that if what when someone exits the
new client stage and they enter the active stage, you're
probably doing all the work behind the scenes, and so
you're probably lolled into what we call the lull of
complacency because you're back here doing all the work, but
the client doesn't see it. And so it's recognizing that, right.
And so if your client enters into what I call
(17:25):
the waiting game, where they're like, now the active stage,
you're doing all the work waiting for things to happen, right,
you need to be able to meet them where they
are in terms of acknowledging that they're in the waiting game, right.
And so that's really really important to kind of remember
and to pay attention to, is like, Hey, if our
clients have entered the waiting game, what does that look
like for other And that may not be for every
business but for other businesses and other idea is to
(17:47):
pay attention to if there is something that you're delivering
at the end. Right, So you're a graphic designer and
you just built the website and you're delivering and handing
over the keys to the website to your client, and
you just built in this wonderful website. Celebrate that, right,
celebrating that moment, and not just with the confetti email
that throws some fake confetti on my computer screen, but
maybe having something that shows up in the mail that's like, hey,
(18:09):
celebrate with us. We're about to unveil your brand new
website with you. We can't wait, right. So it's that
idea of if your clients enter the waiting game, what
does that look like? How do you show up if
there is a celebratory aspect of what you do, celebrate
with them and understand what that looks like. And there's
other things to consider, like sometimes when we work with
our clients, we have early wins, so like we have
(18:30):
the thing rafter, but then we have the great things
that happen early. Like when clients have early wins, you
should know the work you're doing is delivering that. But
how are you celebrating that with them. How are you
showing up from a relationship side when those things are happening.
And these are all things you just have to decide
what they're going to be so that you execute on
them when they happen, because if you're just doing it
(18:51):
on the fly, you'll never do it. You'll just get
too busy. It's like, when we deliver the website to
our client, then we do XYZ, or right before we
schedule the meeting with our client to show them the website,
we're going to mail out the celebratory box right or
when the client interests week four of the waiting game,
we're going to show up in this way. It's things
like that. You've got to know when they're happening, and
(19:12):
you've got to be considerate about being very intentional about hey,
it's an if. Then if our client is at this point,
then this thing happens. Because the work's always going to happen.
It happens almost automatically, even if you're doing it manually.
You have to make the relationship building touch points just
as automatic as your work touch points for this really
(19:33):
to work.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So now we've gotten them to wow, we've delivered we've
put this thing there. So now how you said if
there's the next stage, what's that next stage of Okay,
now you've got this amazing, amazing website for me, Stacy,
and you've done this anybody else? You know that old chestnut?
How do we get and not do that?
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Yeah, So when clients move from that active stage, if
they're done working with you, then they're going to move
to the alumni stage. But here's what people miss. They
feel like, when I've delivered this great thing, then there's
that potential for you to be like, this is amazing.
Let me go tell all my friends. That's not actually
how it works, right. The truth is the ability to
refer to you is going to happen in three different
(20:16):
ways from that new stage all the way through and
continue on while your client stays in the alumni phase.
And so as you're thinking about the new stage, active, phage,
alumni stage, you have opportunities between all three of those
stages to generate referrals, not just when the work is done.
The three things you have to pay attention to is
number one. It's sometimes it's just the right people. This
(20:37):
is the one I don't teach strategies around because you
don't know who the right people are until they reveal themselves.
And if someone refers you, it's typically and they're the
right person, they're going to do it early right going
to It's like one of those people that they make
a decision to invest in something and then they have
to tell other people because they're so excited. Right, so
what is the right people? Acknowledging it when it happens,
and having a plan in place for how you're going
(20:58):
to take care of them so they taken care of
to refer more and using the right language and things
like that. The second one, though every business can put
into place if you don't have the right people. The
next one is what we call referral hot zones. And
there's an entire chapter in the book on helping people
identify Do you have referral hot zones? And you may
not be completely sure. We walk you through how to
(21:19):
identify them based on data, not based on what you
want it to be or what's easy for you, but
based on data. When are your clients referring you other clients,
other potential clients, and really looking at those hot zones.
And then we talk about like the four hot zones
that actually exist, like generally for most businesses, though not
all if you're like really struggling to come up with
(21:40):
your own. But it's looking at those referral hot zones
and knowing that it's not just the work you're doing,
it's the relationship you're building. And then it's the language
that you're using in those moments. And that really is
what I tell everybody, like, that's my secret sauce. Right
when I go one day in the future to sell
my business, that's my intellectual property that people are going
to be like, oh, it's the formula, it's the languge,
but it's the when you say things. It's the how
(22:01):
you say things, right, So it's understanding in these referral
hot zones that that is ultimately like, oh, this is happening,
This is an opportunity. It doesn't mean when we do
it that client will refer but if we do it
for all of our clients, it's shown that this area
has more likely to generate referrals. Then we're going to
put in not only a relationship building touch point, but
(22:21):
allow us to use the right language in that moment
as well. I'll give you an I know people are
like what's an example. Let me come back to it.
Just don't let me forget it, med and I'll circle
back to an actual example people can use. But the
third one for referrals is understanding right moments. Sometimes you're
in the right referral moment and a client just says
something and you want to make sure that you are
meeting them where they are right there, you know, like,
(22:43):
oh my gosh, all my friends need this right that
kind of moment. Like it's understanding that language piece of
what I teach to my clients of like what do
we say in that moment? Or you know, sometimes you'll
hear that, oh this is so great. I got to
keep you a secret. That is not helpful. Keeping any
business a secret is not helpful, right, So, like I
teach my clients like how do you overcome that? So
you can start planning referral seeds. But planting a single
(23:05):
referral seed does not mean a referral will come from
it in that moment. It means we're planting a seed.
And we have to do this continuously throughout the client
experience and into the alumni stage so that if they
are more likely to come across opportunities to refer it
will actually happen for you. So it's about building the
right experience and then knowing that we're kind of seeding
(23:26):
the idea of referrals throughout it. But let me get
back to like a referral kind of like hot zone
kind of perspective for people to consider if you have
a client, and this also works for right moments, Right
for those right referral moments, if you have a client
that was referred to you, you should remind them of it.
You should not miss the opportunity to remind them of
(23:48):
that moment. And you should do that in the new
client stage at least once once in the active and
then a couple of times in the alumni client stage
because at that point there's no work being delivered, right,
So it's an opportunity when some one says yes to
working with you and they will referred to you'd be like, Hey, BD,
I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to work together.
This is going to be great. I cannot wait to
get started. And I'm really really thankful that Sam referred
(24:10):
you to me so that we have the opportunity to
work together. It's just that little piece of language, that
little reminder is a great opportunity to plan a referral seat.
And then you just you're not expecting a conversation. I'm
not expecting you in that moment to be like, oh yeah,
let me think of five other friends. Like, that's not
how this works. Patience is a virtue in this and
we're playing the long game because how we manage this
(24:33):
relationship matters so very much.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
So when you're looking at this and you've seen what
is kind of the number one mistake that people are
making right now, leaving referrals on the table.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Yeah, so it's not actually in their referral generation, it's
before they ever get to there. They are so after
the wow factor, they're like, Oh, to be referrable, I
got to have a wow factor, I got to do
something amazing that it's going to knock my client's socks off.
So the example always give us this, and it's because
they focus on the wow instead of solving what's actually
broken or what's not amazing. Right, And so when you
(25:10):
think about this, the example I love to give when
I walk into a Starbucks right now, Starbucks, they're writing
on the cups, right, have a great day, your awesome,
great job. I don't know if they're doing that everywhere,
but in the United States they are writing on our cups.
And my response is always I just paid six dollars
and fifty cents for this overpriced latte. Can you just
(25:30):
fill a cup to the top?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Can we start there? Can we start with the cup
being filled, and then you can tell me to have
a great day or I look awesome today, which, of
course you've written before I've ever even walked in the door,
so you have no idea, right, So like from that perspective, like,
that's go for the wow factor right on their cups
and give them a little note, let them feel good.
And I'm here sitting and go Can you just fix
the product, right? Can you just fix the process? Can
(25:54):
you fix that part of the client experience. Another example
is my husband and I go to a gym together
and one day we walked into the gym. There's a
big sign up that said sixty thousand dollars in investment
and new equipment. Like they were so proud, big banner up,
sixty thousand dollars in new equipment. I turned to my
husband and said, that's great, but I really just wish
they could fix the water temperature that comes out of
(26:15):
the water fountain, like I would just like it to
be cold and not lukewarm. Like, let's fix the baseline
stuff before we worry about the wow factor. And that
is a pitfall. That is a mistake I see businesses
make all the time, is that they're looking for the
wow and I'm like, yeah, but your clients are kind
of quietly grumbling about a couple other things, so let's
pay attention to that first.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah. My coach always called it the fresh eyes check
walking around and let somebody else have the fresh eyes,
not the one you and I walking around our business
every day and you're just like, oh, that's fine. That
that employee of the month thing on the wall from
fifteen years ago, that's still great and they don't work
here anymore, but there's still employee of the month, so
it's always fun like that. So if you were looking
(26:58):
at this and you said one thing, because I love
I love your thing is people are missing out on
double triple, quadruple returns or growth ROI on their business.
Why are people scared to get referrals? They're frightened. They're
frightened because are they frightening the process, or they're frightened
(27:20):
of getting turned down because somebody's going to tell them
that their process sucks. You know, what's the thing, Why
why don't people get more referrals?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Actually, this is something that breaks my heart. The reason
why business owners don't take a very concerted, intentional approach
to generating referrals is because for decades and decades and decades,
we've been taught that if we want them, there's like
one or two ways to get them. You got to
ask for them, or you got to pay a kickback
for them. And for I would say this is a
made up statistic, and I know it, but I know
(27:51):
I'm right. I would say, for like ninety seven percent
of us, we don't want to have to ask. It
makes us uncomfortable. We're not idiots. We can see that
it makes the person we're asking uncomfortable, and we don't
want to pay, right. We don't want our clients to
find out, hey, maybe you were only referred to me
because I paid the biggest commission check. Right. So there's
this aspect of what the strategies have been for decades
(28:12):
and decades, maybe even generations, of how you get referrals.
And that's because people who've been teaching referrals forever will
teach you that referrals belong in prospecting or marketing, maybe gimmicking,
promotional putting your email signature their greatest compliment you can
give me as a referral. If you have that in
your signature, you should take it out immediately, like today,
right as you're listening to this, go delete it. And
then the other thing is that it's in prospecting, so
(28:34):
you've got to ask right, or you've got to compensate,
or you get a network all the time. Referrals don't
belong in prospecting or marketing. They're the third leg to
your sales strategy. They need an entirely different process. And
once you understand that they are separate from the asking
and the paying and the being gimmicky, they're separate from
prospecting and marketing, and you look at them for what
they are and you build strategies and plans around that
(28:55):
that thing that changes everything. Then people are like, oh,
I can do that. I can take care of the
people who take care of my business. I can show
up and be memorable and meaningful to the people who
refer to me. Now I can say thank you, like
those are things that I can do. I think people
are scared that when I go about generating referrals to
keep it going, I'm going to have to do things
that are really not who I am. And I always
(29:17):
like to tell folks that's not true. But you have
to be willing to do work in a different way.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
If your business in your process was a Netflix series,
what makes your process in your coaching beneworthy.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yeah, So I always tell folks what I want you
to pay attention to is I think the whole concept
of Netflix dropping all the episodes at one time and
I can binge it makes episodes amazing, But that's never
how someone's client experience unfolds, right. What I want is
for you to be like that amazing, amazing show that
is on Apple or some other network where I get
(29:51):
one episode and then the next one says I have
to wait until the next week to get the second episode,
and I'm anticipating it. That's the kind of client experience
I want you to. I want you to build a
client experience where hey, we're going to do this, and
then coming up next is this, and it's like I'm
going to anticipate that. I'm going to look forward to that,
and then the next one, which is like the next episode,
and then the next one, and so the process builds
(30:11):
on itself. I think it's overwhelming as a business owner
to be like I got to be binge worthy, You
got to get everything in one second. Think about it
is like this show that you can't wait until the
next episode comes out next Wednesday or next Thursday. You
want your clients feeling the same way. You don't have
to deliver everything at once, but as you work through
that client experience of the work you do, in the
relationship you build, you just want to make sure that
(30:33):
you're impacting how they feel in a very different way,
and they're anticipating what comes next, and they want whatever
comes next awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
So here, where do we find out more about you?
And what is the actual name of the book? We've
talked about it multiple times, but just give us yeah,
and where do we find out more about you? I'll
put it in the show notes obviously, but where do we
find out more about you?
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah? So the book is the referable Client Experience and
you can find it on the book website at Referrable
Clientexperience dot com. Of course, my home base is Stacy
Brown Randall dot com. You can find both of my
books there. The title of the first book is Generating
Business Referrals Without Asking, so there's both titles. You can
check out the new book, The Referrable Client Experience on
(31:19):
the website or just go to my homepage Stacy Brown
Randall dot com and all the information is there as well.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Perfect Now, the rewind moment. So the rewind moment is
if somebody just listens to the last minute or two,
the thing You're going to give us this nugget, this
gold nugget of about referrals and get them to rewind
and come back and say, oh, I want to listen
to the whole episode. What's your rewind Leave it with
the moment so that they just say, actually, that last
(31:45):
minute was amazing. Stacy, tell us your rewind moment.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
That is some pressure, Beatie, like serious pressure.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Eerfinitely, it's always some pressure.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
It's all pressure. It's all pressure. So here's the thing
I want people to understand about the client experience. Doing
great work does not equal referrals. If it did, you'd
be drowning in referrals because more than likely you do
do great work. You have to understand how to bridge
the gap to referrals once you've built a referrable client experience.
(32:16):
This is not hard, this is not complicated, This is
not adding fifteen new things to your client experience. But
there is some intentional moments you need to take within
your client experience to be able to bridge the gap
to referrals and build relationships better with your clients in
a way that you can do for all clients and
still save time. And you just have to understand that,
and that is why it is worth for you to
(32:37):
go back and listen to this entire episode and of
course go grab my new book, The Referrable Client Experience.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
That's awesome, Stacy, thank you so much for coming on
the show. It was great to have you on again.
And hopefully what more people will go out and download
the book or read the book or however they're going
to however they consume their books. So thank you very much, Stacy.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Thanks my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Thanks for joining us on Grow, Sell and retire for
more information tools or to book one of our team
members to work with your team business or to speak
at your event or conference. Visit rockfind dot co dot uk.
If you like the podcast, you'll love one of Bade's
three books. The Assistant purchase True Gravity and the book.
The podcast is based on, Grow, Sell, and Retire. If
(33:24):
you want to work for the rest of your life,
that is your business. If you don't, that is ours.
Grow, Sell and Retire is the podcast for the lazy overachiever.
Bead Dalton, author of the assistant Purchase, True Gravity and Grow,
Sell and Retire, is here to give his twenty five
years of secrets, tips and assistants to take your business
to the next level. This podcast is for anyone who
wants to sell more, work less and make better business.
(00:24):
Now here's your host, Bead with today's GSR podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hey, everybody, Beaty Dalton here Grows, Sell and Retire podcast.
Have the referral ninja here on the show with me.
We talk about it. I love that because stealthy and
getting referrals and things like that. Back on the show again,
we've got Stacy Brown Randall and we're going to talk
about your new book. But we're in hard times right now.
(00:50):
I mean, it depends on how you view it, but
people are talking about all sorts of processions and all
things like that, So referrals are definitely something that needs
to be top of mind in people's things. So Stacy
tell us a little bit about your background and about
your new book, and then we'll go into some questions
and talk about how people can actually work referrals back
into their business.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting that I think the kind
of the setup for that question is really important because
you know, I always remind people that referrals are evergreen.
You want referrals whether you're in a great economy or
a down economy, or a global pandemic or a political unrest. Like,
referrals should always be a part of how you grow
your business. Doesn't have to be the biggest part, or
(01:33):
it can be the biggest part, but regardless of how
you choose to look at it, it needs to be
a part of how you generate business because most of
the time, some of your best clients are going to
come that way, and then of course they come the
easiest way as well when they are referred to you.
So it's just an important thing for people to pay
attention to, regardless of what's happening in the world in
the economy and where you know, your area of where
(01:54):
you live in the world as well. So it's crazy
to think I have been teaching my client it's all
around the globe my referral strategies now for over a decade.
We hit twelve years this year, So that's kind of
crazy to think about, and I can't believe it took
so long to get my second book out after my
first book. So, but you know, I work with small
(02:16):
business owners, mostly in the professional services industries and within
the creative industries. When it's you know, your clients have
to trust you to decide to work with you, and
you build relationships with them, and working with you is
no small investment, so to speak, whether that's of their trust,
of their time and their energy, or the money. And
I show you how to make sure that you have
(02:38):
the right relationships in place, and you understand the science
behind referrals to be able to generate referrals without asking
When did.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
You figure out that you were actually good at this?
What was what was your kind of light bulb moment
that said, you know what, I'm actually pretty darn good
at this. I got I got fifty out without asking
I do. What was the thing that made you say, actually,
I'm not just good at sales, I'm good at on
saling and getting other people to buy into me and
my pusiness.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
That's such a great question. So it's funny, as with
most things in my life. So maybe some other people
are better at this than I am, but I'm really
good upon reflection. I don't always see things in the
moment when they're happening. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.
And so this was the case with the referral piece.
I noticed, like I was seven months into my business
and I was like, oh wow, I just surpassed my
(03:26):
corporate salary. And I was like, Okay, this is amazing, right,
Like it felt like, oh, I'm going to make it
this time, because you know, my first business was a
business failure after four years. So with my second business,
I'd be like, oh my god, I passed my corporate salary.
This is amazing. And then I was actually looking back
after my first year in business, like I teach my
clients to do to this day, where did your business
come from? Look back over the last year, where did
(03:48):
your clients come from? And I started paying attention to
you know, back then, I was just doing it for myself,
and I was like, oh my gosh, I got one
hundred and twelve referrals my first year in business that
I didn't ask for and didn't know it while was happening,
I just knew I was growing more easily, and I
knew I was growing faster, and I was like, something's different.
And then I realized, oh, I'm getting these referrals and
(04:08):
I'm not doing anything. I don't like to receive them.
I'm not asking, i'm not paying for them, I'm not
being gimmicky and promotional. I've been able to pull back
on a lot of the networking that I was doing,
so I started paying attention to that and I was like, wow,
look at this one hundred and twelve referrals first year
in business. And that's when I started realizing that I
may be getting referrals differently than most people.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So recap your first book. We'll move into your second book.
But recap your first book and think. So we'll come
into your second book saying, okay, I left something on
the table here. So my first book was this, and
I'm good, but guess what there's more. So your first
book is kind of recap it and what made you
write the second book? So let's go to the first
(04:51):
book first.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting people ask that question and
they're like, because people will get my book and they'll
be like, Okay, I read your book. I got it all.
I'm like, oh well no, wait, no you don't. You
don't have it all. What's crazy? That people. One thing
that people don't understand about how sometimes when they're new
to me, is that I teach referrals like an ecosystem.
It lives. Referrals lives in so many areas of your business,
(05:14):
and you need to have strategies. Sometimes it's strategies and plans.
Sometimes it's just processes that operate in the background, and
sometimes it's just situational things where you know what to
say when something happens. And so I teach referrals from
an ecosystem perspective, which means for my clients, I'm teaching
actually twenty different strategies. And so the first book is
actually only dedicated to one of those strategies. Now it's
(05:37):
part of my foundational strategies, as is book two. Right,
both of my books are dedicated to two of my
three foundational strategies. And one of those foundational strategies is, Hey,
you're already getting referrals now? Are you already getting referrals?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Now?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
You're getting them from people. Do you know what it
would look like to cultivate them better so that you
can get more referrals from them? And so the first
book focuses on existing referrals and what you do to
get more referrals from people already referring you. The second book,
of course, because it's in the title for this one.
I get better at this stuff as you go along, right,
you just get wiser exactly how to title things. This
(06:11):
second book is based on another group of people who
can refer you, which are your clients. So first group,
first book, people who are already referring you, which could
be clients, but also it's probably centers of influence as well.
Second book is just dedicated to actually making sure you
are referrable and then how do you bridge the gap
to referrals from your clients? Now the third foundational strategy,
(06:34):
So the third out of three of our foundational strategies
is how do you get new people to start referring you?
So those are the foundational strategies I have been teaching
my clients for over a decade. But the third strategy,
new people Referring You is not yet out in book form,
and it'll be a while because this process takes a while.
From that respective, yeah, but after these three, like I
(06:56):
always tell folks, I'm like, these are the plans, right,
These are strategies that break down into plans that you
put into place and you run them year after year
after year. I tell my clients you should be learning
them and then wash like, let's wash runs repeat, because
these are the strategies that you always want running to
generate referrals. Everything else that comes from out all the
(07:17):
situational and next level strategies that I teach, then we're
dealing about like refinement or making sure're making improvements. So
it's making sure that when you get word of mouth
buzz you know that what you're supposed to say right
to flip that into a referral or looking at quality
or looking at conversion. Are you closing enough of your
referral sources? Do you know what to say in social
(07:37):
media from a referral perspective? Like, there's so many. I mean,
the rest of the twenty strategies outside of these three
are made up of situational and specific things needed in
terms of taking you to the next level. So it's
it's interesting when people say, Okay, wait, did you leave
stuff out of the book? I'm like out of the
first book, I'm like, yes, so much because it was
only targeted to one strategy. And of course the second
(08:00):
book is targeted to a different strategy.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
So if we're sitting back and we're looking at our business, now,
what are some KPIs. What are some numbers that we
need to be looking at, not just missus Smith referred
me missus Johnson. So what are some numbers that if
we just sat back and they pulled their business apart
and looked at their last one hundred days last year
or whatever else it is, what are some KPIs that
(08:22):
they should be looking at to say, actually, I'm actually
okay at this, or I suck at this, or you know,
how do we start?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, oh, I love the numbers questions.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I know.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Data diving is not sexy. It's not fun. Tracking is
not fun either, but man, when you do it right,
when you do it, it tells you so much about
your business. It is so so very important. So and
my clients know this. We have a massive spreadsheet, like
there's nothing fancy about it. It is just a spreadsheet. But
we track everything because that's how we know what's working
and we know where things aren't working, so that we
(08:55):
know what other strategies or tactics to deploy to fix things.
So here's a couple of the metric The KPIs that
I always tell folks they should be tracking. Number one,
you should know the average number of referrals you receive
in a year. Now, you probably won't know your average
number of referrals unless you actually go back and look, like, Okay,
(09:15):
how many referrals did I receive in twenty twenty two?
How many did I get in twenty twenty three? How
many did I get in twenty twenty four? Because we
like to look at full years so we don't throw
off our averages. If you've been in business that long, right,
you should be able to pull this is how many
referrals I received each of these three years, and then
you should be able to come up with an average
when I work with a client. That's my baseline. I'm like, okay,
(09:36):
so let's just say BD for sake of argument. You've
got twenty referrals one year, and then the next year
you got twenty five, and the next year you got thirty.
I'm going to keep this really math easy because me
doing public math means I'll make a mistake. So I
got twenty twenty five and thirty, right, So if we
got one year, we got twenty one year, we got thirty.
Another you got twenty five. That averages out to twenty
five referrals on average in a year. That is your
(09:57):
baseline metric. Everybody should know that number. Now when people
start working with me, I have to have that number
because then I use a formula to dictate, Okay, this
is where you are. Now, let's pay attention to where
we're going, like, here's how we're going to get your
growth and get your ROI when you work with me.
So that number is really important. The next number of
people have to know is the who do you like?
How many people right now are actively referring you? And
(10:20):
to us, we consider an active referral source. It means
they've referred you at least once in the last two years.
So someone referred you in twenty twenty four but hasn't
yet in twenty twenty five. That doesn't mean they won't, right,
So then we're looking at how many people are actively
or or active referral sources. So they've referred in the
past two years at least once, hopefully they've referred multiple.
(10:42):
That number of people like how many people are referring
you is really important in terms of where we can
go from a projection of growth with your referrals. But
if we can dig in a little bit more, there's
a few other KPIs or metrics that I always like
to pay attention to with my clients, and that is
one you know who's referring you and how often they're
(11:02):
referring you, then we can pay attention to. Okay, so
this is the number of referrals you received in a year.
What's your closing ratio with referrals? Do you get one
hundred referrals in a year, but you only close twenty
of them into clients. That's a red flag for me.
I'm gonna be like, wait a minute, we have a
closing issue. Maybe it's a quality issue so it's like
what you're receiving, or maybe it's a U issue because
(11:23):
you don't know how to close the right way or
referred prospect like. But we can solve both those problems.
So I'm going to look at your closing ratio of
referrals overall. Then we're going to dig in and say, Okay,
let's see what your closing ratio is by individual referral source,
by the individual humans that refer to you. What's your
individual closing ratio last year, you get five referrals from Ellen,
(11:44):
but you close none of them. Something's going on there, right,
probably need to solve something in that referral source relationship.
But you got you know, three referrals from Bob and
you close them all and they're all your ideal client.
So then we start paying attention to closing ratio by
the individual referral source referring to you as well. That
tells us how we can solve some additional problems and
(12:04):
kind of look at some other things going on. So
really important metrics, but they all you can't tell me
any of these KPIs until you're tracking it correctly.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
That's cool. Okay, Now I want to move into this
because this last time we took like thirty six minutes,
which is a long podcast for me, so we had
a lot of time. So let's talk about the client
experience we have ours. We call it a wow client experience,
you know, kind of want them to say wow, but
then then go talk to people about us. But so
tell us about client experience ux UI whatever you want
(12:36):
to call it, and how people are supposed to treat
their clients and how do they make them feel through
a good process.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, So here's the thing I always tell folks is
that your client experience is defined by how your clients feel. Right,
is the emotional reaction they have. It is how they
feel while they are working with you. And so what
you just said when you said, oh, we want our
clients to be like wow, Right, that's a descriptor, that's
an adjective, that's an emotion you want your clients to
(13:05):
have when they work with you. Most clients leave that
up I mean most business owners leave that up to chance.
They just are like, we hope they love it, like
we do our best, Like we're trying to do our
best work. Here, we're doing like and most people think
that they're amazing because they do great work. And that
is only one part of the referrable client experience equation.
The other part of the formula is do great work, yes,
but also build relationships. And you have to have both
(13:27):
pieces to be able to bridge the gap to referrals.
But the other thing is is that understanding like wow
is a reaction you want from your clients. Being very
intentional with what you want their reactions to be is important.
We actually walk people through this in chapter three of
the book, where I say, this is the exercise I
teach my clients on how to come up with your
(13:47):
ideal reactions? Like what do you want your the ideal
reactions you want your clients to have, Like there's a
process to figure that out so that you and you
may come down with just one, you may have two
or three. I tell people, don't have like five or six,
like it's just too many. But like, what do you
want your clients to react with? And a lot of
that has to do with what you do for them. Right,
a personal injury attorney is going to evoke different emotions
(14:09):
and want to evoke different emotions than like the financial advisor. Right,
it's just different. So you have to be considered a
this This is not like, oh, all financial advisors are all,
you know, architects, they should want to evoke these five emotions.
Like that's not how it works. It's based on you
and your business.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
So when you're when you're teaching people this, what are
some elements of a client experience that get them from
either you know, starting off with the writing the check
or thinking about writing a check to ooh wow, uh,
peace of mind whatever whatever that end goal is. How
do we how do you. What are some of the
(14:47):
steps that you suggest that we take people on a
journey to get them to refer without having to ask
them and beg them for it.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yeah, so there's two parts here, right. So the first
thing is is how do we get them to feel
the way we want them to feel? And then how
do we bridge the gap to referrals? Feeling the way
you want me to feel will not necessarily equal me
then referring you. So there's something else we have to
do from that perspective. But I'm not going to refer
you if I don't have that feeling. So the feeling matters.
The emotions that you are evoking for me matter. And
(15:18):
the number one thing that people need to pay attention
to in their client experience is your client has and
most clients that work with you collectively go through certain
emotional states when they're new, right when they first start
working with you and they're in the new client stage.
Then they have different emotional states when they are in
the active client stage, and then they have different emotional
(15:39):
states when they exit that active stage. If your clients
end working with you and move to alumni, you need
to be able to see them where they are with
what they are actually experiencing. And so when I talk
about the work you do matters, the work touch points matter.
But the second part of the formula is the relationship building.
This is where we spend all our time seeing our
(15:59):
client right. And it could be the handwritten note that
you write at the very beginning of a client engagement
that sees them, that understands you. Maybe having buyers remorse,
and you're definitely thinking things you're not telling to me,
which I call the quiet voice. There's things running through
your head, you're just not saying them to me. And
so it's recognizing where your clients are and then showing
up in a way that makes them feel seen and
(16:21):
makes them confident in you and makes them feel cared for.
And so it looks different in different businesses between the
new act of and alumni stage, but that is the
number one thing people can do is being really really
intentional about what are our relationship building touch points through
those three stages.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So, what are some things you just said a great thing?
Handwritten notes? Nobody gets those anymore unless somebody's really concentrating
on building a good client experience. What are a couple
of other things that are not EMAILI that are not
what people considered maybe cheesy, But what are some other
things that are build trust and build that next stage
(16:59):
to get people to believe that you're more than just
a paycheck to me.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, so here's the thing that I would here's a
couple of ideas. So one of the things I always
tell folks is that if what when someone exits the
new client stage and they enter the active stage, you're
probably doing all the work behind the scenes, and so
you're probably lolled into what we call the lull of
complacency because you're back here doing all the work, but
the client doesn't see it. And so it's recognizing that, right.
And so if your client enters into what I call
(17:25):
the waiting game, where they're like, now the active stage,
you're doing all the work waiting for things to happen, right,
you need to be able to meet them where they
are in terms of acknowledging that they're in the waiting game, right.
And so that's really really important to kind of remember
and to pay attention to, is like, Hey, if our
clients have entered the waiting game, what does that look
like for other And that may not be for every
business but for other businesses and other idea is to
(17:47):
pay attention to if there is something that you're delivering
at the end. Right, So you're a graphic designer and
you just built the website and you're delivering and handing
over the keys to the website to your client, and
you just built in this wonderful website. Celebrate that, right,
celebrating that moment, and not just with the confetti email
that throws some fake confetti on my computer screen, but
maybe having something that shows up in the mail that's like, hey,
(18:09):
celebrate with us. We're about to unveil your brand new
website with you. We can't wait, right. So it's that
idea of if your clients enter the waiting game, what
does that look like? How do you show up if
there is a celebratory aspect of what you do, celebrate
with them and understand what that looks like. And there's
other things to consider, like sometimes when we work with
our clients, we have early wins, so like we have
(18:30):
the thing rafter, but then we have the great things
that happen early. Like when clients have early wins, you
should know the work you're doing is delivering that. But
how are you celebrating that with them. How are you
showing up from a relationship side when those things are happening.
And these are all things you just have to decide
what they're going to be so that you execute on
them when they happen, because if you're just doing it
(18:51):
on the fly, you'll never do it. You'll just get
too busy. It's like, when we deliver the website to
our client, then we do XYZ, or right before we
schedule the meeting with our client to show them the website,
we're going to mail out the celebratory box right or
when the client interests week four of the waiting game,
we're going to show up in this way. It's things
like that. You've got to know when they're happening, and
(19:12):
you've got to be considerate about being very intentional about hey,
it's an if. Then if our client is at this point,
then this thing happens. Because the work's always going to happen.
It happens almost automatically, even if you're doing it manually.
You have to make the relationship building touch points just
as automatic as your work touch points for this really
(19:33):
to work.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So now we've gotten them to wow, we've delivered we've
put this thing there. So now how you said if
there's the next stage, what's that next stage of Okay,
now you've got this amazing, amazing website for me, Stacy,
and you've done this anybody else? You know that old chestnut?
How do we get and not do that?
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Yeah, So when clients move from that active stage, if
they're done working with you, then they're going to move
to the alumni stage. But here's what people miss. They
feel like, when I've delivered this great thing, then there's
that potential for you to be like, this is amazing.
Let me go tell all my friends. That's not actually
how it works, right. The truth is the ability to
refer to you is going to happen in three different
(20:16):
ways from that new stage all the way through and
continue on while your client stays in the alumni phase.
And so as you're thinking about the new stage, active, phage,
alumni stage, you have opportunities between all three of those
stages to generate referrals, not just when the work is done.
The three things you have to pay attention to is
number one. It's sometimes it's just the right people. This
(20:37):
is the one I don't teach strategies around because you
don't know who the right people are until they reveal themselves.
And if someone refers you, it's typically and they're the
right person, they're going to do it early right going
to It's like one of those people that they make
a decision to invest in something and then they have
to tell other people because they're so excited. Right, so
what is the right people? Acknowledging it when it happens,
and having a plan in place for how you're going
(20:58):
to take care of them so they taken care of
to refer more and using the right language and things
like that. The second one, though every business can put
into place if you don't have the right people. The
next one is what we call referral hot zones. And
there's an entire chapter in the book on helping people
identify Do you have referral hot zones? And you may
not be completely sure. We walk you through how to
(21:19):
identify them based on data, not based on what you
want it to be or what's easy for you, but
based on data. When are your clients referring you other clients,
other potential clients, and really looking at those hot zones.
And then we talk about like the four hot zones
that actually exist, like generally for most businesses, though not
all if you're like really struggling to come up with
(21:40):
your own. But it's looking at those referral hot zones
and knowing that it's not just the work you're doing,
it's the relationship you're building. And then it's the language
that you're using in those moments. And that really is
what I tell everybody, like, that's my secret sauce. Right
when I go one day in the future to sell
my business, that's my intellectual property that people are going
to be like, oh, it's the formula, it's the languge,
but it's the when you say things. It's the how
(22:01):
you say things, right, So it's understanding in these referral
hot zones that that is ultimately like, oh, this is happening,
This is an opportunity. It doesn't mean when we do
it that client will refer but if we do it
for all of our clients, it's shown that this area
has more likely to generate referrals. Then we're going to
put in not only a relationship building touch point, but
(22:21):
allow us to use the right language in that moment
as well. I'll give you an I know people are
like what's an example. Let me come back to it.
Just don't let me forget it, med and I'll circle
back to an actual example people can use. But the
third one for referrals is understanding right moments. Sometimes you're
in the right referral moment and a client just says
something and you want to make sure that you are
meeting them where they are right there, you know, like,
(22:43):
oh my gosh, all my friends need this right that
kind of moment. Like it's understanding that language piece of
what I teach to my clients of like what do
we say in that moment? Or you know, sometimes you'll
hear that, oh this is so great. I got to
keep you a secret. That is not helpful. Keeping any
business a secret is not helpful, right, So, like I
teach my clients like how do you overcome that? So
you can start planning referral seeds. But planting a single
(23:05):
referral seed does not mean a referral will come from
it in that moment. It means we're planting a seed.
And we have to do this continuously throughout the client
experience and into the alumni stage so that if they
are more likely to come across opportunities to refer it
will actually happen for you. So it's about building the
right experience and then knowing that we're kind of seeding
(23:26):
the idea of referrals throughout it. But let me get
back to like a referral kind of like hot zone
kind of perspective for people to consider if you have
a client, and this also works for right moments, Right
for those right referral moments, if you have a client
that was referred to you, you should remind them of it.
You should not miss the opportunity to remind them of
(23:48):
that moment. And you should do that in the new
client stage at least once once in the active and
then a couple of times in the alumni client stage
because at that point there's no work being delivered, right,
So it's an opportunity when some one says yes to
working with you and they will referred to you'd be like, Hey, BD,
I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to work together.
This is going to be great. I cannot wait to
get started. And I'm really really thankful that Sam referred
(24:10):
you to me so that we have the opportunity to
work together. It's just that little piece of language, that
little reminder is a great opportunity to plan a referral seat.
And then you just you're not expecting a conversation. I'm
not expecting you in that moment to be like, oh yeah,
let me think of five other friends. Like, that's not
how this works. Patience is a virtue in this and
we're playing the long game because how we manage this
(24:33):
relationship matters so very much.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
So when you're looking at this and you've seen what
is kind of the number one mistake that people are
making right now, leaving referrals on the table.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Yeah, so it's not actually in their referral generation, it's
before they ever get to there. They are so after
the wow factor, they're like, Oh, to be referrable, I
got to have a wow factor, I got to do
something amazing that it's going to knock my client's socks off.
So the example always give us this, and it's because
they focus on the wow instead of solving what's actually
broken or what's not amazing. Right, And so when you
(25:10):
think about this, the example I love to give when
I walk into a Starbucks right now, Starbucks, they're writing
on the cups, right, have a great day, your awesome,
great job. I don't know if they're doing that everywhere,
but in the United States they are writing on our cups.
And my response is always I just paid six dollars
and fifty cents for this overpriced latte. Can you just
(25:30):
fill a cup to the top?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Can we start there? Can we start with the cup
being filled, and then you can tell me to have
a great day or I look awesome today, which, of
course you've written before I've ever even walked in the door,
so you have no idea, right, So like from that perspective, like,
that's go for the wow factor right on their cups
and give them a little note, let them feel good.
And I'm here sitting and go Can you just fix
the product, right? Can you just fix the process? Can
(25:54):
you fix that part of the client experience. Another example
is my husband and I go to a gym together
and one day we walked into the gym. There's a
big sign up that said sixty thousand dollars in investment
and new equipment. Like they were so proud, big banner up,
sixty thousand dollars in new equipment. I turned to my
husband and said, that's great, but I really just wish
they could fix the water temperature that comes out of
(26:15):
the water fountain, like I would just like it to
be cold and not lukewarm. Like, let's fix the baseline
stuff before we worry about the wow factor. And that
is a pitfall. That is a mistake I see businesses
make all the time, is that they're looking for the
wow and I'm like, yeah, but your clients are kind
of quietly grumbling about a couple other things, so let's
pay attention to that first.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah. My coach always called it the fresh eyes check
walking around and let somebody else have the fresh eyes,
not the one you and I walking around our business
every day and you're just like, oh, that's fine. That
that employee of the month thing on the wall from
fifteen years ago, that's still great and they don't work
here anymore, but there's still employee of the month, so
it's always fun like that. So if you were looking
(26:58):
at this and you said one thing, because I love
I love your thing is people are missing out on
double triple, quadruple returns or growth ROI on their business.
Why are people scared to get referrals? They're frightened. They're
frightened because are they frightening the process, or they're frightened
(27:20):
of getting turned down because somebody's going to tell them
that their process sucks. You know, what's the thing, Why
why don't people get more referrals?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Actually, this is something that breaks my heart. The reason
why business owners don't take a very concerted, intentional approach
to generating referrals is because for decades and decades and decades,
we've been taught that if we want them, there's like
one or two ways to get them. You got to
ask for them, or you got to pay a kickback
for them. And for I would say this is a
made up statistic, and I know it, but I know
(27:51):
I'm right. I would say, for like ninety seven percent
of us, we don't want to have to ask. It
makes us uncomfortable. We're not idiots. We can see that
it makes the person we're asking uncomfortable, and we don't
want to pay, right. We don't want our clients to
find out, hey, maybe you were only referred to me
because I paid the biggest commission check. Right. So there's
this aspect of what the strategies have been for decades
(28:12):
and decades, maybe even generations, of how you get referrals.
And that's because people who've been teaching referrals forever will
teach you that referrals belong in prospecting or marketing, maybe gimmicking,
promotional putting your email signature their greatest compliment you can
give me as a referral. If you have that in
your signature, you should take it out immediately, like today,
right as you're listening to this, go delete it. And
then the other thing is that it's in prospecting, so
(28:34):
you've got to ask right, or you've got to compensate,
or you get a network all the time. Referrals don't
belong in prospecting or marketing. They're the third leg to
your sales strategy. They need an entirely different process. And
once you understand that they are separate from the asking
and the paying and the being gimmicky, they're separate from
prospecting and marketing, and you look at them for what
they are and you build strategies and plans around that
(28:55):
that thing that changes everything. Then people are like, oh,
I can do that. I can take care of the
people who take care of my business. I can show
up and be memorable and meaningful to the people who
refer to me. Now I can say thank you, like
those are things that I can do. I think people
are scared that when I go about generating referrals to
keep it going, I'm going to have to do things
that are really not who I am. And I always
(29:17):
like to tell folks that's not true. But you have
to be willing to do work in a different way.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
If your business in your process was a Netflix series,
what makes your process in your coaching beneworthy.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yeah, So I always tell folks what I want you
to pay attention to is I think the whole concept
of Netflix dropping all the episodes at one time and
I can binge it makes episodes amazing, But that's never
how someone's client experience unfolds, right. What I want is
for you to be like that amazing, amazing show that
is on Apple or some other network where I get
(29:51):
one episode and then the next one says I have
to wait until the next week to get the second episode,
and I'm anticipating it. That's the kind of client experience
I want you to. I want you to build a
client experience where hey, we're going to do this, and
then coming up next is this, and it's like I'm
going to anticipate that. I'm going to look forward to that,
and then the next one, which is like the next episode,
and then the next one, and so the process builds
(30:11):
on itself. I think it's overwhelming as a business owner
to be like I got to be binge worthy, You
got to get everything in one second. Think about it
is like this show that you can't wait until the
next episode comes out next Wednesday or next Thursday. You
want your clients feeling the same way. You don't have
to deliver everything at once, but as you work through
that client experience of the work you do, in the
relationship you build, you just want to make sure that
(30:33):
you're impacting how they feel in a very different way,
and they're anticipating what comes next, and they want whatever
comes next awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
So here, where do we find out more about you?
And what is the actual name of the book? We've
talked about it multiple times, but just give us yeah,
and where do we find out more about you? I'll
put it in the show notes obviously, but where do we
find out more about you?
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah? So the book is the referable Client Experience and
you can find it on the book website at Referrable
Clientexperience dot com. Of course, my home base is Stacy
Brown Randall dot com. You can find both of my
books there. The title of the first book is Generating
Business Referrals Without Asking, so there's both titles. You can
check out the new book, The Referrable Client Experience on
(31:19):
the website or just go to my homepage Stacy Brown
Randall dot com and all the information is there as well.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Perfect Now, the rewind moment. So the rewind moment is
if somebody just listens to the last minute or two,
the thing You're going to give us this nugget, this
gold nugget of about referrals and get them to rewind
and come back and say, oh, I want to listen
to the whole episode. What's your rewind Leave it with
the moment so that they just say, actually, that last
(31:45):
minute was amazing. Stacy, tell us your rewind moment.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
That is some pressure, Beatie, like serious pressure.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Eerfinitely, it's always some pressure.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
It's all pressure. It's all pressure. So here's the thing
I want people to understand about the client experience. Doing
great work does not equal referrals. If it did, you'd
be drowning in referrals because more than likely you do
do great work. You have to understand how to bridge
the gap to referrals once you've built a referrable client experience.
(32:16):
This is not hard, this is not complicated, This is
not adding fifteen new things to your client experience. But
there is some intentional moments you need to take within
your client experience to be able to bridge the gap
to referrals and build relationships better with your clients in
a way that you can do for all clients and
still save time. And you just have to understand that,
and that is why it is worth for you to
(32:37):
go back and listen to this entire episode and of
course go grab my new book, The Referrable Client Experience.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
That's awesome, Stacy, thank you so much for coming on
the show. It was great to have you on again.
And hopefully what more people will go out and download
the book or read the book or however they're going
to however they consume their books. So thank you very much, Stacy.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Thanks my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Thanks for joining us on Grow, Sell and retire for
more information tools or to book one of our team
members to work with your team business or to speak
at your event or conference. Visit rockfind dot co dot uk.
If you like the podcast, you'll love one of Bade's
three books. The Assistant purchase True Gravity and the book.
The podcast is based on, Grow, Sell, and Retire. If
(33:24):
you want to work for the rest of your life,
that is your business. If you don't, that is ours.
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