Spend Time Working Your Network
Have you ever ask a referral partner to introduce you to a contact they have only to be put off or not introduced at all? Did you wonder why? You might be surprised to know, that your referral partner did not have the same level credibility as the level referral you were asking for.
I once had a referral partner who boasted a very large database, we decided to sit down and do a little identifying out of each other’s databases. He had great contacts in his database but when I began to rate the level of referral I was looking for against the level of relationship he had with the contact, there was great disparity.
He quickly realized that his network was wide, but not very deep and he had some work to do to build higher levels of credibility with some of the people in his database. You see he spent most of his time networking, very little time working his network. Once, he had done some of that work, he became a much better referral partner.
Having a very wide network that is only an inch deep does not make you a solid referral partner. If you spend time, working your network instead of being out there networking you will create a much deeper network. One that will produce results for both you and your referral partners.
3 Comments to “Spend Time Working Your Network”
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Good point Hazel, I am still new to referrals and building relationships and it is good to hear this kind of perspective. I am always looking for introductions, one thing that I heard you say once was the difference between a lead and a referral. I have had several friends give me names and numbers but it really counts when I get a personal introduction not just a phone number. Keep up the interesting posts!
That is such a great point. When I give a referral to someone I try to be as transparent as possible about how well I know the person. When I get referred to someone and I know that the referrer doesn’t know the referree that well I am always wary. I’ll still take the meeting, but I’ll be much more wary of spending a ton of time with that prospect compared to a high-level referral.
I’ll admit that I suffer from this syndrome. I have a great list of networks, but I regret my river does not run very deep. I told you’ll post some ways to deepen that relationship in your upcoming posts. My biggest problem I find: the people with whom I should have the closest relationships (cousins, aunts, next door neighbor) are my most distant.