In this Expert Insight Interview, Matthew Muscat discusses tracking the referrals you give to get the referrals you want. Matt Muscat is the marketing director at Treadstone Funding, one of the top boutique marketing lenders, and the author of TAG Tangible Action Guide: For Real Estate Marketing. He also founded Maltese Marketing, a boutique digital marketing firm.
This Expert Insight Interview discusses:
- How you can get people to help you by asking how you can help them
- Why tracking your referrals is a fantastic business strategy
- How to use social media for referrals regardless of your industry
Helping to Get Help
You can help every person you meet in some way, but most of us don’t think to ask, or we don’t think about what the value is that we’re giving to these people. So, every time you talk to someone, try asking how you can help them if you can’t immediately figure it out.
As soon as you make someone aware that you’re trying to help them, it becomes a lot easier to tell them how they can help you. In fact, most people will offer to help you without you needing to ask in this situation. Once you’ve done something positive for someone else, it is much easier to receive something positive from them.
Tracking Your Referrals
The referrals that people give are usually not tracked, so even though most of us give them, we don’t see their effect. The real value here isn’t in spending lots of money in lots of different businesses; it is in tracking the referrals that you’re giving out and the value that you’re bringing through them so that you can then ask for the same favor in return.
This more elegant approach will give you a much better chance of getting referred back to, as people are unlikely to have someone to recommend the moment you ask them. Sales is not constantly on the minds of people working in other industries, so giving them time to think about who they might refer to you is usually beneficial.
Using Social Media
Social media opens up a massive opportunity for referrals regardless of your industry. Most people use social media to “shout,” posting about our business, our kids, the food we ate, etc. However, if you can use social medial to listen instead and go through what other people are posting, you’ll find that someone is asking for help in one in every 10–20 posts.
People use social media to ask for recommendations on where to take their family to dinner, things to do in vacation spots, etc. You can use these questions as opportunities to make a referral to someone or to connect with people you haven’t talked to in a long time.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
Comments