Create Successful Referral Systems Where Everyone’s a Hero

A Conversation with Steve Gordon and Joseph Warren

Steve Gordon is a bestselling author, the founder of The Unstoppable CEO, and the host of The Unstoppable CEO Podcast. He has written over 400 articles on marketing for service businesses. Through his firm, he helps service business entrepreneurs create leveraged marketing systems so they can spend less time on business development, and more time on what matters most.
 
For this post, I want to focus on Steve’s practical advice for building killer referral systems. Sometimes I highlight business theory or life coaching advice, but Steve’s referral system is so genius that it can stand on its own.

But first, here are Steve’s top three strategies to attract clients into any business.

1. Relationships
2. Relationships
3. Relationships

 
See what’s important here? Human beings are social creatures. We make decisions on trust, friendship, and intuition just as much as we make decisions based on data and forecasts. 
 
What Steve has done is create a referral system that harnesses the inherent power of relationships. The system is made of three things.

1. A book
2. A conversation
3. A gift

 
He shares how a typical value conversation goes with his current clients.
 
“Hey Joseph, I’m on a mission to transform the way service business owners generate referrals so that they can grow their businesses more effectively, get past this barrier of the first $100K, and get to multiples of that. I’ve taken the time to write down all of my wisdom about referrals in this book. I’d love to brainstorm with you about who you know who needs this book, and I’d like to send it to them as a gift from you. What do you say?”
 
In this brief conversation, we see Steve demonstrating three things. He has a heart for his clients. He offers a tangible object/service that adds immediate value to the client. He allows the client to participate in sharing that value, aka, he’s not selfish.
 
“I’m going to make you a hero to people who you know,” Steve explains, “and in that process I’m going to plant my message, and get introduced to [referrals], and I’m going to have the ability to follow up with them, and I’m going to do that in a pretty human and kind way so that [clients are] not feeling like they’re being chased by a guy in a plaid jacket.”
 
Startup Nation, no one wants to be chased by a guy in a plaid jacket.
 
Ok, but how successful is this approach? Steve says referrals usually grow from one or two here and there to five, ten, twenty, fifty referrals per conversation. Imagine if you received twenty-five referrals per client? It would transform your business.
 
If you want to hit twenty-five referrals per client, try following this referral system formula. 
 
Make sure your system: 

1. Asks for a referral
2. Shows clients how to give a good referral
3. Provides clients with a value-added resource to give their friends 
4. Can follow up with referrals once the connection has been made

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Steve says the best way to attract clients is through relationships. I agree. But maybe your relationships aren’t doing so well. Maybe anger, ego, self-pity, or depression are holding your relationships back. To take the next step, jump on a Spiritual Clarity Call with me and we can start breaking down some of these hindering mindsets. 
 
Startup Nation, do you want to read Steve Gordon’s book? The one he gives away, for free, to potential clients? Then head to Amazon and buy Unstoppable Referrals: 10x Referrals, Half the Effort.
 
Then check out Steve Gordon’s Interview on the First 100k Podcast to learn more about scaling your marketing and developing scary-good referral systems.