385 | BEcome Referable to Grow Your Business

Today we’re talking about finding clients. If you are a coach, if you are a consultant of some kind, if you are a services based entrepreneur, or perhaps maybe you're even in something like network marketing and you are looking to sell products or to bring people onto your team, or whatever your business is, it truly doesn't matter. There is a place where leads are not being leveraged enough, and that is in referrals. If you're like most coaches, consultants, and services based entrepreneurs who do not get referrals on a regular basis, you are not only going to want to keep reading, but you’re also going to want to make sure that you register for my free workshop called BEcome Referable. 

Register here!

I believe that referrals are the single biggest missed opportunity when it comes to new leads in your business. I love marketing. Marketing is what I have the most experience in. I have been in marketing for over 25 years. I spent 20 years in corporate in marketing. I was vice president of marketing at IBM. It is what my business degree is in. I know marketing, and when it comes to marketing, the whole purpose is your messages and your activities that help to bring new leads into your world. You want to get them to the point where the qualified leads, the right people that you're meant to work with buy from you.

Listen to the Corresponding Podcast Episode:

The Whole Purpose of Marketing

The whole purpose of marketing is actually to make sales really easy. Now, where do we get new leads? This is the question that is asked all the time. If you scroll social media at any point in time, you are going to see a lot of posts and ads predominantly about how to get new leads. 

What is taught is mostly around: 

• Posting on social media 
• Using the DM strategy 
• Running Facebook ads and Instagram ads 
• Having evergreen funnels 
• Using email marketing 

Those are just a few examples that are going to help you create new leads. Those are all amazing, and in fact, I use all of them, but I'm here to tell you they're not the only ways. What I have seen time and time again, especially with new coaches or those that are in the first year or two of growing their business, is that they're heavily, heavily dependent on posting on social media to get consults, posting on social media to try to get people into their email list. I'm here to tell you that posting on social media alone cannot be your only lead strategy. 

I won't say that it never works, but most of the time it's not going to be the thing that drives the kind of growth in your business that you want. It's a piece of it. It's a piece of it for certain. All of these things are pieces. I want you to start thinking about how new leads come into your world for your business in many different ways.

OPA

In a marketing framework that I teach, I talk about definitely having a social media platform where you have a presence and you can be bringing in new leads there for certain, absolutely. But I also teach OPA, which is other people's audience. You want to make sure that you are getting in front of other people's audiences. When you get in front of other people's audiences, now you're getting leads coming in that are actually really hot leads and qualified leads. If you are in front of another person's audience where they have authority, where they have trust, where they have maybe already built a brand, or they have those close relationships, they are going to be higher quality leads because you're borrowing the belief of the other person that already has the relationship with that audience. For example, if you came onto my podcast and you talked about what you're selling and what you do, and we had a great conversation, my audience would automatically be like, “Hmm. This is someone I might want to look into to solve my problem because Julie brought this person onto the podcast.” 

There's a level of trust there. My audience has a trust factor with me, right? So instead of you just seeing an ad from that person, not knowing who they are that person just kind of got into the front of the line because they came onto a podcast where there's already trust. You can also look at it in a way of that you are referable. Meaning, if you come onto my podcast in a way, I'm referring you. I'm referring you to my audience. I am saying, “Hey, this is a pretty awesome person. Check out what she has to offer.” 

If you go to your network of family and friends, and others that you've worked with in the past, and you get referrals from them, that's amazing. You might get referrals directly from your clients. You might also look for adjacent opportunities where you have a strategic partner so that they're sending you referrals. One particular coach in our community  is a new mom coach. She really helps coach new moms, especially those moms that are on maternity leave, they're going to be going back to a job or a career, and they're kind of struggling with this new identity and what to do. A logical adjacent place where she could get referrals are lactation consultants. I'm sure many of those women are also maybe working with a lactation consultant, or it could be a pediatrician office that she partners with to get referrals. Where is their logical adjacent space? I like to think of them as strategic partners. There are many, many ways to be referable, and I'm going to be going over that in our free workshop, so make sure that you register for that. 

Register here!

I would suggest that you  set a target for yourself that 30% or more of your clients end up coming from referrals. I think that's a great metric to set. I really believe referred leads convert at a much higher rate than cold leads off of ads for certain. But here's the thing, there's a big problem, a big hurdle to get through to become referable. It is a lack of brand clarity. 

What is Lack of Brand Clarity?

If it is not crystal clear what problem you specifically solve and for whom you specifically solve it for, it is really hard to be referable. For example, if I don't know who to send to you to solve what problem, I cannot refer to you. You will not come up as top of mind when going to refer. This is the key. It's really where a lot of coaches and consultants struggle the most. I see it all the time with our clients. There is lack of specificity in their niche and lack of specificity in their brand. I am so sorry to say, but being a life coach or a business coach or an abundance coach or a mindset coach is not enough. You have to get really clear. It can't be I help people find their purpose, or I help you be more confident, or I help you be happier. That's not specific, and that is not referable. People really struggle with this. 

I'm going to help you in this upcoming workshop so that you can bust through that and become referable, but it requires a big mindset shift. Then, it requires some deep inner work to get to that brand clarity. Now, the cool thing is that I like to use tools to help you do that. Inner work tools to help you go in and mine out that brand clarity. The two tools that I'm using right now are Gene Keys and Human Design, and they are really great tools. That's what they are. They're tools. They're not labels. They're tools to help you mine what's already inside of you. It's really important to get to this brand clarity to really specifically be able to say, I saw this problem for this specific person so that others can easily refer to you.

Inspiring vs. Referable

If you have a hard time saying what you do, you're definitely not referable. People have to know who to send someone to for what problem. This specificity is required if you would like to have referrals be a huge part of your new leads and your source of clients. If you're not specific in what problem you solve and who you solve it for, instead you become inspiring. 

If you're hearing from people, “Oh my gosh, I love what you're doing. I'm seeing your posts on social media, and I just love what you're doing.” Maybe you’re getting some likes and comments on your posts, but people aren't converting into leads or clients. It's because they're not really sure what you do. It's very inspirational. It's not clear, and that is massive. That clarity is everything. So the question to ask yourself are

• Do you get referrals every week in your business? 
• Are you frustrated with how to get new leads and sales in your business? 

If the answer to the question, “do I get referrals every week in your business?” is No and the answer to “are you frustrated with how to get new leads and sales in your business” is a Yes, then this workshop is perfect for you. 

Grab your free spot here!

The First Step to BEcoming Referable

If you're a coach, a consultant, or a services based entrepreneur wanting highly qualified humans coming to you to work with you, you're going to want to register for this workshop. In fact, my best clients have come as referrals from my other best clients. Your existing clients are a great referral source. The interesting thing is they are not the only referral source. Your network is an incredible referral source. But again, if your network is not super clear on what you do, what problem you solve and for whom, they cannot refer to you. So again, the first step in becoming referable is to have a crystal clear brand. That's what I'm going to teach you inside this free workshop. We're going to use tools like Gene Keys and Human Design, your specific profiles to help this. 

I see very vague brands and super broad niches all the time. 

• I'm a life coach
• I'm a business coach
• I'm a wellness coach
• I'm a transformational coach
• I'm helping women live their best life, their abundant life

Those are not easily referable. It sounds nice. It sounds inspirational. However, no one can refer to you. It's also really hard to land podcast guest spots and speaking opportunities if you're not referable, because it's not clear on what problem you solve for what kind of people. You will not be asked to speak at events. It will be hard when you're trying to pitch to land on podcasts as a guest when it's not clear. On the flip side, when it is clear and when you're known for something specific, you will have referrals flowing in. You will have weekly podcast appearances. You will have requests for you to speak at masterminds and events. I learned this the hard way, especially for my Human Design type. 

My Big Mistake

I am a 2-4 profile, and as a 2-4 profile, it is really important that I have a strong referral system and network in place. In the beginning of my business, I did. I was super, super clear on the problem I solved and for who. Because of that, typically every time I would launch, I would get 25% to 30% of all of our sales from referrals. Actually, I made over $1.4 million in sales being very specific and getting referrals, but after a couple of years of that, I went way too broad in my business. I was no longer specific in my brand message, and it was costly. The referrals were far less. I wasn't landing the podcast guest spots. I wasn't really being asked to speak anymore. Why? Because people were not clear on what specific problem I was solving for who. I was very inspirational. 

It's very easy for this to happen in business. Again, it happened to me. We think the wider the net, the more fish we will catch, but I'm telling you that it's getting harder and harder in this online space. Brand clarity and specificity is everything. The interesting thing is, when you don't have brand clarity and specificity, everything gets harder. Not just referrals, but ads don't convert to sales. Consults stop being scheduled. You start to feel invisible and you start to feel frustrated. If you're like me, you started your business and you got certified as a coach, or invested in other certifications. You've invested time and money into this dream and you don't want to give up. Become known! Become referable! 

Becoming referable is how all the time, money, and effort you put into your business is going to actually culminate into your dreams coming true. 

If you're ready to become referable, this workshop will help you do just that. So I want you to register, I want you to join me. I'm going to help teach you how to become known, starting with the most important part of it, which is brand clarity. We're going to be really focusing in on that. One of the things I'm excited to teach clients is how to create a referable formula, and really bring in 25% to 30% of your sales through referrals. But, before I can teach you that, we've got to make sure that you have an absolutely clear brand message of what problem you specifically solve and who you specifically serve.

I will tell you, when I've had clients come to me to get coached on this, they think they're specific. Then, I listen to what they have to say, and it’s not specific at all. You're talking to everyone. We can't see the end of our own nose. Even if you think that you have a very clear brand and message, I would always be revising, refining, and making sure that it truly is at that specific level so that someone who is not a current client of yours can actually refer to you. That's how you know you’re specific. 

So join me here! 

I love to over deliver in these free workshops. It's free. What have you got to lose? I am here to help you become referable, and this workshop is a great place to start. 

If you can’t make it live, don't worry. Simply register and we’ll send you the replay! 

I cannot wait to see you inside the BEcome Referable Workshop!