As a virtual business owner, how many people do you connect with on a regular basis that are not clients or colleagues?
Most of us are busy enough that we often stop at networking with clients and potential clients, and colleagues. We don’t think about networking with people that we are not going to be ‘doing business’ with. But you may be selling yourself short by missing out on a big group of people who can really benefit your business … referral partners.
What’s a referral partner?
A referral partner is simply that … someone who can refer clients to you (or refer you to them, as the case may be). They are people who know your ideal client. They may even work with your ideal client in a different capacity. These will be people you should partner up with to grow your business.
Think about who you work with – if you work with authors, consider the other professionals who also work with authors – in capacities other than providing support. Publishers, editors, transcriptionists, graphic artists all potentially work with the same authors that you want to work with. They would make great referral partners for you.
I always say that the surest way to get a referral is to give one first. So, get to know some people that are also connected to your ideal clients … and refer them when you can. If you want to, you can set up a formal arrangement with those referral partners so that you compensate each other for signed business.
Referrals are a great way to grow your business, and by purposely connecting with people that you know will provide you with great referrals (and vice versa), you can build a solid business.
If you work with business coaches, chances are they also have their own coaches (and students too!). This is a great pool of people to seek out to make connections with. When you find a niche that needs virtual support (and business coaches surely do), there can be many levels of people that you can come into contact with, simply by connecting with a few of them.
As with any networking, you always want to give more than you receive, so be sure that when you are connecting with people that you are really doing just that. If the referral partners you are seeking are not your clients or potential clients, you will need to be sure that you understand what they do and that they understand what you do.
Here’s an example: I have a colleague who is a business coach. We have done work together in the past, but I am not her VA and she is not my client … but she sends me referrals all the time. She has clients who need support and so she sends them my way, because she knows my specialties and my qualifications for clients. I also come into contact with many of her ideal clients, and she provides online training courses for her clients, as well as one to one coaching. I send people her way all the time, because I know that her training is top notch and I highly recommend it. That’s a classic referral partner – because the two of us actually don’t even work together! I have a lot of people in my network like that – we don’t work directly together, but we send people back and forth where we can (transcriptionists, coaches, copywriters, graphic artists, website developers, social media experts, and so on).
You would be surprised at how people can fit into your business in different ways. Be sure to think about who might make a good referral partner for you – and then start to connect with them!
I’d love to hear your comments on this article!