What is the best way to market and accomplish the highest ROI? Inbound marketing? Email campaigns? PPC ads?

The fact is this: there’s a clear winner that can’t be touched by any other method. That winner is referrals. Why are referrals a no-brainer? Because referral sales require almost no financial investment and bring in very valuable hot leads.

Unfortunately, most Loan Officers don’t know how to effectively build a network of referral partners to do this. If you can improve the efficiency of gaining referral partners and getting referrals on autopilot, you’ll get big results without spending money on marketing or advertising.

We’ll talk about the best way to get referrals. But before we do that, let’s talk about why they’re so valuable in the first place.

Referrals Are Some Of The Most Valuable Leads You Can Get

Don’t just take our word for it here are a few statistics from Social Media Today:

• 78% of B2B marketers say that referral programs generate good or excellent leads.
• 60% of marketers say that referral programs generate a high volume of leads.
• 54% say that referral programs have a lower cost-per-lead than other channels.
• Marketers rate referrals as the 2nd-highest source of quality leads.

Just these stats alone should give you a newfound love for referrals!

There are many ways to get referrals they both are great and have their advantages.

First, you can get a referral from a customer to one of their contacts in the same field.

That means your new prospect is highly qualified. They’re in the same industry, they probably have the same problems, and there’s a good chance that your product or service will be a good fit for them.

Second, you can get a referral from a referral partner. Say what!?

This would be from a person that is in a different field than you but in a connected field with you. Meaning if you are a Mortgage Loan Officer you would be receiving referrals from realtors, financial advisors, builders, divorce attorneys, and more.

Most Mortgage Loan Officers and Loan Officers know—at least implicitly—that referrals are highly effective. They may not know that referrals drive some of the highest conversion rates among all marketing channels, but they know that getting them is important.

Unfortunately, most don’t know the right way to go about creating this network to get these valuable referrals.

Where Most Officers Go Wrong

Very few loan officers know how to ask for referrals. From what we have experienced, they go about it in one of two ways.

First, they ask late. They wait months after their client has completed the investment purchase or fully moved into their home/commercial space, and then they send out an email or bring it up on a call.

But there’s a big problem with this: if you wait too long, the shiny new investment feeling is over and it’s back to business and crunching the numbers.

Even if they keep using you to complete their real estate transactions. That’s good for your business—you’ve become a regular part of their portfolio—but not good for referrals.

You need to get to people while they’re excited about finding your company.

The second mistake that Loan Officers make is they take no for an answer. This is normally how this convo goes:

You: “I am so happy to be able to help you with your property purchase if you know anyone else who might be able to use our services, please send them our way, it would be an honor.”

Them: “Hmmm 🤔 . . . Not off the top of my head, I’ll have to think about that and get back to you.”

You: “No problem, sounds good! Looking forward to it.”

And that’s the last you’ll hear of it.

When you combine these two mistakes, you annihilate your chances of getting a referral.

So how do you actually get more referrals?

Don’t Rely On Client Referrals Only

Let’s address the first problem: as great as this may seem you risk relying on a source that means well, but has life to handle first. 

Matthews’s soccer game, family road trip, Barbara’s braces…the list goes on.

There is a simple solution.

Instead of relying on clients, rely on B2B referral partners from similar but not competing businesses.

Why does this work so well?

Really because they are business-minded just like you and they know the value of a good referral partner,  and in some cases, the referral will be directly connected to their bank account as well.  So they definitely want to see the deal succeed.

Who would be a good referral partner?

Realtors, Divorce Attorneys, Builders, Developers, Financial advisers, etc…

If you connect with only 3 a week in 30 days that’s 12 new referral partners.

See where I am going? If they only referred 1-2 clients a month to you that could be a potential 12-24 new clients.

Doesn’t take long before you have more clients than you can handle, right?

Normally to make a network that you can not only live off but thrive from it takes decades.  

But why take decades when this can be shortened to months.  

By using key features in LinkedIn and our “Accelerated Referral System” you can automate and hone into the exact referral partners that will only benefit you. 

Make Referrals Part Of Your DNA

With this major referral game-changer, you can significantly increase the number of transactional referrals you get. And as we saw before, those referrals are insanely valuable. But you need to make referrals part of your DNA.

If you choose to still manually exhaust yourself with client referrals always ask immediately for the referral. Keep following up with people to ask for referrals even if they say they can’t think of anyone at the moment. Show your thanks to people who refer new customers to you.

To wrap it all up, in a nutshell, getting referrals is the best thing for your ROI. Whichever method you choose whether it’s automated through other referral partners that are not in competing markets,  or if it’s getting clients to give you more referrals.  

Do it consistently so you’ll never have to worry about prospecting again.

Once you prioritize getting referrals, you’ll see massive results and a 95% margin on those sales. Build strong habits, and let your services do the rest you will see not only happier clients but a more fulfilled you.Want more details, message the owner directly on Facebook and LinkedIn.