Dan Sullivan, a top success coach, and founder of The Strategic Coach®, created a set of four habits salespeople and entrepreneurs need to practice in order to maintain their existing clients, and generate automatic, unsolicited referrals.
Here Are Dan Sullivan’s Four Referrability Habits:
1. Show Up On Time
How often do service providers show up late, return calls late, or keep their clients waiting?
This creates a feeling of anger and resentment and make your clients feel like you don’t respect or value their time.
Don’t make this mistake – return calls when promised, and show up to all appointments and seminars on time.
2. Do What You Say
How many salespeople and service providers promise you the world before they have your money, then fall far short of providing the service they originally promised after they have your money?
This may get a company the sale once, but no one will ever repeat purchase from them since they didn’t do what they originally promised.
3. Finish What You Start
Builders and contractors are notorious for not finishing what they start. All of us have experienced entering into an agreement with a service provider who does half the work, and then stops for one reason or another and never completes the job.
Make sure you finish what you start with all of your clients – that means sticking with them all the way through negotiating for a better rate and payment, and making sure they get what they deserved.
Don’t make the mistake of only focusing on signing up new clients without also completing the service for your existing clients.
Remember, you want your existing clients to refinance with you next time.
4. Say Please And Thank You
When was the last time a service provider said “please” and “thank you” and genuinely meant it?
You must show appreciation for your clients – they are the lifeblood of your business. Make sure you treat them like gold!
Sullivan’s Four Referrability Habits sound deceptively simple, don’t they?
The problem is not 10 in 100 mortgage businesses actually practice these four simple skills consistently.
I’ve added some additional habits that I feel are necessary for you to automatically generate referrals and renewals:
5. Under-Promise And Over-Deliver
Most mortgage brokers do the exact opposite of this – they promise you the world, and automatically set you up for disappointment.
Always promise your clients less than what you think you can accomplish. This way, when your results are better than expected, they think you walk on water, and end up referring and refinancing with you.
If, on the other hand, you promise you will get your clients a fully paid private university education, you are bound to disappoint them which means they won’t be referring or renewing with you and they will tell, at least, 5 – 10 of their friends not to use your services.
Don’t make this mistake – instead under-promise and over-deliver.
6. Bond With Your Clients
Most businesses don’t have any idea how to “bond” with their clients. They feel business relationships should be treated differently than personal relationships.
They’re Dead Wrong!
People are people, and they enjoy the emotions of love, respect, friendship, closeness, honesty, integrity, recognition, etc., regardless of whether the relationship is business or personal.
Don’t try to fight this. Instead, look at all of your clients as friends, and treat them that way.
Send them written correspondence once a month to keep in touch with them (I love using a monthly newsletter for this!), send them unexpected gifts (like books, audiotapes, brownies) to let them know how much you appreciate them, admit when you’re wrong instead of arguing and send apology letters or gifts, recognize them in your newsletter and let them know they’re special, and make personal calls to your best clients to see how they’re doing.
If you consistently practice the six habits over the next 90 days, you will start to see a drastic change in your business.
Business will start to flow to you almost automatically without you having to push so hard for it.
You will also begin to enjoy your business and your clients more, and it will start to feel more like fun instead of work.
Also, make sure you constantly listen to your clients – what they like, what they don’t like, why they bought from you, why they refinanced with you, what other products and services you can provide for them, etc.
Your clients have all the answers if you listen to them.
Click here if you would like more information on how to get qualified leads, sales and referrals for your business,