RISMEDIA, June 12, 2006—For those of you who have been following our series the past few months, you know that working by referral is not a passive activity; rather, it is a proactive approach to building your business.

We have talked about the opportunities that are waiting for you inside your database of relationships. We've also looked at the importance of making a commitment to building and maintaining relationships through written and personal communication. These factors put you in a position to receive your client's referrals. In addition to building relationships, you must also provide a level of service that exceeds your customers' expectations. Your business and the service you provide must be worthy of earning their referrals.

Although these principles sound simple, they require relentless commitment and pursuit. These are not part-time strategies that you can implement when you have nothing else going on. They require your full attention and consistent effort if you truly want to build a business that generates a steady stream of high-quality referred leads.

But what about your referrals? Let's assume that you have done the work, been consistent in your efforts and now your clients are referring business to you. Great! Your clients now trust you and look to you for guidance. You have positioned yourself as a professional that cares about your clients, and you have earned their trust.

As your clients' trusted advisor, you are in a unique position to not only earn their referrals, but to assist them in solving other problems. Because they trust you, they will seek your guidance and advice in areas outside your specialty. As a Realtor or lender, you are in a unique position to refer them to other service providers that you may work with.

At our Turning Point Retreats™, I point out that the average real estate transaction involves 26 different service providers. These services include the Realtor, lender, title rep and escrow company, and they also include a comprehensive list of other service providers for home repairs, landscaping, moving, etc. If your client trusts you, you can guarantee that they will seek your referrals for some of these other services as well. The question is, how will these referrals represent you? Can you put your name to them?

As a Realtor, I watched in amazement as some of my colleagues referred their clients to service providers that they knew very little about. Sometimes their referrals were given simply because someone stopped by the office with doughnuts or tickets to a ballgame. In fact, I have seen many Realtors base their relationships on what they are going to get from the service provider without any concern as to how that service provider is going to treat their clients. How can you entrust the relationship you have built with your clients to someone else without knowing how they will be treated? A bad experience with a referred vendor may cost you the relationship you worked so hard to develop.

In my business, I built a database of relationships that went beyond my customers and included service providers that I would put my name to. Before referring a client to these service providers, I took the time to get to know the person and the business I was referring. My primary focus was to find out what their values were so that I had confidence as to how my referrals were going to be treated.

In most cases, the service providers I referred were not the cheapest. Price was not my focus. Sure, I wanted to refer my customers to clients who would provide a good product at a fair price—but price was not my primary objective. I focused on their commitment to providing excellent service. I wanted my clients to continue to experience the level of service that I had established as the standard for my business. My clients were to be treated as first-class passengers on my airline.

Only when I was confident that a service provider was committed to providing a level of service that I could put my name to did they earn my referrals. I would rather tell my clients that I did not have a referral for the service they needed than to put my name to a company that I was unfamiliar with.

Once I had established a relationship with a service provider, I maintained that relationship in the same manner that I maintained the relationship with my clients—through consistent written and personal communication. I followed up with my clients on all referrals and asked for feedback as to how they were treated. I gave this feedback to the service providers each time. I wanted them to know that each referred opportunity was important to me.

I developed a list of primary service providers or "A+" vendors that I worked with on a consistent basis. They included my lender, title rep, escrow company, home inspector, appraiser, and insurance agent. These were services that I used in nearly every deal, and I considered this to be my "A Team" for my clients. This team not only had to provide value, but they first and foremost had to meet my expectations for providing excellent customer service.

During real estate transactions, I developed a communication plan where my clients were contacted by each of the service providers to give them an update on the status of the service they were providing. This communication brought an added value to me as my clients' trusted advisor. Each of these companies would contact my client and say:

"This is _____ calling with (name of company). I am calling on behalf of Brian Buffini who asked me to keep you posted on the status of ( the service they were providing). I wanted to let you know that things are proceeding along, and if you have any questions, you can reach me at (phone number).

I found that this activity had a significant impact on my business.

• My clients were reassured that they were well taken care of—it calmed their fears.

• The number of incoming calls from clients was reduced dramatically. I wasn't spending my time chasing down vendors to answer my clients' questions. This freed me up to spend more time serving other clients with whom I was working.

• It gave my vendors the opportunity to develop relationships with my clients. As I helped them develop their referral business, they referred their leads to me.

• As my network of excellent service providers grew, I was able to offer more value to my clients. This increased my opportunities to be their source for referrals, which deepened our relationship.

In order to develop a business that is worthy of your clients' referrals, you can leave nothing to chance. It requires focus, attention and a commitment to a standard that is worthy of being referred.