(The Referral Guy) Retention, You Gotta get this Right in Your Referral Group - Steve Sweeney

The Referral Guy
S5 Episode 6

Episode Title – Retention, You Gotta get this Right in Your Referral Group

Introduction
Member retention levels are the best indicator of the overall health of your referral group. Low retention levels mean your group is an unattractive place to be and the reverse means members want to stay and invite their networks to the experience.

So it’s vital you understand the following 4 elements that will help keep your group’s retention rate around 80%. This is the sweet spot and indicates 4 out of 5 members have the confidence to renew their membership because of their anticipated ROI.

Show Objectives
There are many factors affecting retention in referral groups.
In this episode of The Referral Guy, you’ll learn a little more about four of the most important of these. They are – 

• The President
• Selection Committees
• External Management/Internal Leadership
• Training

To access the other elements affecting retention, contact Steve.
info@referralacademy.com.au
    
What You Need to Know
Below is a brief expansion on these 4 factors. Familiarise yourself with these so your referral group experience is one that gives you the ROI you expect.

Presidents

Presidents are vital because they run the show. They must be a competent figurehead that is a lightning rod for member confidence or your group is likely to fracture. That’s right, members leave because of poor presidents.
Does your president – 

• Have the authority to change the agenda to suit the changing landscape of the group?

• Run the meeting with professionalism and humour?
• Tell brief stories that engage?
• Run your group through interesting activities that galvanise members and visitors?
• Run Leadership Team Meetings with authority?
• Have a vision and the drive to achieve it?
• Have a team of willing helpers to delegate tasks to?
• Enjoy the confidence of the group?

Selection Committees

Selection Committees have an enormous impact on retention rates in referral groups. After all, if you let the wrong people in, retaining the existing good members becomes very difficult. 
Here’s the thing – the good people leave first.

Think about your selection committee as the gatekeeper to your group. Front and centre of their collective mind must be protecting the interests of existing members. Too many selection committees think only of expanding the group. This is dangerous to the health of the group. 

Does your selection committee – 

• Exist?
• Have a proven process to follow?
• Know which person performs which task in a timely manner?
• Have the training to undertake their responsibilities?
  • Know how to conduct interviews?
  • Know the professional attributes to look for?
  • Know the personal attributes to look for?
• Understand the bigger picture of what’s at stake if they let the wrong people in?
• Have the courage to reject applicants?
• Accept applicants that conflict with existing members’ business interests?

Internal Leadership/External Management 

Members join referral groups to attract referrals. They do not join to discipline other members for poor performance. This creates member to member conflict and contribute to disharmony in the group.

Member to member conflict significantly damages retention in referral groups.

Leadership in referral groups must come from within. However, it is best if management of the group is outsourced to minimise member conflict and improve group stability.

Does your referral group – 

• Have internal leadership?
  • Does it have a functioning Leadership Team that sets group – 
    • Goals on
      • Growth?
      • Average seat value/member?
      • Retention rates?
    • Standards on
      • Attendance?
      • Referrals generated – number, value and spread?
      • 1-2-1 conducted?
    • Accountability measures if standards are not met
      • Attending Training
      • Mentoring
      • Delivering Education
      • Performance Management
    • Training dates and topics

 

• Have external group management to carry out tasks such as –
  • Performance managing members?
  • Mentoring members?
  • Data collection and interpretation?
  • A software system to manage the data?
  • Running events?
    • Training
    • Growth events

Training

Effective Member Training Delivers Member Results.
The most common reasons members leave is a lack of referrals. Address this by ensuring all your members receive regular group training on the following referral skills – 

• How to do referral partner meetings that generate referrals
• Referral generation techniques
• Presenting to generate business
• How to conduct prospect meetings that result in business
• The referral soft skills that make all the difference
• Nail your elevator pitch
• Developing your Unique Service Proposition (USP)
• Identifying your target market & your natural referral partners
• The different types of referrals and what they mean

What You Need to Do
This episode scrapes the surface of the biggest challenge facing referral groups – member retention. To be a successful group, members need to make money. The above four topics significantly affect all members’ ability to attract referrals and make money in various ways.
Contact Steve at info@referralacademy.com.au for further information. Specific training for all topics mentioned in this show.

Previous Show
Season 5 Show 5 – The Value of Accountability in Referral Groups

The personality traits of the members in your referral group can make or break the group. A group of slothful, unlikable business owners who have no integrity or understanding of social norms or desire to comply with them will fail within a month. 

Yet take that same group and give them high levels of coachability and enthusiasm and things may not be a complete disaster because change is possible.

Who people are matters because they will continue to be those people in your referral group. So when selecting the people to join your group, look beyond their business networks, skillset and demand for their services. Look to the human that represents their business. After all, it’s that human who is referred, not the business.

In this episode of The Referral Guy, you’ll learn – 

• The ten most valuable personality traits you want your referral group’s members to naturally display.
• How to identify if a person has each of these traits.

Select for these traits when approving members into your group and notice the difference it makes to everyone’s outcomes.

Next Show
Season 5 Show 7 – The Mid-Season Wrap Up
In this show, we’ll cover the highlights of the season so far including

• Beginning your own Strategic Referral Team
• Getting your referral group’s culture right
• Leadership
• Accountability
• Personality traits to select for in your referral group
• Retention

Listen in to get a quick summary of each of these vital topics.

Your Host and Resource
Hey, I’m Steve Sweeney… The Referral Guy.

Being a Specialist Referral Marketing Trainer provides me with wonderful opportunities to help business owners attract more business by referral. This is one of the most cost-effective methods of marketing as it relies 100% on the quality of relationships you have with people in your network. Once trained, your skills last a lifetime and continue to pay dividends.
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The Australian Referral Training Academy (ARTA) exists to teach business owners and sales professionals the art and science of attracting referrals and helps them build their own Strategic Referral Teams (SRT)
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Shoot me an email if you’d like to learn more info@referralacademy.com.au

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