As an entrepreneur referrals are supposed to be people that are sent to you becuase someone mentioned your name to them about a resource that you provide and their experience with you providing it. Referrals are expected to be ready to do business with you. Besides, referrals are how we get the best jobs, the best customers and clients, the products and the best services, isn’t? The problem with referrals is our expectation of them. What if the referrals that we get can not use our services? What if they are not as excited as the person that referred them? As an entreprenuer I found that referrals are not as productive as introductions. Introductions put you in an entirely different mindset. If someone makes introduction its more than likely because the person that made the introduction feel that the two people will benefit because of the type of person that they are more so than the product or service that may be offered. If people do business with people that they like and trust then my goal is to get into the network of the person that I am introduced to. If that person will not do business with me I am sure that there is a person in his or her network that will. In the meantime I build valuable and profitable relationships that lead to greater things. This is hard to accomplish with a referral mindset because a referral mindset is one-tracked, either do business with me or move on. If you think back you have made more progress through introductions than you have through referrals.
DiegoHodge.com