Do You Still Think You Can Do Business With Only Referrals?
Name: By Referral Only
Guru: Joe Stumpf
Purpose: If you follow their lead you will be able to create a 100% referral based business, generate a return of $15 for every marketing dollar spent, and generate an additional eight to 20 transactions a year.
4 Things You Will Learn From This Review
- The real scoop on “By Referral Only”
- The 2 powerful techniques I still use
- Concepts and Products I like
- What I Didn’t Like
Before I go any further, I’d like to make a one thing crystal clear. I was a part of the paid monthly membership program for one year; however, that was a few years back and things may have changed. But as the saying goes, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
I’ve been to multiple By Referral Only Workshops, Community Remodel Days and Main Events. They were orchestrated beautifully. I remember the “Main Event” in Palm Springs, California. It was my first full year in real estate and I was just amazed to see so many people wanting to learn how to improve their businesses. From lenders to insurance agents, over 800 independent contractors and small business owners listened to Joe Stumpf. Yet what I enjoyed the most was the camaraderie and after-parties with fellow twenty-somethings.
What’s The Real Scoop of By Referral Only in a Nutshell
Language and Mindset.
Language:
Have you ever heard of Neuro-Linguistic Programming? It’s a very in-depth subject, but in a nutshell, Joe Stumpf has created a lot of communication techniques from that system, similar to Tony Robbins.
How well you communicate, has a direct correlation to your success or failure in life. If you dig deep into the materials you will find, By Referral Only is a communication program with marketing nuggets mix in.
Mindset:
Question, do you truly believe the current market conditions are holding you back or is it really some self-limiting belief you won’t stand up to? You can work on your elevator speech and unique selling proposition all day long, but if you don’t have the correct mindset… it’s pointless.
What you learn from By Referral Only is that there will be turbulence during a transaction. Storms of stress and lighting flashes of fear will jolt your passengers/clients. However, you are the pilot. If you can’t land the plane on the runaway of a closed transaction, then you must land them safely in the Hudson River. Those around you must trust your confidence, expertise, and experience.
The Two Powerful Techniques I Still Use
I hate to waste time. One of the biggest time wasters for me has been the telephone. Has there ever been a time in your day that you just wanted to focus on lead generation, but you kept getting interrupted by colleagues, clients or vendors?
This powerful technique from By Referral Only has save me countless hours. I can provide better service to my clients and gather the information my colleagues and vendors request from me.
It is simply using my voice mail correctly.
When you call someone and go to voice mail, they usually state “I will contact you As Soon As Possible,” correct?
Question, what time is “As Soon As Possible”? Two minutes from know, two hours from know or in three days.
I learned to turn my voicemail into my personal assistant. I recorded a message that tells people when I am going to return their calls. Therefore, their is no confusion, but anticipation… for me to keep my word and call them back when I said I would.
The script goes like this…
Good day, this is Kendall Matthews. I return calls between 9 and 10 am, 1 and 2, then again between 4 and 5 pm. If you’ve been referred to me, please leave the name of the person who referred you, so I can personally thank them. You have a super-fantastic day and thanks for not keeping me a secret.
If you think I’m making this stuff up, listen to my message now if you like at 480.444.2543. Don’t worry, most likely I won’t answer the phone, but I will see your calling.
If my phone had email capabilities, I would add to my message that the caller should give me their email address and their phone number. Then I would just respond by email, which is what I learned from reading the 4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss.
In the past 6 years, I have never had a complaint or lost a client, because of this simple voicemail technique.
The next powerful technique is actually a road map for customer service.
The service strategy is called Before-During-After. However, for this review I’m going to focus on The Customer Experience Timeline for the During stage.
In my home office, I have a poster. It illustrates the stages of where my clients are in their transaction timeline . This poster has 5 stages.
- Honeymoon
- Searching
- Deciding
- Details
- Finalizing
The names are pretty self-explanatory. When you first meet a customer/client they are in the honeymoon stage and it is your goal to move them into the finalizing stage. The timeline lays out what kind of world-class experience you can give your customer/client during each of those stages.
Using these two techniques, I’ve been able to produce a 90% referral based business. Why? Because, people have told me, “The main thing I like about you Kendall is that you called me back when you said you would.”
Information Products I Like from By Referral Only
When I was a member, I didn’t have to pay for these additional items. The information products that are still the most valuable to me are:
- The Voice mail Strategy Handbook
- The Art of Asking book
- The Customer Experience TimeLine poster
- The Before-During-After Handbooks
What I Didn’t Like About By Referral Only
In the past 6 years, I have probably spent over $20,000 in marketing and investment education programs. For all the money that I have spent, I have only one regret. That is joining the By Referral Only Coaching Program.
Back then, the “Personal Success Program” was $299 a month. I had my personal coach and scheduled calls, yet I felt like I was talking to a secretary. I later found out she never sold real estate or even owned a business.
Nevertheless, I worked the system hard. I did the unique real estate marketing tactics, like putting out yellow signs on street corners. She also told me how to acquire an 800 number.
It was my first full year in real estate and I thought I was doing right, but with paying $299 month I didn’t expect to be an average rookie agent… but as the year progressed that is what happened.
I was average and as a great former collegiate athlete–I was not happy about that fact.
After about six or seven months, I wanted out. However, being young and dumb, I didn’t fully understand that small print “…agree to a minimum one-year commitment.”
When I pulled out my paperwork, after a long phone conversation with the billing department, there were my initials. I was stuck with my secretary-coach. I had to continue pay the monthly fee, until I canceled at the end of the agreed period.
Now, whenever I go to any workshop, I know there will be an upsell-offer, so I leave my credit cards at home.
Final Thoughts On By Referral Only
Joe Stumpf is a great communicator. I have talk with him at the Community Remodel events, and I do appreciate all the information sharing from other members.
Even though, I won’t be joining By Referral Only again. I learned valuable lessons and techniques that have helped my business and personal life.
Here’s The Link–
Make It Happen!
Kendall Matthews
P.s. In your voice mail, do you tell people you will get back to them as soon as possible?
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