Becoming a Better Business Broker Day 4: How To Build a Strong Business Broker Referral Network
Welcome back to Becoming a Better Business Broker in 30 Days!
This concise series title describes exactly what we hope you get out of it - becoming a broker who can close more deals with less work.
If you missed yesterday, check out How To Filter Sell-Side Leads.
Today, we are expanding on that topic and exploring how to build a strong referral network as a business broker. Specifically, systems and processes that you can implement into your daily practice to enhance your referral relationships.
Today, we are expanding on that topic and exploring how to build a strong referral network as a business broker. Specifically, systems and processes that you can implement into your daily practice to enhance your referral relationships.
The Power of Referrals
In the world of business brokerage, your network is your net worth. A robust referral network can be the lifeblood of your brokerage, providing a steady stream of high-quality leads. But how do you build a network that delivers and grows with you? Let's dive in.
Step 1: Identify Potential Referral Sources
Start by identifying who can be a part of your referral network. The primary sources include accountants, bankers, lawyers, realtors, M&A professionals, and wealth managers.
Each of these sources has its own pros + cons. But, like any other human on the planet, each source has symptoms of WITFM (what's in it for me). As such, you need to tailor your communication for each referral source:
As you can see, there are a ton of different referral partners for business brokers, each having their own MO - make sure to understand this motivation for each referral source you speak to.
Our advice is to try and create a list of 12 referral sources (2 per type) that you can meet at least once or twice a year - resulting in 2 referral network meetings per month.
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Step 2: Cultivate Relationships
Like a farmer, building a network isn't just about collecting contacts—it's a cultivation process. This process starts with engaging with your potential referral sources regularly. This could be through:
Step 3: Set your Networking Schedule Cadence
Whether you're an introvert or an extrovert - you're going to have regular meetings with your network either online or in person (sorry introverts).
To do this, we've created a simple Notion dashboard template allowing you to easily keep track of your core 12 referral contacts - see how it works below:
This Notion template gives you high-level visibility over your 12 core referral sources with built-in reminders to schedule a meeting with them. Send us an email at support@dealbuilder.co with the subject line: I WANT THE NOTION REFERRAL TEMPLATE*
*The subject line must be in all-caps to be eligible to receive the template
We'll be honest about something, this system is only as good as your habit of following it. As it is super easy to fall off the wagon and not book these critical meetings.... we may know this... because of personal experience 😅
Ready to Build Your Referral Network?
Referrals are often referred to (we promise that wasn’t intentional) as the greatest source of leads in the sales & marketing world. Why? Because they're free and, if you do it right, you can coach your referral sources to pre-filter leads for you.
By following the steps outlined in this article you can build up your referral network to get an abundance of leads. Once you start receiving referrals, make sure to read our last article, How To Filter Sell-Side Leads, so you know how to qualify them correctly.
If you want to learn more about automating your business brokerage with DealBuilder, please visit our site or book a demo here.
Writing about building companies @ morgantate.com
8moCheck-out the full blog here: https://www.dealbuilder.co/post/becoming-a-better-business-broker-day-4-how-to-build-a-strong-business-broker-referral-network