Stacey Brown Randall - Podcaster

By Sherry Prindle

The expression, “If you build it, they will come,” may be true of magic ballparks. It is not true of commodity businesses, however. How do you find speaking gigs, consulting contracts, and coaching clients? More than any other way, they come through word of mouth – referrals.

It is wonderful to get a big client. And Stacy Brown Randall’s first business, an HR consulting firm, had some huge ones – including two of the top five accounting firms in the US. She was featured in Accounting Today and Bloomberg News. On the outside, she looked successful – and she was. Her struggle was one you may be able to relate to…the constant need to hustle to find the next client.

“I looked successful, but when I landed a job and put my head down to do the work, I had no client lined up next. I was starting over after every project needing to hustle to sell the next one.” Stacey recognized the need to have leads waiting in the wings to work with next, but it was 2008, and her first business did not make it through the economic downturn. “I actually had to get a job” that Stacey says allowed her to look at other businesses that were successful and not make the same mistakes in her next business, a professional coaching practice.

Michael Gerber’s book, The Emyth highlighted the fact that people go into business because they are really good at something and are not necessarily good at selling. While there is always networking, free speaking, and leveraging the people you know, the capstone method for ensuring a consistent flow of customers is through referrals. “Referrals are the one thing that have stood the test of time. We don’t want to make mistakes; we don’t want to waste time and money. Getting referrals cuts down on that curve.” She saw the need was to fill your pipeline in a way that works for you.

In times of uncertainty, referrals are even bigger. According to Stacey Brown Randall, when a prospect is referred to you, they: • Have a built-in positive feeling about you • Start their relationship with you at a higher trust level • Are quicker to close • Are less price sensitive “I help business owners generate referrals without asking,” Stacy explains. Most people believe five common myths about referrals: 1. I must ask and that makes me uncomfortable. 2. I have to network and know a ton of people. 3. I need to pay or incentivize those who refer. 4. It takes time I don’t have. 5. Receiving referrals cannot be controlled Stacey points out that we are often afraid of approaching people who have been referred – because they are not really referrals. Because people are fuzzy on what a referral actually is, Stacey provides definitions of some common sales terms

in her value-packed blog at www.StaceyBrownRandall.com where she states, “When we apply the wrong definitions (like calling an introduction a referral), we give the wrong impression of what a referral actually is, which dilutes its power.” She goes on to say that to be a referral you need two keys: 1) A real need identified in the prospect – a problem, pain, or issue that needs to be solved. 2) A connection made between you and the potential prospect. In fact, existing research says the three ways to get referrals are to ask, pay, or be overly gimmicky. Stacey shares, “I started guinea pigging because I didn’t want to do any of these three things. I kept at it and soon realized I had discovered a system. My clients needed what I was doing, so I started teaching my clients and moving away from doing the one-on-one.” Like many of you, Stacy has a staff, but they don’t take the place of referrals for ensuring a flow of customers. “Even if you have a team, you need

a system.” Stacey’s system consists of five steps outlined in her book, Generating Business Referrals Without Asking: A Simple Five Step Plan to a Referral Explosion. “In my first year I received 112 referrals. And now, six years later I am still receiving triple-digit referrals consistently, year over year.” Her system works, and she says her clients are the real proof that this system can help different kinds of business owners in different industries. A bookkeeping firm went from about 20 referrals a year to over 70. A law firm says 57% of new clients were generated by referrals.

So Stacey’s process is well thought out and tested. It works incredibly well for both her and her clients. But what about speakers? For a speaking and continuing education magazine, we want to know if she has any strategies for using speaking engagements to get referrals. “Speaking,” Stacey believes, “only works if you are in front of an audience of buyers with stories crafted specifically to show how you have helped someone like them.” The key to success is in how you capture information while you are speaking. During her presentation, Stacey sends people to

referralquiz.com to take a “Referral Ninja” quiz. It captures their email addresses to get them into her pipeline but also has immediate value during her talk. “It gives them a level that allows me to tailor the program. It’s the speaker’s responsibility,” she says, “to take whatever they’re selling, and take the case studies from working with other clients to establish the ROI and cultivate it into their presentation.” Primarily teaching how to get referrals without asking, Stacey Brown Randall’s other talks include sought after topics like time management, customer service, and goal setting. But they all have her unique referral twist to create a consistent message and brand. She insists you need to give information that is different from anything the people in the audience have ever heard before. And one other powerful part of Stacey’s system is authenticity and gratitude. She would love to send each of you a thank you card for taking the time to read this and learn more about how to build your business in a way that is comfortable, natural, and effective.