By Referral is also available to small businesses that would prefer a very hands-on, tailored coaching experience for management without the broader staff training of a Workshop.  By Referral Coaching allows up 1-3 management personnel from the same firm to build a detailed referral process for their business without the full expense of a Workshop.  Great for small businesses, dealer group HQs or small partnerships.

PROBLEM: GOT ALL THE QUALITY REFERRALS YOU CAN HANDLE?

You have clients that love you. You provide a great service. You constantly ask them if there is anyone else you could help. Yet the referrals just don’t come. What’s going on?

Referrals are the main business driver in most Professional Services firms yet they are often treated as an after-thought, limited to a throw-away line while walking a client to the door. Many advisers are somewhat fearful of “harming” a good client relationship by discussing referrals. Other advisers may raise the topic, but get no result.

SOLUTION: AUSTRALIA’S LEADING REFERRAL TRAINING EXPERIENCE

There is a solution. Vue Consulting’s By Referral experience is a three month training process designed to help you create an easy, comfortable and ethical referral process.

This practical training moves beyond simple inter-personal skills and into Business Development outcomes. The end result is a tangible process which helps any client-facing member of your business engage clients in the topic of referrals.

By Referral is now available to small businesses and partnerships in a small group coaching process.  Previously only available as an In-house Workshop for groups of 8-10 staff, you can now join the By Referral experience regardless of the size of your business and for a reduced cost.

KEY BENEFITS

• Flexibility - Remove or expand topics based on your needs, culture, experience and industry and deliver via Online, Seminars, Coaching or Workshop formats.
• Content - From “who, when and how” through to advanced tactics such as Mail-outs and Centres of Influence, we have it all.
• Design - No generic case studies or role-plays. You will learn through active, adult-learning techniques focused on actions and implementation.
• Implementation - You receive templates, examples and feedback on your own documents. The training focuses on your business, not case studies.
• Involvement - You can choose the degree of follow-up, from passive coaching to active motivation, we will be with you “on the job”.
• Immediacy - You work in the context of your tools and your industry. Quick wins are readily available while you build your long-term, sustainable referral business.
• Experience - We have first-hand Professional Services industry experience. We work with clients to monitor success and maintain best practices.
• ROI - Because of our collaborative approach and post-training follow-up, we know By Referral works (as proven by many repeat and referral clients!).

WHAT DO YOU GET?

Vue Consulting’s training methodology is focused entirely on the post-training experience.  When undertaking By Referral you get far more than just a “day of training”.

Participants of By Referral Coaching can invest a smaller amount than a complete Workshop and receive almost all of the same benefit.  You can choose from two half-days or one full-day and receive a tailored By Referral experience just for your firm.  This includes all the customisation of materials, examples of client handouts, reviews of your client processes and all the materials from the Workshop.  It also includes all the follow-up email courses and coaching.

All that is missing is the induction of any staff into your new referral process.  By Referral Coaching is available for a maximum of three participants (from the same business).  Typically, 1-3 owners, partners or managers undertake By Referral Coaching and build their referral process.  You will receive tips and guidance on training your own staff on this process, but the actual staff training is the responsibility of management.

By Referral Coaching is perfect for...

• Small businesses with a single owner and 1-2 key staff
• Small partnerships of 2-5 partners
• Medium businesses with Practice Development or Business Development staff (who can coach other advisers or staff)

Contact Vue Consulting to discuss your business and investment details.

DOES IT WORK?

Let’s look at a potential return on your training investment. The goal of By Referral is to find additional clients that you wouldn’t otherwise have found. Therefore, to calculate the potential annual benefit to your business by undertaking By Referral you need only consider how many additional referrals you could obtain and the average revenue of those clients. The following table shows the impact of just a few extra referrals each month.

Ten clients have been referred in the few months since your session. We are preparing advices for at least seven of these. David, I will continue to spread the word on the value and ideas we gained from your services which I believe is one of the most cost effective, value added programmes I have undertaken in my 18 years as a RetireInvest proprietor/adviser.
- Paul Fogden, RetireInvest

After your workshop I instantly realised what I should be doing and now see that it’s not so hard to ask for referrals. You just need to educate, promote the practice and use the best technique. It has only been two weeks, but I have gained at this stage one very strong referral with the view of three properties to be listed with myself, I am currently working with this referee and he is already talking about referring me on as well. You just have to ask in the right way!
- Samara McCrohon, Raine & Horne

I am confident the actions we have taken and are taking will continue to make a difference to my business. It is exciting to think of how many opportunities come from such innocent yet well timed comments to customers who are happy with what we do. It is the key point I need to regularly reinforce to my staff so they too can benefit from new customers coming in and asking for their assistance.
- Sean Cawley, Bank of Queensland

TRAINING PREPARATION

TRAINING CONTENT

The training experience is broken into two parts - Referral Process modules which help participants implement core referral strategies into their client experience and Advanced or Industry modules which expand or enhance the By Referral experience.

The Referral Process modules comprise four hours of Workshops and six weeks of implementation. All participants undertake the Referral Process modules although examples and ideas are customised for each industry.

The Advanced or Industry modules comprise five optional modules and one compulsory module.  Each  By Referral experience includes 2-3 optional modules to suit participant needs.

Referral Process

• What are the facts about referrals
• What makes you referrable
• How to raise client referral awareness
• Define who you want to be referred to
• When and how to discuss referrals
• How to manage referral discussions

Optional Modules customise By Referral for different industries. We can recommend
modules or participants can select during training, from modules including…

• Referrals from Centres of Influence
• Referral branding and marketing
• Obtaining referral introductions
• Referral mail-outs to existing clients
• Obtaining Client feedback on your process
• Analysing and comparing referral process

TRAINING FOLLOW-UP

Vue Consulting has structured various follow-up activities to support implementation.

• Follow-up email course. A three month weekly email course takes you back through the training to refresh memories, prompt actions and provide an easy topic for discussion in any sales/team meetings.
• Email coaching. Through-out the length of the email course, you can contact Vue Consulting for additional email coaching or assistance. You can send documents for review, seek clarification or obtain feedback on new ideas.
• Follow-up Coaching. Coaching participants can opt to meet with Vue Consulting during the follow-up process for additional 1:1 coaching or advice.We can also return to run short training sessions to induct other staff into your new referral process.

DELIVERY OPTIONS

There are several ways to obtain By Referral, depending on your circumstances.  Note that every delivery method is based on the same content. The difference is only in the delivery.

You are currently in the Coaching version of By Referral. Coaching is for small businesses or partnerships, with a maximum of three participants. You get largely the same experience as a Workshop, but at a reduced price.

Alternate delivery methods you could consider…

• Online.  eTraining via your Web browser.  Full audio visual display and downloadable templates.   This will be less of an investment than a Workshop, but you need to be self-motivated.  You still get access to templates, but its much more DIY.
• Seminars.  Seminars are public Workshops – participants will come from multiple industries and multiple businesses.  Seminars are highly suitable for sole or small businesses who don’t have the staff for a full In-house Workshop.  You get the same experience as a Workshop, but at a much reduced price.
• Workshop.  Either two-hour, half-day or one-day In-House Workshops, well paced and interactive experience for teams or groups of 8-20 participants in the same business. This may be an alternative if you have 6-10 (or more) client facing staff and aren’t in a position/skilled to coach them yourself.  Plus you get a heap of individual branded ideas, document mark-ups and personalised advice.

FAQ

How industry specific is By Referral?

The main By Referral training is not industry specific. Referrals, however, are themselves most effective industries with medium sized client bases. Industries with very large client bases - say, many retail stores - generally work off price or brand led promotion and their referral strategies are mass market. Industries with very small client bases - say, investment banking - rely more on relationship management as potential clients are well known and identifiable.

Referrals work the best in industries with medium client bases which involve significant trust issues and limited advertising potential - financial planners, accountants, consultants, designers, solicitors or real estate agents for example.  Learn more about typical Vue Consulting clients here to see if they sound like you.

Are there industry specific versions of By Referral?

Sort of. The Referral Process modules of By Referral are the same for any industry – they are key referral foundations that are required no matter what you do.  The Industry or Advanced Modules, however, vary greatly between industries – this is the beauty of a modular training system.  We have a pretty good idea which modules suit which industries.

In addition, we have templates and examples of most processes for most industries.  If we are missing something, we can create it.  Plus we will be using your own materials and likely creating at least one specific client handout for use in your business.

What sort of hand-outs do participants receive?

Participants in a By Referral workshop receive a bound Workbook with the presentation slides and accompanying notes, a bound Action Plan, various templates and examples.

How does the follow-up email course work?

Participants receive one email every week for 3-months. Each email revisits a key topic from the course and suggests a number of action steps for the participant to undertake to make sure that part of the training has actually been implemented.

Each email is relatively short, just covering key points and moving onto the action steps as quickly as possible. Management can use the emails at team meetings to help in their overview of the implementation and keep the topic alive for several months.  The email follow-up course is included in the cost of a By Referral experience.

How does the email coaching work?

For the length of the follow-up email course, you can ask Vue Consulting for help in implementing your By Referral Action steps.  You can email for advice, feedback or more detail.  You can send documents for view or pose a problem or case study for review.  The ball’s in your court, but we will be there to help you.

It’s not totally unrestricted – you can only seek help on By Referral topics (not general business coaching), the coaching is only via email, we don’t create documents from scratch (its coaching, not consulting, so you need to provide something for us to review) and you need to allow 3-4 days for a response.  But trust us – you can get a lot of help from this system…