BRX Pro Tip: How do You Encourage Clients to Refer?

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, here’s something that I think is really important if you’re going to have a sustainable business. It’s a question that comes up quite a bit, I think. How do you encourage your existing clients to refer new clients to you?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:22] Yeah. That’s everybody’s dream, to have that one client you have now have them refer other clients to you. That way you don’t have this big, you know, customer acquisition challenge. You just have to do good work and then your client’s going to refer other clients to you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:36] You know, that’s what we all dream to happen. But in order for it to happen, you have to put systems in place and processes in place that encourages your clients to refer new clients to you. This doesn’t happen just by magic or just because you want it to. A lot of clients don’t want to refer you other clients because they’re afraid that if you’re doing work for them, that somehow you’re not going to have time for themselves. So it’s kind of self-serving in a way that they don’t want to refer you because they want to keep you their secret.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:08] So, a way to encourage your clients to refer new clients to you is something that we do is we always ask our guests to suggest and reach out to other people like themselves to also be a guest. Make it very easy for them to refer guests to you, and guess what? They will do it because it makes them look good. They get to be a hero that they connected somebody to be on a show. That helps them kind of feel good about themselves, and they don’t mind making that referral.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:40] They’re not necessarily saying, hey, buy Business RadioX’s services, but they are suggesting somebody who probably meets the right profile that could be a client. And then, now it’s up to you to be able to move them into becoming a client. And since we spend a lot of time reverse-engineering our clients shows to be about their best prospects, anybody they refer obviously, any guest they refer will typically be a good prospect for us. So that works very well in our favor.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:12] This way, by doing this, by creating this kind of simple way to help our guests help us, it’s a win-win. It helps them look good. It helps them serve their community, but it also helps us get in front of people who might be able to benefit from our services. So if you can create a system that is a win-win, that helps your client get something that they desire and also help you get something you desire, which is a new client, then you have a great system in place and a great chance to grow your business organically through your existing clients.

BRX Pro Tip: How Do You Keep Your Pipeline Full?

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, anyone in a selling-marketing relationship-building capacity needs to be thinking through this question, how do you keep your pipeline full?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:19] Yeah. Every successful business development person knows that it’s imperative to have a full pipeline, and do you have an effective way to ensure that good quality leads are entering your pipeline every single day?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] At Business RadioX, we’re fortunate that we’ve kind of figured out a simple yet effective way to keep our client’s pipelines filled with the right people at the right quantity and scalable over time. So since we’ve figured this out, I thought we could share some of this with our listeners right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:53] The first thing we do is we reverse engineer a show that serves the people that are most important to our clients. When we reverse engineer the show, what we’re doing is we’re saying, “Okay, who? What? Who are the right people for our client to meet? Who do they have to meet more of? And what can we do right now to create a show that attracts them to us?” And then, we reach out and then we invite all those people onto the show. And it’s not just the top of the funnel in terms of, okay, this is the prospect that writes the check. We’re also inviting the association that serves that group. We’re inviting on the influencers and the people with authority inside that group. We’re inviting on the referral sources within that group. We’re creating a whole 360-degree kind of a hug around that industry, that niche, and it’s putting our client at the center of this. They become the de facto media outlet for that niche that they serve. And we have the tools and the skills in place to help them serve that group by telling their stories and by inviting them onto the show that they want to become part of.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:06] When we do this, our clients then go out on their own and invite these people onto the show to tell their stories and to share what makes them special and unique. This helps our clients get to know and serve the people most important to them. And most importantly, they get to build great relationships with these people that often lead to them doing business down the road.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:26] This isn’t a quick fix. This isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. This is something that helps them over the long term. Build the brand that they need to have that puts them at the center of the most important people to them. They get to be the generous, good corporate citizen that’s serving the entire ecosystem and that we are the engine that helps them do that. And we do that every day with different businesses and different niches and in different communities around the country.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:54] So that’s what helps us keep that business development pipeline full. We’re serving the entire ecosystem so our pipeline never dries up. As new people enter the pipeline, we’re there first because we’re the official media program or show for that niche in that local market. We’re in that industry. So that’s how we do it at Business RadioX. Our pipeline is always full.

BRX Pro Tip: Multi-Tasking in Humans is a Myth

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, you said the other day in a meeting that multitasking in humans is a myth.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:13] Yeah. I think this is one of those kinds of myths that have been going around for a long time now because we have the appearance that we’re able to do lots of things simultaneously, but in actuality, we might be able to do lots of things in a mediocre manner simultaneously, but we’re really not getting the job done in all of those ways. So it becomes inefficient and it becomes almost an excuse to fail because you’re trying to do too many things at one time.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] The human brain is not a computer, as we sometimes think that it is. It’s very complex. It can do lots of things, but it can’t handle multiple tasks at one time. We’re not wired that way. That’s not what we do. We are best when we focus on one thing at a time. So use your computer to schedule time for yourself, to focus on one thing at a time. That’s a way to use technology to your benefit. So schedule time so you can think deeply about this one item and spend time creating the systems and processes that make sure that that one item gets done correctly time and time again. Then, move on to the next problem to be solved.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:28] When you think that your, you know, your texting and then you’re listening and your kids, you know, you’re paying attention to your kid and you’re watching a movie with your spouse and then you’re sending emails, you’re not doing any of those things well. You’re just doing a kind of a crappy job on all of them, and you’re not getting the most out of that time. So it’s much more efficient to spend the time thinking deeply about one item, get it right, figure it out as completely as you can, and then move on to the next item. That’s how you solve problems. That’s how you move the needle in your business.

BRX Pro Tip: Seek Out Mentors

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, one piece of counsel that you’ve shared with many of our clients and colleagues is, seek out mentors when you’re just starting out in your career or your business.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:21] Yeah, or any project you’re working on. I think it’s so important to find people that have already kind of been there and done that and to lean on them, to ask advice. This is going to save you so much time down the road. It’s going to save you so many mistakes. You don’t have to listen to every single word they say. You don’t have to follow their exact path, but you should take the time to learn from them.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] And if you can’t find a mentor that’s willing to talk to you about whatever it is you’re working on, there’s been books written for thousands of years with the smartest people on the planet. They’re at your disposal that you can read and learn from them because everything that’s happening now has been done in some form or fashion in the past. So, you can learn from lots and lots of people. And a mentor doesn’t have to be a human being that you’re having coffee with. It could be a book that you’re reading that happened thousand years ago.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:14] So, I think it’s so important, especially if you’re young, to find a few mentors who are generally invested in your success, that they can kind of share their wisdom and they want to share the wisdom because they want to have a legacy and they want to help you become successful. And then, the key to finding and working with mentors is to create a system around keeping them informed about your progress, schedule regular check-ins, or regularly send them updates on your progress and your challenges. And if they really care, they will let you know what you’re doing well, where you should focus your attention and who they can connect you with to help you get to the next level faster.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:56] So, that’s a fair trade for what they’re sharing with you. They’re getting a lot out of it. So when you ask a mentor for help, it’s not something that they’re just altruistically doing. They do get something out of it because they get to prolong their legacy. They get to be heard, they get to be valued, and they get to be appreciated. So people like that and that’s a fair trade, and this person that’s a seasoned veteran is happy to spend, invest some time in people that are truly passionate and truly want to learn. So this is not asking somebody to do something for nothing. They are getting something out of it.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:37] So I highly recommend identify mentors, find those people that really do care and just, you know, try to acquire as many of them as you can and to really update them on your progress, let them know where things are going, where you’re struggling, and give them the opportunity to help.

BRX Pro Tip: Outcomes vs. Activity

Stone Payton: [00:00:01] Welcome back to BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor, Stone Payton here with you. Lee, today’s topic, outcomes versus activity.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:10] Yeah. This is really a key point when you’re doing any type of selling, especially consultative selling. You’re not really selling the thing you think you’re selling. And the prospect isn’t buying the thing they think they’re buying. When they come to work with us, they might think that they’re buying radio or they’re buying a radio show. And in some ways, they’re buying that. But in essence, what they really are buying is the outcome that they get when they’re doing their show properly.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:39] What they want is to recreate the feeling they got when they were a guest on the show. Those are more the actual things that they’re buying. So, in order for them to buy the thing you’re selling is you really have to get to the why, that’s layers deep in the experience. So, you have to remember, they’re not buying a radio show. They’re not sponsoring a radio show. They are buying a tool that helps them get in front of hard-to-reach people.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:05] They’re buying something that’s going to help them sell more stuff. They’re buying something that’s going to help them nurture relationships with people that are important to them. They’re buying status in their ecosystem. They’re buying a platform in which to share the stories of the people that are serving them. All of these things are the things they’re buying. The radio show is just the thing we’re selling to help them achieve that desired outcome.

BRX Pro Tip: Meaning Matters Transcript

Stone Payton: [00:00:02] And we are back with BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, on a lot of our materials, website, a lot of our conversation, we will share with people – and we mean it from the bottom of our heart – your story matters, share it here, but you’re also fond of saying, “Meaning matters.”

Lee Kantor: [00:00:21] Yeah, I think it’s very important to elevate the show in the mind of your client to have greater meaning than some tactic to get more clients. I think, when your client believes that their show is really serving the ecosystem that serves them, and they really believe that they are having an impact on their guests, and their industry, and their profession, and their community, I think we become very sticky, and they become—they are on a path to being a client for life. So, anything you can do to show your client the impact that they’re making, that difference they’re making in their community, the better shot you have of keeping that client for life.