A referrer is a person who hands you a lead that was new to you until they spoke up. By that definition, most business owners have far fewer referrers than they think. The referrers they are missing are already in places they visit every week.
A referrer is measured in leads
Most business owners feel certain they have a referrer network, since many people know who they are. The source answers with one definition: the lead has to be one that was new to you when the referrer spoke up.
That definition measures output, and it ignores how well you know each other. Someone who says a good word about you at Friday dinner is no referrer if nobody at the table ever became a client. Someone you barely know can be one, if they sent you a specific person with a specific need, even if that happened once.
Suppose an accountant has nine hundred followers on her business Facebook page. She checks how many of them brought her a real client in a year, and the answer is one. A neighbor mentioned her to a friend, and the friend called. All the other followers know her, and her referrer is the neighbor.
Or suppose a garage owner counts every customer who says they heard about him, including people who just saw his sign on the street. He then separates the people who told a particular person about him from the people who merely heard of him secondhand. That year he is left with two real referrers, and no longer with dozens.
Your referrers are already around you
Once you know what you're looking for, the next question is where to find it. The source doesn't suggest waiting for someone to show up on their own. It gives an orderly method for locating referrers, which the booklet lays out as the three-page method.
One point about it lowers the bar for everybody. You don't need to know the people it turns up personally. According to the source, all that is needed is to know about them.
Suppose an HVAC technician buys supplies every week at the same hardware store, and sees the same man there each time. Only when he sits down to sort things out does he realize that the man is a renovation contractor, a natural contact for someone who installs air conditioning. He had seen the man there for two years and never once asked him for a name.
Or suppose an esthetician discovers that the woman who runs the bridal shop around the corner is a regular at the hair salon she herself visits every three weeks. Brides are a natural audience for facials before a wedding. The two worlds had been touching all along, and she didn't know it.
Why you have to ask out loud
A list of possible referrers is only half the job. Without an ask, it stays a sheet of paper. The source has no patience for people who put this off. It asks them what they are waiting for, and whether they expect someone else to sell the houses.
That question is aimed at the people you already meet on a regular basis and have never said a word to. The booklet breaks the ask itself into three components. When one of them is missing, you end up with small talk instead of an ask.
The result, when the ask really happens, is concrete. The source tells of a young woman who, soon after she put the method to work, had a service station attendant, two hairdressers at two shops and a supermarket checkout clerk providing genuine leads. That is four people in four different places.
How to reward a referrer
The last question is how you thank someone who brings you customers. The source describes salesmen who don't pay their referrers in cash. They take care of them when a productive lead arrives, for example by arranging a restaurant dinner or show tickets for the referrer and the referrer's spouse once the deal closes.
There is a simple practical advantage too. The referrer only needs to know how to reach you and how to hand over the lead. No training is needed, and the expense is lower.
The source admits that it never worked this way itself. It sees nothing wrong with the arrangement as long as it suits both sides, yet it does not think this is the best way, and it says it would choose a fixed payment.
The booklet still builds on the appreciation model, because of what it calls the reality on the ground. A fixed cash commission paid to an individual runs into licensing questions in regulated industries, and into reporting duties on recurring payments. The appreciation model works from tomorrow morning without that exposure.
Suppose a café owner gives each of her regular referrers a birthday cake on the house. That costs her less than a commission, and a cake is not something anyone has to report.
What the booklet has on this
In The Second Sale, this chapter ends with two short exercises: the three pages, and the full ask. The chapter itself also sets out six rules for managing a referrer. The chapter after it deals with delivery, which the source says spreads goodwill by word of mouth.
Your next referrers are already in the places you visit every week. What remains is to ask them.