CHAPTER 7
REFERRAL AMMUNITION

ASSEMBLING TESTIMONIALS, ENDORSEMENTS, AND LOVE LETTERS

ASK EARLIER THAN YOU WOULD THINK

Referrals don’t exist in isolation; they exist in the dynamic of trusting and mutually beneficial client relationships. Therefore, there is a plethora of synergistic promotional help surrounding them that can be used to stimulate referrals, but that is also valuable in and of itself.

Here is a counterintuitive example: some of the best people to ask for endorsements are those who did not accept a proposal from you. Think about this: you’ve built a trusting relationship; gained conceptual agreement on objectives, metrics, and value; and submitted a proposal with options and a strong ROI. But for some reason, the buyer decided not to go further. (My “hit rate” traditionally has been 80 percent, which means that my proposals are refused 20 percent of the time.)

The buyer may demur because conditions have changed, other priorities have intervened, your proposal is not what he expected, or any other of a host of reasons. The situation can’t be salvaged. However, the buyer is apologetic, and honestly regrets that you can’t do business together. This is a person with whom you have a trusting relationship.

Ask for referrals!

The buyer will often feel that she “owes” you something at this point, and a referral (or testimonial or serving as a reference) is readily accommodated. (If you’re concerned that the buyer can’t say you worked together, don’t be. You simply need an introduction to other buyers with the endorsement, “Our circumstances don’t permit it, but if they did, I would hire him in a second!”)

You can’t ask much earlier than when a proposal has been rejected!

You can be asking for any or all of these promotional aids.

References

Will the buyer serve as a reference to be called by other prospects? Many people prefer not to have something in writing, but to serve in this capacity. Two key rules: you should send only qualified buyers with whom you’ve developed a relationship to contact your reference, and you should alert the reference first that someone will be calling him. Never give references to a nonbuyer, period. Have sufficient references so that you can use each no more than once a quarter. (Trick of the trade: when you’re ready, provide a reference sheet of 15 people, three columns of five, filling up one sheet of stationery. Your prospect will usually opt not to call anyone, whereas if you provide three names, all three will be called. Business psychology 101.)

Testimonials

Many buyers prefer not to be interrupted or to have to respond to phone calls, so a testimonial is easier for them. Keys here: try to get permission to use the testimonial in multiple venues (blog, website, hard copy, and so forth); always use the person’s full name, title, and company, or the testimonial is worthless—“blind” testimonials (senior manager in a major financial firm) are ludicrous; and always ask for a video as well as a written testimonial. Video testimonials can be done informally with a small camera, need be only 30 to 60 seconds, and can be highly effective (see the discussion of technology in the next segment). Also, make sure you have permission to “update” testimonials should the need arise (newer projects, different title or position, and so on).

Endorsements

These are often called “blurbs” and are brief comments for a book jacket, brochure, article, or other promotional material that you are creating. (One trend these days is to have 25 endorsements in the opening pages of a book, which I find tedious and a case of overkill—three great ones on the jacket are far more impressive.) The higher level your buyer’s position is and/or the better known she is, the more attractive this option becomes. Name recognition matters most with the general public (as opposed to intimate and personal connections with referrals) for such endorsements.

There is a difference between a business and a character referral (or other promotional aspect), and both are important. The former talks about actual work that you’ve done together, while the latter addresses your ethics, integrity, longevity, credibility, and so on. Sometimes the former can provide both. But don’t overlook the value of the latter. You can derive these from contacts in your social, civic, and professional associations.

All of these support mechanisms from clients and relevant others create a powerful mix, not merely in terms of your own promotion to prospects, but also in terms of generating and perpetuating more of the same support. For example, clients who serve as references may have occasion (you should ensure that they do) to see others’ video testimonials on your site and want to be a part of that for their own promotional and ego reasons.

Others may want you to reciprocate, with endorsements of their role in projects, or their firm’s role, or their products and services (see coauthoring, discussed later). One of the most overlooked referral techniques—also useful in garnering the other promotional assets discussed here—is providing referrals, serving as a reference, granting endorsements, and writing testimonials. The more you give, the more you get. Some people may never say so much as a “thank you” or acknowledge what you’ve done, but others (most) are quite gracious in reciprocating. Moreover, you will be at the top of the priority list.

You aren’t alone in requesting referrals and other promotional support. By providing these “boosts” for others where appropriate, you raise your own stature in terms of their priorities as to whom to help in return.

Thus, as they say about voting in Jersey City, ask early and often! Diversify your requests to include the other aspects of promotion, which will create synergy and allow people additional options when some are inappropriate or prohibited. Accept both business and character referrals. And take the initiative to “give to get.”

Now let’s examine how to exploit the positive results of this work.

USING TECHNOLOGY TO EXPONENTIALLY IMPROVE IMPACT

Referrals were once made by letter or phone call, or sometimes in person. Testimonials were hard-copy letters that were then copied and sent on to prospects. (I still have my old bound book of testimonial letters that my printer would put together for me.) References were sought by phone or mail.

All of this took a lot of time.

Referrals are turbocharged today because of the Internet and the new informality of business and society. However, bear in mind that personal introductions are always superior to all other forms for these reasons:

• E-mail is one-dimensional, without inflection, and with little privacy; it can easily be lost in the overall “noise” of this type of communication.

• Voice mail is two-dimensional and can add emphasis and intonation, but it’s also prone to be lost amidst the crowd, and there is no chance to respond or follow up in real time.

• Personal interaction is three-dimensional, and provides for immediate relationship building and follow-up. In my experience, the likelihood of gaining an immediate appointment with a referral done in person, with all three parties present, is over 90 percent. The other two options are 50 percent at best, and that’s with a far longer delay.

Having established the primacy of in-person referrals, let’s examine how technology can raise the probability of future meetings and business above the norm.

Video Testimonials

We’ve touched on these throughout the book. You should plan to have two or three on your home page and others spread around your site to touch on relevant topics.

Video Interviews

A third party interviewing your buyer on camera is highly effective (more so than if you do it yourself). These, too, should be brief, but they should allow the buyer not only to sing your praises but to illustrate the results of your work together.

A Podcast or Teleconference Series

You can ask your clients to participate in five-minute mini-interviews or discussions with you that you turn into a “series,” running one a month. These can be either passive on your website and blog, or active by your sending them to prospects with your promotional material.

E-mail Signature Files

If you have permission, place a testimonial in your signature file. (Too few consultants use these well in any case—just today I had to ask a woman what her last name is, since it appears nowhere on her e-mail at all!) Place a terrific testimonial line in your signature file, since you’re sending out thousands of these potential promotion pieces a month and don’t even realize it.

Blogging

In your blogging, include as many war stories and quotes as you can. For example:

My subject today is distinguishing between teams and committees, which are two different entities requiring two different management approaches. My latest encounter with this need was at Acme, Inc., where senior vice president of operations Herb Chambers noted, “We imagined we had to provide team building until Alan came along in the nick of time and demonstrated that we had no teams to build! He opened our eyes to new management challenges.”

This is a key form of reference and testimonial that you can control once you acquire permission to use such quotes. You can see how natural they are in the context of your article. And this is an article that “in the old days” would have had to wait for the mail to circulate it, but that now can be instantly shared on a blog, with commentary from readers and your response to the commentary. You could even include at the conclusion of the article (again, with permission): “If you’d like to contact Herb Chambers and learn more about the identification and need for committees in place of teams, you can use this e-mail address with this article’s headline in the subject line.”

Newsletters

There are a great many electronic newsletters because with the advent of the Internet, they can be highly targeted and content-rich for a select audience—these people read them.

You can run a standing column in your newsletter called “war stories” or “success samples” or whatever. These can include names and quotes from clients who would be good sources for others who want to learn more about you. (We’ll talk about coauthoring in the pages that follow.)

Don’t simply take no for an answer. You’re a consultant. Find a way in which your referrals, testimonials, and other endorsements also improve your client’s condition.

COAUTHORING, COPRODUCING, AND COOPERATING

Some of the most powerful referral ammunition is created when you and your client collaborate. That collaboration can take the form of a published article, appearances together, joint sponsorships, and so forth.

Clients love good publicity, to such an extent that it can lead them to subordinate rules and policies against endorsing consultants or allowing public use of their names and circumstances. Here are a few examples of how some of my mentor program members have successfully collaborated with clients:

• A jointly written paper on an effective methodology for improving customer response time in peak, seasonal periods. The client did not see a competitive advantage in trying to keep the techniques confidential, since it’s hard to keep a secret in the industry. Instead, the client felt it was important to allow its customers to know that it had pioneered the effort. The consultant wrote the article, the client vetted it and obtained legal editing and approval, and, with the weight of the client’s name, the piece was published in a major business magazine.

• At an industry conference, the consultant was assured by the organizers that a keynote position would be offered if the consultant’s client agreed to also appear. The consultant arranged for a presentation of her own, then a few remarks by the client, then an interview, followed by questions from the audience, all within 60 minutes. They appeared together in the publicity for and from the event, and the session was recorded.

• A consultant asked dozens of clients to appear on his teleconferences as interviewees. Ten agreed, and he proceeded to launch a full year of these offerings, which highlighted his work with these clients, but from the clients’ point of view. He opened the sessions to questions at the conclusion. These were full-hour testimonials to the clients’ work, which listeners paid to subscribe to, and which were used as both products and marketing pieces.

• Clients were offered a guest column on a consultant’s blog, with the offer from the consultant of editing and polishing, as needed. They were given templates to use if they needed help. The consultant found that many clients saw such vehicles as aids in their own careers, in certain academic pursuits, and in simply catering to ego.

• When she found that her client was heavily engaged in a national effort to raise funds for research to combat a disease, the consultant offered to be the “point person” in her own hometown, and served on the client’s steering committee to set strategy for the efforts. Her photo and information appeared in the literature that was sent out, and she attended the fund-raising and volunteer sessions.

• During the client’s meeting with customers, which lasted for two days in a convention atmosphere, the consultant readily accepted an invitation to explain why his client was so innovative and what that had meant for improved service to the client’s customers. The consultant readily did this for free, and was mobbed by attendees after the session.

You might think that many of these techniques would be more properly seen as marketing tactics. You’d be correct in your identification of them, but I have a specific reason for raising them here, and in this book.

I’ve continually established that referrals (and related testimonials, references, endorsements, and so on) are as important as revenue at the moment. You can look at fees as current revenue and referrals as future revenue. If you can obtain them concurrently, you’re maximizing your ROI from any one client.

Consequently, your ability to engage in what may logically seem like marketing activities is actually a simultaneous attempt to build your referral base while delivering value during the course of a consulting project (or any professional services relationship). What you must bear in mind is that a client isn’t merely a person or organization for whom you are providing certain “deliverables.” A client constitutes a relationship that should be “mined” (I love the word exploited, but you may not) for as much present and future income as possible.

That’s why you must interact only with true buyers, for example. Lower-level people are interested only in the deliverables and can’t provide the referrals and relationships you need in any case. That’s why you need to begin “seeding” these ideas from the beginnings of your work with your clients. Not only do you want them prepared, but you never know when the opportunities for cosponsorship, coauthoring, and so on may present themselves.

Think of yourself as constantly collaborating with your clients, especially your key buyers, so that they become inured to your suggesting certain joint efforts. That’s impossible if you don’t see yourself as a peer of the buyer, and if you don’t conduct yourself as an equal of the buyer.

LANGUAGE TEMPLATE

Here is some more suggested language, this time using this chapter’s contents and methodology. Language is everything in referral “ammunition,” assuming that you’ve done a great job and your buyer and key client reference points are delighted. Ammunition is wasted if you don’t have the opportunity for publicity and/or if you’re too timid to use it.

In that omnipresent spirit of having great value and the obligation to share the results of that value with others, consider these gambits:

I’d like to ask you for an early favor that will surface later. Would you consider—when we both believe it to be appropriate—a video testimonial for my website and my blog? I ask now because I realize that there may be legal permissions required, and I wanted to set the stage for what so many of my best clients have done.

Notes: “Painting people into the picture” is very powerful, so the more buyers who have agreed to do this for you, the more you’ll be able to get in the future. The first ones are always the toughest and most important. Also, you want to know early if there will be a legal issue so that you can prepare for other alternatives that will be more acceptable to the client. I’m reminded of the famous call home by a daughter in her freshman year at college to her stunned parents. “I’m experimenting with cocaine, have been arrested for drunk driving, lost the gold pendant you gave me, and the guy I was seeing was sent back to prison, but not before he got me pregnant. Just kidding! But I did flunk chemistry …” (So if the video is turned down, perhaps coauthoring a paper will be a walk in the park!)

There is a major industry conference scheduled for 16 months from now. I had intended to approach the association’s executive director to speak on the very interventions and results we’re going to be engaged in here. Is this something that might appeal to you? I can mention your possible involvement, but not guarantee it. This could range from not mentioning the company at all to your copresenting with me. If the latter is of any interest, why don’t I run a proposal by you first, and you can put the time aside on your calendar.

Note: When I first started speaking professionally, major conferences were sometimes scheduled two years in advance in terms of content, presenters, and themes. Today, it’s often less than a year (although the dates are set far in advance). You want to pique your buyer’s interest, introduce the idea, and demonstrate that you’d do the legwork, but also clear the date. In these cases, ego and public acknowledgment may be important factors for both the client organization and the buyer, especially if media will be covering the event.

The Harvard Business Review has consistently published the results of organization change efforts when the organization and the consultant have collaborated on the piece. The same is true of the Sloan Management Review. The Wall Street Journal doesn’t accept such articles, but it will assign a reporter to create a piece on a dramatic corporate change or turnaround. I have some samples here. I’m thinking that this might be great publicity for you and the company, and I’d be willing to try to put it in motion and put things together. Should I pursue this?

Note: These high-profile names will generally get a company’s attention. Someone in the media told me once that when an investigative show such as 60 Minutes does an unfavorable piece on a firm, its stock price goes up the next day in most cases! The focus and attention are highly valuable, especially in the context of an intelligent, proactive improvement. You can’t buy this kind of publicity. But put it in motion with the client’s permission early, because you want to strike while the project is current and the results are contemporary. Make that case to your buyer, as well.

Why don’t we present the progress and the results of the project together during the quarterly divisional meeting? Everyone will be present, we can give a uniform message, and we can answer questions in real time. I think it will place the results in a proper priority, and we can publicly recognize those who were instrumental in our progress and also force the reluctant ones to get on board the ship.

Note: I appeared on stage at Avon with a divisional vice president in front of her 400 people. It was extremely successful, and I was fortunate in that she was a natural presenter and our styles meshed. You may have to make allowances for buyers who aren’t great speakers or who tend to see such meetings in narrow terms. But the absolute key for you is that these meetings almost always have outsiders who are potential referrals for you, and they can see you and your buyer both waxing eloquent about a project that has such public notice. I’ve never walked off a stage like this without people asking me to stop by to see them, or asking the buyer to introduce me.

What would you think about an ongoing interview with me that I’d put in a podcast as the project progressed? We could keep a “real-time” record of our work, and I’d be happy if you used this internally to apprise people of our progress and needs. I’d use it on my blog to inform my community about how a project such as this one unfolds. Naturally, we’d hide any confidential details, and you’d have the final editing option.

Note: If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Why not create something that both you and the buyer can use in slightly different ways? The buyer can create internal publicity and an automated device to keep people informed of what to expect and how best to participate. You can obtain a narrative of how your methodology unfolds to create dramatic results working as a partner of the buyer. Ten minutes once a week would be a fine start.

Through these language templates, I’ve tried to provide you with sample language to apply to create referrals, various types of endorsements, and all kinds of support. The language is similar to what you might use in other marketing situations, but here it is specifically directed toward referral business. Remember our fundamental sequence: language controls discussion, discussion controls relationships, relationships control business.

You can see that referrals are often directional, with you asking for them and the buyer providing them. But they are also often indirect, with your appearance with the buyer, collaboration, coauthorship, cosponsorship, and other aspects of an excellent relationship demonstrating to others how good you are.

Referrals, and the associated promotional potential that surrounds them, are therefore far more than simply, “Can you give me three names?” The technique that Hal Mapes used (which I described in the first chapter of this book) works on a very basic level, almost in a commodity transaction. (“Can I have three?” “I can give you two.” “Can I have them today?” “Check with me next week.”)

What we’ve built so far, three-quarters of the way through the book, is a far more sophisticated, integrated, and continual referral flow. You are laying the groundwork, looking for opportunities, suggesting many alternatives, and even setting up “referral by association”!

Adjust the language I’ve suggested to suit your own style, clients, and business. But start talking. Make these approaches a habit with every client. You can always stop if you think the results or the circumstances become inappropriate. But if that’s the case on many of your engagements, then you have an entirely different problem, don’t you?

KEEPING CURRENT WHILE SHOWING CONSISTENCY

If you are diligent and consistent, some of the promotional material you gather from happy clients will grow old. So long as you continue amassing these nuggets, that’s not a problem.

But what should you do with the older material? Do you want endorsements and testimonials that are clearly several years old? What about references where the individual’s contact information is different? (One consultant I know was embarrassed when a prospect informed him that a reference he called had retired five years previously.)

Here are some guidelines to consider as your “vault” of these assets gets filled:

• For references, check at least annually to ensure that they are current. That includes title, phone, e-mail, and, of course, company affiliation.

• For testimonials in hard copy, I suggest you establish a booklet, which your local printer can assemble. Place the testimonials in chronological order (copies are fine, but on letterhead) to demonstrate consistent quality and high marks from clients over a long period of time. Keep very current testimonials (those from the past year) separate in your press kit, but provide the booklet for added continuity and evidence of continual excellence. Eventually, place the past year’s testimonials in the booklet. You don’t want the entries to suddenly end five years ago!

• For electronic testimonials, use current ones throughout your website as appropriate, but also create an archive where older ones are stored and prospects can access them. It’s a good idea to have excerpts from all your testimonials rotate on your home page so that they don’t take up too much space, but there is constant evidence of customers’ delight.

• For video testimonials, try to avoid references to calendar time when they are recorded. If you can do this, they have tremendous staying power (assuming that no one is wearing bell bottoms or Nehru jackets). But you will have to change them if the subjects change companies or retire. You can establish a video archive, as well.

In general, the higher the level of the source and the better known the company, the more you can perpetuate these testimonials even if someone retires or changes jobs. A CEO of a Fortune 500 company is going to have high impact no matter what’s changed (unless she’s been arrested!), since at the time she worked with you, she was moved to endorse your work.

So there is a nice blend of staying current but also demonstrating consistency in the quality of your work over time. The only problems you may encounter are when there are inexplicable, long gaps or a sudden end to your testimonials. That’s why you should assiduously pursue these testimonials throughout the tenure of your client engagements.

As you acquire more and better clients, don’t feel that you can let up on the acquisition of referrals, references, and endorsements. It’s easier than ever to obtain them in those circumstances, and you should no more refuse to seek them than you would refuse to accept the fees from current clients. Fees and referrals are equally important in your work: one is present tense, the other future tense.

If and when your key contacts change positions, you can request permission to update their information. For example, a change of title and/or location would be simple. However, contacts who change companies create challenges. After all, the testimonial was for your work at the former firm. So, barring the fact that you might work for the new firm, you’ll want to be able to say “former chief operating officer” or “former director of national sales.”

If someone has retired, you can say, “John Jones, Vice President of R&D, now retired,” or “former Vice President of R&D John Jones.” You can also say, with permission, “Jane Sanders, former Vice President of Acme, now CEO of Global.”

Beware of the following:

• Poor publicity. That applies not just to your endorser, but to the firm. After the breakup of Andersen, I stopped using its endorsements. I wasn’t comfortable with the public perception of the firm and its connection to Enron, even though the work I had done for it was in an entirely different area.

• Changing times. I don’t think it would be hugely helpful to have three dozen vacuum-tube manufacturers attest to your prowess, unless you have transistor people in there as well! Working for the vinyl record people is not necessarily a plus, despite your outstanding work.

• Firms that were great when you were there, but aren’t so great any more. If you read the iconic In Search of Excellence, you’ll find that many of those stellar examples at the time have since fallen on quite hard times. The nature of their mediocre performance today can easily overwhelm the brilliance of your efforts when they were stars years ago.

Keep your supporting accolades current while also creating a rich history. You can’t go wrong with evidence of long-term success.