Generating a Referral-Based Clientele through LinkedIn
The key to the success of many top-selling business brokers is developing clients through referrals.
Belinda Landers Jackson
Belinda Landers Jackson, a Professional Sales & Leadership Coach with Southwestern Consulting, spoke to the Georgia Association of Business Brokers on Sept. 1 about how to use LinkedIn to create what she called warm referrals.
View a recording of her presentation here.
Jackson said effectively using LinkedIn can help professionals connect to the people they need to meet to create business, and help each other close business deals faster.
“We’ve got to make it easy for people to refer us business,” Jackson said. She demonstrated how to create a list of job titles that one might target for networking, and how to pull a list of names from referral partners.
She suggested professionals pre-approach strategy in which you ask a prospective referral partner for a story on how they met, something they respect about the referral, some unique interest or funny story. “We call them golden nuggets,” or a warm way of creating an initial interaction. This warm introduction is much more effective than a going-for-the-jugular sales pitch because it puts people at ease.
GABB Board member Mike Ramatowski says developing clients through referrals can take a long time, but pays off. You should not ignore potential clients when you’re not doing business with them. “I recently closed a deal with someone that I had been working with for two years,” he said. Join GABB and find out how you can improve your referrals game.
Belinda sold and managed more than $1 Million in marketing budgets per year for multiple small- and medium-sized businesses. She also has extensive experience working with law firms, commercial and industrial products, home and home improvement businesses, and medical offices to increase awareness and market their business.
Southwestern Consulting is the professional sales training division of the oldest direct sales company in the US, The Southwestern Company.
The GABB is the state’s premier organization devoted to buying and selling businesses and franchises, and operates the state’s only real estate school dedicated to business brokering. For more information about GABB, please email diane.loupe@gabb.org, call or text 404-374-3990, or contact GABB president Dean Burnette at dean@b3brokers.com or (912) 247-3209.