How to approach referral partners?
Now days every business in under information overload. Sending emails and cold calling is less and less effective and time consuming. Out of box thinking is required for finding good referral partners and develop and maintain good relationship with them. Following techniques can bring the result you are looking for.
Research about who the customers visit before they come to you
Customers typically come to you with problem and typically problems occur in series. For example, if customers are coming to you for gardening and landscaping services for a new home, then they must have gone to real estate agent to purchase the home. These upstream business can become you good referral partner.
Make list of all the contacts
Define the categories or segments in which you think you can have referral partners. For example, real estate agent, mortgage brokers etc. List all the possible contacts in each of these categories in your geographical area. Order this list as per high availability and high impact.
Reach Out
Reach out to these possible partners with proposal and offer. This is not a sales call. This is for a possible referral partnership to help each other.
