Ferris Consulting

EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING YOUR REFERRAL NETWORK

April 26, 2006

How do you maintain a consistent stream of referrals? Enough referrals to help you grow your practice and attract well-paying clients that you love to work with? 
   
Imagine not having to be concerned about meeting revenue or billing goals. Your practice is thriving, you are getting the right kind of referrals, doing the work you enjoy and meeting your financial goals.

How would this affect your practice? Does the vision of having a consistent stream of referrals bring you a sense of peace? 

You can accomplish this by developing a system to nurture and grow key referral sources.

To achieve this goal you must be proactive and take the time necessary to build your referral network. 

There are five primary reasons your clients and referral sources will give you referrals:

1. They are highly satisfied with your service and their clients have a positive experience working with you.
2. They know that you want referrals.
3. They can easily communicate what you do, the value you provide and how this differs from other practitioners.
4. They know, like and trust you.
5. They have received value from you, e.g., a referral (this is key), new contact, relevant knowledge, etc.

Based on my research and personal experience with growing a practice and coaching hundreds of practitioners, the following are the six strategies that I have found to be most effective for developing a consistent stream of referrals:

1. Know who your top referral sources are and maintain a data base for tracking them. Create a list today if you do not already have one.
2. Get feedback from your referral sources and clients on  how you're doing. You can do this by consistently sending an evaluation survey to all your clients and seeking feedback from your referral sources on your services.  Good questions to ask referral sources include:                 - How would you rate the our firms level of service?              - Have your clients given you feedback about our service?
   - Are there any areas we could improve?
3. Once you develop your "A" list of key referral sources. Schedule time to meet with them in person, learn about their business, clients and interests.
      Good questions to ask referral sources in this meeting include:
      - How long have you been doing (insert profession)?
      - What inspired you to get into (insert profession)?
      - What kind of work do you enjoy most?
      - Tell me about your practice and your clients.
      - How would you describe your ideal client?
      - How do I describe your service to my clients and network?
4. Create a simple system for consistently staying in touch  with your "A" referral list.  A guideline you can use is to touch your top 20% of referral sources at least once every other month. Send articles of interest, newsletters, invitations to educational programs, information on new trends, laws or studies that are relevant to your referral source's practice/business. If you see their name in the paper or hear they won an award, send a congratulatory note.
5. Educate your referral sources to tell "your story" to their clients and colleagues. Provide them with an overview of your practice, an easy to understand core message and information on who your ideal client is. When you meet with your referral sources, ask them how they describe your work to their clients and colleagues.
6. Provide significant value to your referral sources. This is the most important strategy and can be accomplished by knowing about your referral source's goals, ideal client characteristics,key strengths and interests and helping them to be successful in their practice. Value can be provided through a referral, sending relevant  information to help them solve a problem or obtain a goal  or connecting them to a valued resource.

These six strategies summarize how you can nurture and grow existing referral sources. Your existing referral sources are your best opportunity for growing your practice because
they already know you.

You will see greater results by spending more time with a small group of targeted referral sources than less time with a larger, diffuse group of people.

Creating a referral strategy does not have to be complicated or take up significant time. With the right plan you can increase your referrals in as little as a few hours a month.

I would love to hear your comments about this newsletter and your successes and challenges with growing your referral network. Please click on the comments link below to add your perspective.

I am looking forward to hearing from you,

Liz Ferris- Ferris Consulting

Helping professionals and organizations achieve
accelerated growth

Need help with your referral strategy?
Ferris Consulting can help you implement a referral system
for your practice.
-----------------------------------
About Ferris Consulting
Ferris Consulting helps attorneys, mental health
professionals and financial specialists grow their practice
and provides marketing coaching, customized group telephone
seminars and practice growth workshops. For more
information contact Liz Ferris www.ferrisconsult.com


© 2005 Liz Ferris, All rights reserved.

Top Ten Strategies for Growing Your Collaborative Practice

April 1, 2006

The Top Ten Strategies For Growing Your Collaborative Practice 

By Elizabeth Ferris   

The following is a list of ten practical, focused strategies that you can implement to increase your collaborative cases. 

1.  Mine existing referral sources: Your existing referral sources are your best opportunity for growth.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview several referral sources for a family law firm. I discovered significant opportunities from the referral sources for the attorneys to grow their practice. One psychologist said she was so impressed with the work my client was doing in parent advocacy that she would like to invite the attorney to give joint presentations to mental health professionals in her community.

I told my client about this opportunity and she had no idea the referral source would be interested in helping her increase her visibility with other mental health professionals in the community.This one simple activity could significantly increase her credibility and visibility among a highly targeted audience.

Spend the time necessary to cultivate and grow relationships with your existing referral sources; they already know, like and trust you. And these are the three primary reasons people will refer to you.

2.  Be visible: Put your biography on the websites of organizations in which you have membership, including the IACP web site.   

I receive many calls a week from collaborative professionals who desperately want to grow their practice. The first thing I do is log into www.collaborativepractice.com and check to see what their bio says. In over 50% of cases, I see no picture, no training, and no description of services or comments. This bio page is a HUGE benefit of the IACP.

If you are a member of IACP and have not completed your bio, you are missing an opportunity for increasing your visibility and credibility among collaborative professionals, referral sources and prospective clients. Schedule the time to spend 20 minutes to update your profile today! 

If you need help creating your bio click on this link

3.  Highlight Collaborative Practice on your web site.

Everyone serious about growing their collaborative practice must have a web site that highlights collaborative practice. Your web site is a wonderful opportunity to educate the public and referral sources about collaborative practice. Revisit your site today. Does it give a professional image of your practice? Does it clearly communicate your value? Does it effectively educate prospective clients and referral sources on collaborative practice?

Need help with your web site, let me know www.ferrisconsult.com

4. Create a professional and organized client education packet.

In my interviews with divorcing clients, I have learned that most people are overwhelmed with their situation and have significant fears about their future.

One of the top values identified by clients was to be educated on options for divorce and the divorce process so they can make it through a difficult time with more assurance and confidence about their situation.

Professionals who take the time to educate their clients with organized education packets and information on their web site differentiate themselves from other attorneys, mental health professionals and financial specialists.

Assess your system for client education. Do you have a professional and well organized packet to give prospective clients? Do you have articles and resources on your web site? Are you seeking input from your clients on what information is useful for them?

5.  Create a concise, consistent and focused message about Collaborative  Practice

Many collaborative professionals still give too much information when someone asks, "What is Collaborative Practice?"  Effective marketing requires you to be able to clearly and concisely communicate your message into one sentence that can be easily repeated and understood.

This will require upfront planning, preparation, and practice with a focus on the client's interest.  Have you taken the time to create your response to the questions, " What do you do? and "What is Collaborative Practice?"

6.  Network with collaborative professionals

The number one referral source for collaborative cases is from other collaborative professionals. To increase your referrals from collaborative professionals, you need to spend the time getting to know other professionals by participating in collaborative activities and making a contribution to your collaborative community.

Being involved with your collaborative community will increase your visibility and credibility among key referral sources and, just as important, your participation will strengthen your collaborative community, which is essential for accelerating the growth of collaborative practice in general.

7.  Embrace the value of "collaborative team"

Successful collaborative professionals focus on the needs and interests of their clients. They have embraced the value of other disciplines in reaching a successful outcome for clients. They spend time learning about how to work with other disciplines and how to introduce other disciplines to their clients with confidence. How do you talk to clients about the collaborative team? And do you have a network of collaborative professionals who can be called in for your clients?

8.  Focus on creating an exceptional "Client Experience"

We are in an "experience economy;" clients are looking for experiences that connect with them in a personal and memorable way. This means it is essential for collaborative professionals to differentiate themselves by paying attention to and enhancing the client experience.

The collaborative process creates a better client experience because it engages clients in a way that traditional litigation does not. However, collaborative professionals must build on this experience by focusing on what is important for their clients. Do you conduct client evaluations to identify what is important to your clients? Do you have a trained and compassionate intake staff? What is the environment of your office? Do clients feel cared for and listened to in your office?

9.  Take ownership for growing your Collaborative Practice

The most frequent comment I hear from collaborative professionals is, "There are just not enough collaborative cases." It is true we need to accelerate the public 's awareness on what collaborative practice is and its benefits. However, significant growth can be achieved if each collaborative professional creates a plan for growing their practice and then consistently does the one to three strategies that will result in increased referrals. These strategies include:

• Achieve practice excellence
• Get involved in your collaborative community
• Increase your visibility and credibility among a defined target market
• Tell "the world" about collaborative practice

Click for information on How to Grow your Collaborative Practice workshops

10.  Internalize the value of Collaborative Practice

50-70% of communication is nonverbal. Many collaborative professionals have been trained in Collaborative Practice and want to grow their practice, but they still have a feeling of uncertainty about the the process, the team or the disqualification clause.  This uncertainty is communicated non verbally to the client or referral source. The best way to increase confidence about the process is through ongoing and advanced trainings, participation in practice groups, doing collaborative cases and seeking feedback.

Conclusion

By implementing the above strategies you will build your collaborative practice. The key is to pick the strategies that resonate with you and simply "do it".

Questions on growing your practice?   Contact Liz

If you have friends or colleagues that could benefit from receiving this newsletter please forward this to them.

Elizabeth Ferris, founder of Ferris Consulting, specializes in assisting collaborative professionals and mediators to grow their practice through results-oriented marketing and practice development strategies. She has worked with attorneys, mental health professionals and financial specialists across North America to implement effective strategies for increasing awareness and demand for their services. Elizabeth can be reached at 414-332-8452.

© 2005 Elizabeth Ferris, All rights reserved. You are free to use material in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear.

The attribution should read: "By Elizabeth Ferris of Ferris Consulting."

Please visit Liz's web site at www.ferrisconsult.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for collaborative law and mediation professionals."