How do you Get Referrals?

The goal of networking is to identify people who you need to know, need to develop a relationship with, or who you can help. However, rarely is the networking meeting the appropriate forum to spend more than a few minutes talking to each other. There are too many distractions for a relationship building meeting. You don’t have to go have coffee. You can go to a ball game together, attend a school sports game, or any bonding experience. However, at some point you need to spend some quiet discussion time together to get to know each other, get a feel for who they are, get an impression of their personal potential and their potential to help you.

If they can help you, then you need to help them to help you. This is where the Marketing Document is used. If they wish to refer you, the Marketing Document gives them the value proposition, what you want to do, and how to contact you. If they want to see if they can help you network, your list of networking venues tells them where you are networking and let’s them see if you are already going to places that they know of which might help or even invite you to their networking venues. If they want to understand what company profile you are looking for, the Marketing Document will provide the profile. If they wish to see your top ten target companies, then they can see them to talk about them and introduce you to people whom they know or even suggest additional companies that you may wish to consider and people at those companies whom you might wish to meet. Finally, when you leave, you can leave a copy of your Marketing Document so that if they later think of something or someone who can help you, you have given them a tool to help you.

The primary goal of a referral meeting is to get to know each other better, see how you can help each other, and get other referrals to people who can help you get where you want to go.

Once you finish the meeting, you need to follow-up with a thank you note and mention the actions you have agree to take – and then do them. I use email for this purpose. So do most of my contacts. On a rare occasion someone writes a handwritten note. That is nice but not necessary in today’s fast paced world. Besides, I can’t electronically save or file a handwritten note.

If you get a referral and subsequently meet with someone else, be sure to keep the referee in the loop. Remember, their reputation is on the line. Also, copying them in the emails lets the referred person know that the referee is interested in following the results of the referral. Wouldn’t you be interested?

Most of this is common courtesy. However, in today’s world common courtesy is not too common. If you honor them and the referee, they will remember you even if they cannot help you. In a sense, referral meetings are still a numbers game. The difference is that you are playing with qualified loaded dice.

The best referral meeting is by a trusted influencer, advisor, or friend into the decision maker. This one-on-one meeting is usually out of their office and away from phones. The table is set. The opportunity is yours. If they want to hire you, they will bring it up. Your goal is to let them know who you are, what your value is, answer questions, ask them questions, and get to know each other. Worst case, they may refer you to someone else. Best case, they may want to help you get a job in their company. You win either way.

In every case, after the meeting, let the person who referred you to know what happened. This is a common courtesy by a trusted friend. Thank them and ask them again how you can help them. That is what friends do.

The Third Major Paradigm Shift of Jobpreneurship™ 101

If you have followed all the steps of the process, you will likely be finding opportunities and people who will want to help you and hire you. That doesn’t mean you should want the job. Some employers will not offer you the opportunity, location, compensation, culture, and situation that you should take.

It is better to be as careful in choosing where you should work as the company should be careful of whom they should hire. Both parties have risks. Rewards only occur if the right decisions are made.

If there appears to be a fit, the hiring manager or decision maker will emotionally want to hire you. She may even ask you to write a job description for the job she wants you to do.

However, the process is only moving to the next phase.

When procurement gets a buying specification, they still have to source and select who will get the job. There will be many factors and there should be other competitors. You are not guaranteed of getting the job. By company policy (and sometimes by law) the process has to be followed. However, if you have the emotional support of the decision maker and even wrote the job description, the odds of you getting the job are extremely high.

When HR gets an approved job description to post, company policy and often laws may require them to still source a slate of candidates. The wise decision maker will follow these policies. Who knows who else is applying for the job? Who knows if the process identifies red lights in who you are? Who knows what legal challenges or violations of state and federal law may occur?

The situation is that you have the emotional buy-in but still will likely need to go through the process to get a formal job offer. The difference is that, through Jobpreneurship™, you should have the inside track.

So what is the paradigm shift?

First, your resume should be accurate but crafted to match the job description; particularly if you wrote it! In sales, this would be a sales woman writing a response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) based upon the company proposal that she helped to write! The resume should be solution focused (your value proposition tailored to what they want) backed by factual evidence, stories, work history, and key words that match the job description.

Second, when you are asked to go through the multiple levels of interviews, you treat them as sales calls. Each sales call is to a different audience who will have different interests and objectives. In Jobpreneurship™ 101, we discuss the three major levels that most job seekers will encounter.

Third, when you are given a formal job offer, it is merely a step in the negotiation process. The higher your level, the more room there may be for negotiations and how to proceed. You would be wise to ask for help, including legal counsel if the offer is in the form of a legal contract.

Fourth, when you get the job, you have just started the next phase which is how to succeed in the company, get promotions, and to implement Jobpreneurship™ within a company framework. The same process works for career development.

Fifth, as you are succeeding in your career, you continue to apply Jobpreneurship™ as a lifestyle with external relationships and friends. Most jobs today only last for a couple of years.

The difference is that now you know how to fish for your next job. Jobpreneurship™ is a life skill you can use for every job transition and career progression. You will only get better at it as you continually practice each step.

Finally, as you master Jobpreneurship™, we encourage you to teach others how to fish. Not only will you learn more by teaching others but your brand (reputation) for helping others will increase. Besides, it is how to mentor others and to help your friends, family, and children learn the same insider secrets that you have mastered.