Building a Referral Network: 6 Mistakes to Avoid

Everyone has to work together.

As a health coach you can become an expert in several areas: nutrition, behavioral change psychology, fitness and athletic performance, stress management and recovery, and more.

Regardless of how many certifications you earn, you will invade customers with progress problems that you do not have, does not have the skills, training, expertise or legal right to resolve.

Here is the thing …

You Perhaps not an expert in repairing marriages, treating GERD or counseling Sumone with an eating disorder, but Subson is different.

A healthy referral network arrives here.

By connecting your customer with such a person, you can stay within your practice, give a welcome company to respect colleagues, And Help your customer to solve his problem.

(Total. Supercoach. Move.)

All our certification programs Take on sections that are dedicated to education coaches on how to build robust referral networks from professionals who are skilled in solving common customer problems.

In this article we will discuss how to do that – by exploring the top Errors We see coaches making. Avoid them and you will be referred with confidence.

First, what is a referral network?

A referral network is a list of additional professionals, companies and sources that benefit customers.

Your network can be virtual or virtual:

• Doctors, psychologists, registered dietitians and other professionals with the training and references to help customers with problems outside your practice. (For an innocent renewal, see our Scope of practical work leaf.
• Colleague health coaches and personal trainers with deep knowledge in an ANA outside your experience. (For example, a customer is interested in learning yoga, but you don’t have the idea to greet the sun.)
• Workshops, fitness groups, webinars, food services and other sources that support customers during their behavioral change trip.

To refer customers with confidence to competent practitioners with excellent reputation, you want to do a Submail. That brings the top errors to avoid.

Error #1: You build your network For Launch your company.

For recently certified health coaches, the task “Create Referral Network” can double as a postponement tool, says PN’s director of community involvement Kate Solovieva.

Instead of entering into customers, these coaches are looking for an increase in professionals, so that it is brave to be prepared for everything that has a potential referral situation. Still, so much if they continue to work on it, their list is never ‘complete’.

That’s because …

“We can” prepare for every day, “says Solovieva.

The solution

Record customers so that you are certified.

Forks! That may sound scary, but the best way to find out that you are ‘gaps’ to start your practice and see where your customers need unlawful help than what you can offer.

Add people to your referral network over time if you:

• Make contact with professionals on LinkedIn and other virtual networking sites
• Leun in Peer -Networks (such as the Precision Nutrition Facebook communities)
• Mix with members of your Local Chamber of Commerce
• Chat with family, friends and customers about professionals and resources they love
• Living health conventions and other local events in which a variety of health workers ten to meet
• Search for (and try!) Providers based on your own health needs

Error #2: You assume that your reference list will cover All Customer needs.

So we have mentioned above, you will snow to anticipate every question from the customer in advance -and that’s okay.

This is especially true if you almost coach with customers worldwide.

(You may know three fantastic massage therapists where you live in Toronto, Canada, but that knowledge will not help if your client is located in Wellington, New Zealand.)

Similarly, sub -professionals or resources can work for Subclievees, but not others.

(For example, you can be aware of different options for supplying meals, but nobody is suitable for that vegetable client who has a strict gluten -free diet.)

The solution

Learn how to help customers find the professionals and resources they need.

You could:

• Ask customers to describe their preferences. (Do they prefer to work with a sexual genre? Do they want to meet each other personally or online? Do they feathers from the eagerness and creativity of a new professional, or the “I have seen it all” of a more seasoned professional?)
• Spend on a coaching session on online search for potential professionals and services together.
• Encourage customers to contact three practitioners, ask questions and use what they learn to choose a winner.

Error #3: You let social clumsiness network options derail.

Reach for strange required sub -mothers. You have to place yourself there, explain who you are and what motifs are and run the risk ignored or reject.

This is where many coaches get stuck, says Toni Bauer, PN’s director coaching and educational activities.

As a result, many coaches can turn off the conversation.

The solution

Make networks a challenge. Coach Solovieva calls it “Operation 100.”

• Set the goal of contacting 100 professionals for more than 12 months.
• Work every week to your goal every week for about 20 minutes.
• Follow-up with every non-reacting eleven or twice.
• Inserad of expecting a “yes” from every person you approach, understand that only about 10 percent of people contact you.

To alleviate yourself in the challenge, you set up your Liftpitch, Bauer suggests.

Don thinks about this. Your pitch does not have to be convincing essay with multiple pages. It also does not have to contain magical points. Just be yourself.

Error #4: You use dated conviction tactics.

If you use LinkedIn, you have probably been on the receiving side of Old-School Cold Sales tactics. We are talking about direct messages from strangers who clearly have read nothing on your profile and know nothing about you.

You are spam -like messages are welcome as a stranger who stands at you on a bar and says, “So do you want to come back to my house?”

We are not here to discourage you to use cold outreach. It must place. However, you increase your responsibility, we would like to introduce you to a rarely used technique.

The solution

Get to know people before making a question onlineCoach Solovieva suggests.

Follow, read their content, download and consume their free sources, comment on their messages, congratulate them on career profits and a fair part of their online life.

Doing That, And people will remember you. More of them will also respond to your messages. Moreover, the Intel that you collect will help you prevent a relationship …

Error #5: You do not have a personal investigation into references.

How do you refer that you refer customers to compassionate professionals who really know what they are doing?

It includes more than checking the website of Sumone or Social Media profile.

If you only look at the Sumone or Social Media reports website, “you have simply checked their self -confidence and copywriting skills,” says Solovieva. “If we are lucky, Confides and copywriting go hand in hand with skills, but not always.”

The solution

Try out their services. Follow Sumone’s Yoga or Zumba class. Book to massage. Ask a medical professional to look at your squeeze.

That way you can see the professional in action.

If you think: “I don’t need a sub of the services that my customers need!” You have a few options:

• Offer to pay a professional to meet you for 30 to 60 minutes so that you can ask questions, get an idea of ​​their philosophy treatment and talk about referring customers to them.
• Interaction with people in social social local network communities such as Nextdoor.com. Ask the group members if they have seen and, if so, whether they would recommend the person.

Error #6: You sell customers too hard to your references.

If you have recommended the professional that you have recommended that you have imposed your client, it is obvious to want your client to take action.

Evite your hard work, Subclieves simply do not make an appointment with the professional in question – and that’s okay.

“Let your customers be mature,” says coach Bauer.

Customers have reasons. Maybe their insurance covers the service in question. Or maybe they decided to see Sumon differently.

“It is not your responsibility for the relationships to be perfect or flourish,” says Bauer.

A cycle of support

Subcoaches are afraid of references because they see as ‘giving away things’.

In reality, when you refer customers to solid pros, your customers simply have the feeling that you have their backs back. (Which means they will more inclined to refer and family to You.

Plus, when you respect things to another, this also states You On their radar for a cross -reference.

It is good for your customers, good for business and good for your community of health problems in general.

If you are a coach, or you want to be …

You can help people build Durable Nutrition and lifestyle habats that will significantly improve physical and mental health – while you do a lot of what you love. We will show you how.

If you want to read more, consider the PN Level 1 Nutrition Coaching certification. (You can now register with a big discount.)