Dec. 8, 2025

Powerful Business Strategies - Referral Strategies and Campaigns

Show Notes
Transcript

Many business owners take referrals for granted and do not put a strategy behind attracting them. However, the ability to track, prepare, and plan for your growth, including generating referrals, is critical.

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Hi, you live then too, censure wow, pray you.

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This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe

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Man W four c Y Radio. Back again for the

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Positively Pipeman segment with our powerful business strategies from Michael Barberita.

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So let's welcome Michael to the show.

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How are you excellent?

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How are you ding?

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Oh?

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I'm doing great. I'm ready for some referral strategies in

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campaign and that's.

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What we're gonna talk Hey, that just so happens. So

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what we're going to talk about today nice. You know,

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the most business owners hope for referrals. They pray that

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customers talk about them. But you know, as you know,

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hope isn't a strategy. Uh, and here's what kills revenue

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growth waiting for referrals instead of systematically creating them. So

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the truth is, and probably everybody knows this, that referrals

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are probably the highest converting leads you'll ever get. Yet

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most businesses treat them like an accident rather than a strategy,

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rather than a profitability strategy. So I'd like to give

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you an example of what a car dealership did to

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get referrals. So a car dealership gave a customer one

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half of one hundred dollars bill at delivery of their

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new car. So every time they sold a new car,

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they also gave the customer half of a one hundred

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dollar bill and the customer and they would tell the

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customer that they would get the other half when they

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referred someone.

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That's brilliant.

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I know, first they were. The referrals were predictable, and

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the sales exploded. And business efficiency means turning satis by

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customers into active promoters. It's not complicated, but it's intentional.

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And so a lot of a lot of business owners

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aren't intentional with their referral strategy because referral strategy is

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more than just hoping for recommendations. It's creating that predictable

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system like what the auto dealership did to encourage and

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track referrals, and it involves understanding when and how to

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ask for the referrals and then providing incentives that motivate

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customers to act. You know, Unlike word of mouth, a

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referral strategy is proactive. It's a proactive approach and it

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systematically generates and manages referrals. It's you know, it's about

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turning satisfied customers into active promoters for your business, you.

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Know, just like the car dealership did.

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Yeah and so, but but but business owners, for the

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most part, they just wait for referrals to happen instead

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of actually develop up being a strategy motivating people to.

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Refer them.

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And let me also in this segment being defined what

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a strategy is, because a lot of people don't know

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actually what you know, I use the word all the time,

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even the name of my book Powerful Business Strategies, and

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i've you know, I define what a strategy is in

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my book, but I never actually defined it on in

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our segments. So a strategy is a series of tactics

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done over and over again in the same order to

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get a predictable result. And so that's what a strategy is.

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And so that's what So if you think about that

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card dealership, that's exactly what they did. It's a tactic

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splitting one hundred dollar bill over and over again to

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every customer who bought a new card from them in

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the same order. They do it the same way over

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and over again to get that predictable result, which was

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a referral. Because they knew that they had something like

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a sixty sixty percent referral rate when they performed that strategy.

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And I don't know the psychology of it, is like

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you feel like you're halfway there by having to half

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the one hundred dollar bill, and so I guess that

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motivates them to, you know, to refer somebody. So and

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there's a little management on the part of the car

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dealership because you're going to make sure that the serial

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numbers matched when you give them the other half. So

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there's there's a little, uh, there is a little organization

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administration there. But but that strategy worked famously for that

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car dealership, and it could work famously for just about

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any business if.

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You think about it.

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Yeah, And what's interesting too, is that it's typical at

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the time of purchase or when you have a completed

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a successful transaction or received the positive result of some

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sort with a business or a customer, that that's the

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time to ask for referrals because.

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That's what the customers happiest, right.

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The happiest at that point, and so they're you know,

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they're they're you know, willing to reciprocate as best they

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can when that great result happens, and so, you know,

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making and requesting referrals is part of your sales process. UH,

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and being able to manage it and track it.

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Is very effective.

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So but once again, business owners, just I mean, I

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can't tell you it might be an I group, It

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might it might be an I referral group. I. I

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would say one hundred percent of the people do not

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have a referral strategy other than saying they go to

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be an I.

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Other than that, they have no.

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Referral strategy to get referrals from, you know, from other participants,

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from other members. And there's several ways that you could

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put together strategies. As a matter of fact, we have

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a whole workbook on them. They'll talk about a little

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in a moment, but there are several strategies that one

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can employ, like what the car dealership did in order

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to proactively have a systematic methodology of getting referrals. What

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do you find, Dean with people with business owners, you know,

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I mean, is it mostly a prey.

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Kind of Yeah, most business owners don't really have a strategy.

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Most businesses don't have a strategy. It's interesting you should

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ask me that because the whole time I was thinking

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about when I first started at Prudential in nineteen eighty

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nine and I was required required what's in a suggestion

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to get five referrals from each person as soon as

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I made the sale, like sitting at the table selling

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them insurance, which was how it started. And I would

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basically have a form with the name, phone number, relation address.

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You know.

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It was back before email and back before internet, so

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address was important to mail them junk, you know, but.

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Instead emailing them.

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Junk, and you were required it was part of your job.

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There was no like if you can, There was no suggestion.

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It was you must get these fires. And you'd say, well,

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if they don't want to give them to me, people

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don't want to give out the information. And you know,

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part that is true, but the other part has your

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own mindset. I think the biggest problem with salespeople in general,

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and this goes back to something you have already said

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in previous episodes. Okay, but you know you cannot think

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like the customer. You're not the customer. Don't don't like

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people are like, well I wouldn't do that. Well just

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because you wouldn't do that doesn't mean ten people would,

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you know, and so you should get that right out

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of your mind. So like the people that wouldn't get

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those five referrals, you know, even though they were required to,

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would be like, oh, I would never give out that information.

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I'm not asking them me. On the other hand, you know,

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I was doing whatever they told me to do, and

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I was the number one agent.

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I have eighty five agents.

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Why because I was a pain in the ass act

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and for asking for those five referrals every single time.

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So every sale became more than one sale.

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And you know what's amazing about that, Dean, is that

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if you ask ten other agents whether that strategy worked,

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but that's what the majority of those would probably say

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it did not. Well, here you are saying that it

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absolutely worked.

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It did not work because of their own attitude. That's

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what it comes down to. Like, listen, there's plenty of

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things that I would not do that clients of mind

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throughout my career and my life have done. And so

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that's why you can't think that way. You know, people

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A perfect example is people hate use car salespeople. They

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talk about it, they say all these things, yet they

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still buy the car, right, they still fall for the

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same things they know that are going on and still

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buy it and still believe it. So it's all about

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what you project in your head. Because sales as a

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transfer of emotion. So if emotionally you're not vested in

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getting those referrals and you don't believe it's gonna happen, yeah,

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it's not going to be successful for you.

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That's right.

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That's a that's a great that's a great example, because

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there's a system that you know, this is done. You're

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not hoping here, you're you're directly it's it's a system

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that directly asks the customer for referrals. And if it

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and if it's done consistently, and if it's done period

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and with the belief that it's you're gonna make out

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and and get those referrals, it happens.

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It's amazing. That's amazing.

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And and you know, like I said, I I it

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might be an I group and some other networking groups

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that I'm in. The reason why they go is they

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hope that they can get a referral. And they don't

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have a strategy to get a referral. They just hope

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they can.

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Yeah.

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And and many people that you know get discouraged after

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you know, after six months or eight months of not

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getting referrals, and they leave and they think networking doesn't work,

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when in fact it really.

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Does, as somebody who's a master at networking that's done

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it my whole life. Speaking of B and I, one

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of the beautiful things about B and I is all

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the rules. Most people that network hate BNI because of

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the rules, absolutely, and they're dumb because B and I

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gets you more business. You know, a lot of people

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go into these networking organizations to go to cocktail mixers, right,

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and like that was my least favorite thing because you know,

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it's like the cocktail mixers. People were going there to

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drink for free and to you know, meet people personally,

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not business wise, you know. But B and I, you know,

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runs it like a business and it's serious. And yeah,

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you may not want to follow all those rules, but

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if you don't follow those rules in life, you're not

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going to succeed, That's right.

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It's the discipline that drives the referrals at B and I.

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It's that discipline. It's the discipline that they instill in

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the member.

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Uh.

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And you know what I love about B and I

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is my brethren and competitors hate it. Yeah, that's what

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I love about it because, uh, generally speaking, I'm able

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to visit other B and I chapters without any because

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my competitors, I know my competitors out there, and so

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I'm able to join, able to visit other chapters and

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be a substitute when they're when they're absent.

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Uh and uh. That's been a big benefit for me.

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There's only two types of B and I members, by

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the way, or and that's either the ones that totally

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love it and swear by it, or the ones that

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don't renew and think they got nothing out of it.

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There's no middle, there's no middle.

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Yeah, no, I agree. And some of those ones that.

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You know that say it won't work, they stop their

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own and of course it, you know, falls on its

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face usually yeah.

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Yeah.

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And if you think something's not gonna work, it won't

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because you're not gonna do what it takes for it

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to work.

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No, you're right, you're right.

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But referrals do work. They're the easiest to close, they're

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the best lead you can get, and they're the easiest

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thing to get if you got out of your own way.

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Absolutely.

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Absolutely, So here's what I'd like to offer you, the listeners, Dean.

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I have a workbook, step by step implementation workbook called

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Referral Strategies and Campaigns. And all someone has to do

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is go to NeXTSTEP CFO dot net, hit the contact button,

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fill out the contact form, and in the message box

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just simply put Referral Campaigns and Strategies workbook and I'll

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send it to them free of charge. And if they

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follow that workbook, they'll be able to generate strategies to

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get referrals. And it won't be the hope and pray,

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it would be actual strategy.

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Right. It's actually being strategic about getting.

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Referrals, right, and everything should be strategic.

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It's like, I can't believe how many business people like

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just rely on you know, the universe.

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Let's put it that way, right right.

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You know, the fact is is every everything out there. Okay,

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you take Tony Robbins, people say, oh, he just pumps

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people up. But no, but if you went to one

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bit seminars, he tells you that you can show up

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to my seminar. If you don't put any in this

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into action, it will do nothing.

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Okay. Then there's people.

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Okay, even if you talk in religion, let go and

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let God, Let go and let God does not mean

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do nothing.

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People think that's what it means. It doesn't mean do nothing.

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You must have a strategy, whether it's for your personal life,

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business life, no matter what it is, because otherwise it's

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like driving to somewhere you've never been without a GPS.

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That's right, So thank you for giving us as GPS.

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Thank you for giving them a free workbook, and thanks

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for being on the Adventures of Pipemin once again. Pleasure

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to see you next week.

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Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipeman on

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w for CUI Radio.

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