When it comes to passing referrals, you're doing it all wrong. I'm going to share with you the five-step process to passing a referral so that it is not only well-received, but so that you get more referrals back in return. Join me for this episode of the Inside BS Show.

Hey now, I'm Dave Lorenzo, the Godfather of Growth, and one of the ways I became the Godfather of Growth was by passing fantastic referrals to clients and to people who can send business back to me. So here are the five steps you need to follow if you want to be the king or the queen of referrals. Number one, you've got to pre-qualify your referrals.

What does that mean? You call both parties in advance and you say, I want to introduce you to so-and-so. This is what they do. This is why I think you're a good fit.

Does it make sense for me to make this introduction? That's what you need to do every single time. Don't send a blind email out. Don't just connect people willy-nilly.

Ooh, I got a referral. And you do an email and then you just forget about it. No.

Pre-qualify the referrals. Reach out to the two parties and ask if they're interested. If they say no, then it's off.

If they say yes, then it's on and you move on to step number two. Step number two, send an email with a scheduling link or with days and times that make sense for the meeting and include people's bios in the email. Dear Jane, I'd like to introduce you to John Smith.

John Smith is a fantastic attorney. I think it would be great for you to meet him because he often needs people who do forensic accounting and I know you're one of the best forensic accountants. Dear John, I'd like you to meet Jane Doe.

She is a forensic accountant. I know you have a need for forensic accountants and she also comes across great cases that don't have an attorney attached. I think it makes sense for the three of us to get together and find a way for you to refer business back and forth.

Here are some dates when I'm available. Let me know which one works for you and I will schedule a Zoom meeting or let me know which one works for you and I will schedule lunch. Look what I did there in that email.

I introduced the two people. I told them why they need to meet. I included a link to their bios and I coordinate the meeting.

The person doing the matchmaking, the person making the referral coordinates the meeting. Why? Because that's what you want people to do for you. You refer people the way you want to be referred.

So you've got to coordinate the meeting. You're going to schedule the meeting on Zoom. Okay, great.

That has to be done within 24 hours. You got to get it scheduled within 24 hours. Otherwise you lose the momentum.

If it's an in-person meeting, you got to get it scheduled within 72 hours or you lose the momentum. I'm not saying you have to have the meeting within 24 hours or have the meeting within 72 hours. You got to get it on the calendar within 24 or 72 hours.

The meeting can take place in a month. Maybe people have to travel to get to the meeting or maybe one person's in court or they're just tied up with work. So it's going to take a couple of weeks for the meeting to take place.

No problem. Schedule it as soon as possible. Get it on the calendar as soon as possible so you don't lose momentum.

There's nothing worse than doing a scheduling a meeting, doing a referral, getting an introduction done, and then people ignore it and they don't schedule the meeting. It makes both sides look bad, but it makes the coordinator, the person in the middle look worse because it makes that person look like they didn't care enough to make sure it happened. So my rule is you send the email and then you beat the crap out of both parties so they put the meeting on their calendar, if it's going to be virtual, schedule it right away.

You're in front of your computer right now. If it's going to be in person, you got to move some things around, take a couple of days, figure it out, but make it work as quickly as possible. All right.

So you send the email with the bios. Then step number three is to schedule the meeting. I already told you within 24 hours, if it's online, within 72 hours, if it is in person, again, this is within 24 hours to put it on the calendars, within 72 hours to put it on the calendars, the meetings can take place whenever it fits into the schedule, so you schedule the meeting.

The fourth thing is you, the referrer must attend the meeting. Look, if you are bringing a client to an attorney, it's a divorce case, and you're bringing the client to the family law attorney, or you're bringing the client to the criminal defense attorney, you make the introduction and then you leave the meeting. If it's on Zoom, you make the introduction, you make somebody else the host and you back out so that privilege is attached and that's it.

You got to at least get to the meeting, make sure both parties show up, do the introduction, and then if you want to bow out after that, that's fine, but you got to attend the meeting to show that it's important to you. Here's the thing, the only thing binding these people together at this point is you, the person referring them, so you got to make sure they know this is important. You attend the meeting, you connect with them, and then it's done.

Okay, the meeting takes place, you as the referrer follow up with both sides. Here's how I want you to think about this. Remember when you were single? Some of you watching this, you may still be single or you may be newly single because you got divorced or you should be single.

Remember when you were dating, if somebody set you up on a date, what would happen afterwards? You'd call them and tell them how it worked out, right? Same thing has to happen here with a referral. Both parties, both sides need to check in with the referrer and you as the referrer need to check in with them and you need to let them know that you're following up so that they will tell you what happened. If it was a bad referral, you need to give feedback to both parties.

If it was a great referral, you need to praise both parties. You need to follow up. Look, these five steps are so important.

Let me reiterate. Number one, pre-qualify. Number two, send an email with scheduling times and include people's bios so that they can read up on each other in advance.

Number three, schedule the meeting. Online, within 24 hours, it's got to be on people's calendars. In person, within 72 hours, it's got to be on people's calendars.

Okay. Then you attend the meeting as well as they attend the meeting. Then you follow up afterwards.

Let people know what the feedback is. Let them know if it's a connection. That's the right way to give a referral.

Now, why is this so important? I already said it. I'm going to say it again. It's so important because the way you refer business is the way people are going to refer you.

You want more referrals? You want better referrals? This is how you do it. Follow this guide. You will not go wrong.

I promise. I've referred hundreds of millions of dollars of business over the years. I've received millions of dollars in business over the years.

Please take my advice. Do this right now. And if you want more great videos on referrals, in fact, if you want to learn about follow up, the next video coming up, the one right below me right now, that's the video you got to see.

I will see you in that video.