Referral partners are the key to getting referrals over and over again, and to growing your business practically on auto-pilot. The challenge is how to get them, though. There are many ways to slowly get to know people and grow relationships, but it can take time and skill. Serendipity may play a role as well.

So what do you do if you want to target a specific group — and in a hurry? Read on for a very effective way to do just that — successfully.

The key to getting very targeted referral partners quickly is to reach out directly to the people you want to make contact with. Let’s say you want to partner up with professionals in a specific industry, for example with financial planners.

The easiest way to do this is to get an introduction to a financial planner through networking or through your current contacts, either clients or just your contact base. But maybe you don’t have any contacts (or not enough contacts) that would give you that access. So here’s an alternative approach: you could do something called “direct outreach.” If you think this sounds almost like a cold call, you’re right. But it’s not quite as bad…

The first step of direct outreach is to send the people you want to target a letter that expresses who you are and what you’re looking for. Let them know what your track record is and that you depend on word of mouth for referrals. Then you add that you’re hoping to build a relationship with them where you will refer clients to each other.

To make this letter more effective, it will be helpful to send them an article or a special report that would highlight your expertise and your level of professionalism.

Then you follow up with a phone call. Be sure to remember that you’re not selling anything at this point. All you’re trying to do is make an introduction and build a relationship.

Direct outreach does take some pro-activity. But the rewards can be great. You could get access to some very targeted referral partners very quickly.

Interestingly, the referral partners principle generally is about eliminating the need for cold calls. But here you are, trying to call strangers. Still, since you’re writing a letter of introduction first, your initial call probably won’t be quite so cold.

However, it does take more guts to do this than just doing the basic networking and waiting for the relationships to develop. But if you need targeted referral partners in a hurry, direct outreach might be just the ticket.

Ready to get more out of your networking efforts? Get a FREE month in Sue Clement’s new membership program Your Marketing Edge! And get ready to take your business to a whole new level.

And here’s a related article on how to get clients fast.

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