Referrals Made Easy with ChatGPT: For Accountants & Bookkeepers

Okay. Hello and welcome everybody. Unfortunately the other day I started doing a broadcast for this session and it cut out right in the middle. Just because of some Internet difficulties, it just cut out and I wasn't then able to restart the live stream. So this is me re recording the session for you and we're going to upload this as just a kind of one pre recorded video instead of the live one that we normally do. I just wanted to make sure that you guys had this content.

So without further ado, I'll go ahead and get started. It might be a little bit shorter than the normal session because I don't have the questions and stuff coming in, but we'll go ahead and get started on the session. So today's session, or what would have been today's session is around winning referrals. So first of all, this is a question that we always ask. We tend to go straight in with asking this question. I mean, you already know that this session is around referrals. But what we normally ask first is what is the most powerful form of marketing? And generally across the board, most people understand that referrals are the most important and powerful form of marketing because of how little effort they require.

They tend to bring in good quality clients because you're asking the right people and they're bringing in people similar to them and it's low effort, it's low budget, etc for you. It's a very powerful way. And word of mouth is also incredibly powerful in that somebody else is advocating for you on their on your behalf. It's not just you saying I think my service is really good, it's somebody else saying, I took their service and I got these great results. So I think you should all, you could also benefit. So it's that element of social proof and that you know somebody else advocating on your behalf that we know that referrals work really, really well. So generally speaking when we ask that question, what is the most powerful form of marketing? Most people say referrals. If not all people say referrals, word of mouth, that's the best form yet. Then when we ask a follow up question, if, okay, what systems do you have in place to bring referrals into your business?

That's when we met with the blank face. That's when we get the tumbleweed that oh, I, I don't have any systems, I just kind of hope that people will give me a referral. So the reason that just hoping that people are going to give you a referral is not a good system to have is obviously it's not efficient. Clients are going to.

Either not know that you actually want referrals because they don't know that. It could be that you're quite a small and you've got a couple of clients and that seems to be like your max. They might not know that you want referrals. It may be that they do want to give you a preferral way. They say they're going to and then they just forget because they're a business owner and they've got a lot going on in their business and they just forget to come back with that information. Okay. It may be that they don't really know how to express your value on your behalf, so they're not very good at. At give conveying that value to somebody else. It may be that they do refer, but they're not necessarily bringing in the right kind of client that is a good fit for your business. So for all of these kind of reasons, it just may be that having a la. A lack of a referral system is an issue and that we want to put in place systems that are going to help bring in that good quality right kind of client in a consistent way so that we are more effectively bringing in more referrals because we know how powerful that is. So before we even look into actual systems for bringing people in in terms of referral or requesting referrals, the first thing that we need to do is we need to create a service that is worthwhile referring. Okay? If your service is rubbish, if your service is, you know, not very streamlined, or you know, the people are waiting for communication for a long time, or, you know, the, the it's very basic level stuff, then it's not going to be something that they run home about screaming, that they rave about. You want to create a service that delivers so much value and gets such great results that they are just desperate to talk about you and they're desperate to tell other people about how good you are because of what a good experience they have had. So this can come in a couple of different areas. So obviously we want to deliver great value in our service and we want to get them great results. But it also may mean going a bit above and beyond by generating extra custom reports or summaries or a great business advice. It may be going above and beyond and doing those sorts of things. It may be getting client feedback and acting on that feedback and improving the service and making sure that those clients know that and understand that they are a part of those changes and that you are, you know, taking their thoughts and their considerations into time. It may be that you have more frequent, more regular check ins with your clients. You may have kind of accountability stuff, or you just check in with them on a monthly basis or something like that, or have an open door kind of policy where they can come and visit on a, every fourth Friday, whatever it might be. It could be that it's more or something that you focus on with the smoothness of the experience that they go through. So perhaps you implement AI, you implement automation in things like sending emails, whereby when they then join and work with you, they experience a really smooth, systematic entry to the business. You know, everything's always done promptly on time and in an efficient manner. So.

For various of different areas we can look at, we can deliver that extra value and go above and beyond for our clients to create a service that is worthwhile referring. We want to get them to a point where they are just so excited and so happy about the service and so pleased with it that they can't help but tell other people about how great it is. Okay, that's the point that we want to focus on getting to first. So assuming that we have got to that point, assuming that we are consistently focusing on delivering value to our clients, when is the best time to ask for a referral? So there are various different stages within that kind of client relationship that you had. You could ask for a referral, but there are places that we want to add it to an automated kind of system so that we consistently ask at these points of the journey. Okay. And there might be others that you think of as well, but let's just start with these five. So first of all, we should be asking for feedback from our clients at various stages again of the, of the relationship. It may be that you ask for feedback immediately after onboarding because that's, we want to see how the onboarding process went. It may be that you ask for feedback after you've gotten a great result. It may be after a year that you've been together, you ask for feedback so that they can suggest changes. Okay, so when we're asking for feedback, which should be something that we do fairly frequently, we can also at the same time ask for a referral. And hopefully if you've completed kind of step one, which is delivering that great valuable service, then the feedback that they have is going to be mostly positive. And if you, you've created some sort of form or whatever it might be to collect that feedback and it says what are the things that you have enjoyed? What are the great results that you've got, and they then answer those questions that then kind of puts them in a, a mindset, a frame of mind of being happy and positive and excited about your business. So that's a great point to ask them for a referral whilst they are literally in the process of writing about how good you are. That's a great point to ask them to recommend somebody else as well. You know, if you think this is such a good service, maybe there are other people that, you know that we could also offer this service to. So that might be something that you include in your feedback form when you send that. And for all of these, by the way, we're about to have a look as well at how we could create these systems in ChatGPT. So I'm going to go through them and then I'll show you them in chatgpt as well. So as part of your sales meeting now, this could look like a couple of different kind of ways of doing this.

I recommend that when you go into that first sales meeting where you're turning a prospect into a client, that you have an agenda for that meeting. And as part of that agenda, you have an item on there that is, who do you know? You know, requesting referrals. But the, the agenda item is to make that request, because if it's on your agenda and you have to stick to it, then you know, you're more likely to have that as a regular part of your process. Okay. It's also very important to consider at what point of that meeting do we ask for referrals? So we're not going to go straight into the meeting and be like, hey, nice to meet you. Can you refer somebody else? Of course we need to do it at the right point. And the right point is likely to be when they have already committed, they've said yes, or they've had some sort of very strong interest in your, your service. So when you go through that sales meeting, generally what you're going to be doing is explaining and communicating all of the value of what you're going to do for them in your service. They're going to be really excited and inspired, hopefully and motivated. If we're doing that sales process in a, in a good way, they're going to be really inspired at that point and excited about the future of what's going to happen with, with this relationship with you and what that's going to mean for their business. So at that point is a good point to ask for a referral. So it's once they've already kind of committed or given a strong yes, then we ask for the referral. If they've already committed as well, then there's no harm in asking for a referral. It's not going to put them off the service. At worst, they probably just say, oh, I can't really think of anybody. But at least we've, we've kind of opened up that conversation to something and indicated that it's something that we would be interested in. We would be interested in getting referrals. Okay. Now also kind of on, on part of that, as part of your sales meeting or maybe the slight process afterwards, you would create an agreement, a fixed price agreement and send a proposal. Right. Or go through a proposal with them. As part of that, you might have some criteria in there that says, you know, we would expect that you give us three recurring three referrals every single year. It's part of the contract. Every year you give us three referrals. Okay, so it could be something within that. It could also be something that you offer as a kind of trade off in terms of, now we don't give discounts when we're value pricing, but if you wanted to say if you could give us three referrals, that would help us to save money on our marketing and we can use that money to pay for a portion of your service for you. So we can offer you a 5, 10% discount, whatever it is you want to do if you give them those referrals. So you're getting something in exchange for offering that lower price. It's not just a straight up lower price, but it's a kind of a trade off, something we call behavior awards in the value pricing academy. Okay, so those are different areas of the sales meeting in ways that we could go about asking for referrals.

Now it may be as well you have this as part of your onboarding series. So once you have signed somebody up, maybe they then get put through a series of emails to onboard them into the system. You know, here's how you get on our platform, here's an introduction to your account manager, whatever it is, all of those emails that send them, all that information that they need and that you need as well. In the first instance, as part of that series, you might also ask for a referral. Okay, so that's another point. You might ask for it. Now one of probably the most powerful times to ask, probably one of the best times to ask is after you have just given them a great result or they've had a big success thanks to what you've done for them. So if you have done a tax saving plan for them, for example, and you've got a figure, you know, that you've managed to save them $10,000 worth of tax by implementing this new strategy, that's a great point to follow up and say, first of all, like congratulate and, and sit in that enjoyment with them and be happy and excited with them and support them, but then also kind of bring into the conversation, we're so excited that we could do this for you. It really makes our day when we see these results come in. It's what we work for, it's what our business is about. And we would love to help other people get a similar result and get that similar high feeling from that by helping other people as well. So is there anybody else that you know that we could also help in this same way? So that kind of frames it as you're congratulating your support and you're happy with them. And then you're also.

Making it less about, we need more business and more about. This is something that we enjoy doing and it's part of our values and our mission and our larger purpose to help people get this happy feeling and this excitement and help them, you know, save that money to put towards something else, their family, whatever, live a better life. When you can talk to these larger areas and these larger values, that's much more persuasive than just, you know, we would like to make more money. We want to, we want to work with more people, we want more business. That's, that's not as strong and as powerful as a kind of message to go with. So. But also after a great result and success, obviously they must be really, really happy with you. They must be really happy with the service that they've got from you in that moment because of the result they've got. So they're again, similar with the feedback when they're getting, when they're in the process of giving you good feedback. If they've just had a great result from you or as part of what you've done for them, then that's the point where they are so happy with your service that they are more willing and more, you know, ready to give referrals at that point and suggest, recommend you to other people because of the great success that they've had. Okay, so that is a really good one to, to do. And at the same time as that as well, you can also be collecting those success stories which are another powerful form of marketing. If you can collect that story of, here's what we did for this person, they've had this great result, here's what they say about it. And they have said, you know, you know, it totally gave me peace of mind and whatever else, then you can also be collecting success stories at the same time, which is also a really, really powerful form of marketing. So you're kind of killing two birds with one stone with that one. And then finally we might just have a kind of timeline referral request where every quarter or maybe once a year, we just send them a referral request and we just ask for it as a reminder because it may be that in the first quarter they don't really think of anybody, but then the next time you ask, and then maybe the third time you ask, they can actually think of a few people at that point. So, you know, perhaps it's a case where a lot of the time people need to hear things 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 times before they actually take action on something. So having just a regular reminder that you can set on autopilot as well, by the way, this is not something that you need to have a sit down meeting with them. It could be that you automate an email that goes out on the one year anniversary of them being a prospect kind of being a client sort of thing. Right. So it can be an automatic thing that you forget about, but you might still then just, even without putting any effort in, get a couple of referrals coming through just by reminding people in that sense. Okay, so let's hop over then to ChatGPT and, and look at a couple of examples of conversations then of, and prompts of how we might start to build some of these systems into our business. So the first one was that feedback request.

So these prompts, by the way, they're very simplistic. We can get so much more complicated with our prompts as if you've been with us for a while, if you're in the academy or you've seen other live streams, you, you know that prompt engineering is really, really important. I'm using very simplistic prompts so that you can see that even with a very basic understanding of ChatGPT, you can start to make these systems and get them in place in your business. Okay. But of course we can make them more complex, you can add more context so that it's more specific to your business. So let's go ahead and look at the first prompt. Create me an email asking for feedback from my latest bookkeeping client as a follow up to the feedback. It should also request a referral. Use flattering and persuasive language. Okay, so it's created me a quick email here. Subject line is quick favor. Your thoughts matter. I just wanted to say a big thank you for choosing to work with me. It's been a real pleasure supporting your business and I hope you've been thrilled with the results so far. I'm always looking to improve and would love to hear your thoughts on how things went. Would you mind taking just a minute or two to share some feedback? What did you find most helpful? Is there anything you could. You think I could do even better? And here's where you might also insert a feedback form. Okay. Or you could just invite them to respond to your email if you've got. If that's an easier way for you to manage it. Or you could create a feedback form.

And feedback forms, by the way, you know, jot form, type form, survey monkey, Google forms. There's loads of different tools that you could use for that. Okay. Your feedback means a lot and it also helps me continue delivering great service to amazing clients like you. And here's where the referral part comes in. And speaking of amazing people, if you know another business owner who could also use a reliable bookkeeper they can trust, I'd be so grateful if you pass my name along. A quick intro or referral is the best compliment I could ever receive. Thanks again for being such a fantastic client. I've loved working with you. I think that's a nice way of phrasing it as well. Like giving a referral is a big compliment to us. So if you've just got them a great result as well, or they're really excited to work with you and they're kind of singing your praises and they say something great in your feedback. Like, so a lot of the time people kind of, even though they're paying you, they kind of feel like you've done such a great thing. For me, I want to give something back. There is this kind of law of psychological law of reciprocity, where if somebody does something good for us, we want to do something good back for them. So asking for that favor and saying it would be a huge compliment. It would be a way of thanking me, then that's kind of a nice way of phrasing it. So I also then followed on to ask, okay, well, I'm going to need a form to go in that email, so here's the next prompt. Create me a form with a series of questions that collects feedback success stories and also three referrals. Now, the reason I've asked for three referrals rather than just one is, is if you ask for one, you might not get any, because somebody might not be able to think of any. But if you ask for three, they might get one. Okay, so you're at least still getting some. I wouldn't say go and ask for 10 referrals because then they might just genuinely struggle with that. But as kind of a rule, if you ask for more, you might get the one. Whereas if you just ask for one, they might not be able to think of any. So I'd say go in and ask for three.

So here's the form we've got. How would you rate your experience? Excellent, good, fair, or poor? What specific results or improvements have you seen in your business since working with us? And then a suggestion. This could be timed time saved, clarity on finances, peace of mind, or tax savings. So in that box, when they answer and they say, since working with you, I've noticed these improvements or I've had this great result, that's where you can collect that information and use it as, you know, marketing in other areas. Okay. You can use that as a success story. We've helped this person. They've said these great things about us. You might have a similar.

Experience with us. Okay. And of course you would ask for permission to do that. What did you find most valuable or helpful about our service? Okay. Similarly, we're asking for that good feedback. Is there anything we could improve or do differently? This gives them a chance to raise any. Any issues they've had. And particularly doing this early on, if. Have you had any issues early on in your first week with us, we can address those straight away and immediately nip them in the bud if they're having issues. So getting feedback is really important. Would you be happy for us to use your feedback as a testimonial? Okay. On our website and here, it's really useful to get their permission to use their name and their business and if possible, a small image of them as well, because that keeps it. It. It makes it feel like it's more of a real person. Yeah. Whether then is. If it's anonymous, it's harder to relate to that comment because we don't know what that person is or what their business is or anything about them. Okay. So if you can, and if they're happy to do so, get their name in their business so that you can attach it to that testimonial as well. Okay. Then here's the referral. Piece comes in at the end. Who do you know that could benefit from reliable professional bookkeeping support? We'd love to help other great business owners like you. Feel free to share a few names and we'll only reach out with your blessing. So then it asks for their name, the business name, some sort of contact, so email or phone. And would you like us to mention your name when reaching out? So as a bare minimum, that's something that they could just write down somebody's, you know, business website or something and they can give you a couple of suggestions of people that you could reach out to. Okay. Then you've got a box at the end for anything else you'd like to share. So that's the feedback option.

So next up we have the sales meeting process. So it may be that you're somewhat reluctant to ask for referrals because maybe in your mind it feels like something that's a bit cheeky or a bit forward, or it's just something that you're not quite confident in, in bringing that up as a subject. So maybe what we're going to do is go to chat GBT and ask it for some sort of script so that we can start to bring that up more confidently in our meetings. So here's the prompt that I've got to help us get that kind of script. So as part of our sales meeting process with new potential bookkeeping clients, we like to incorporate a section where we invite them to give referrals. Can you help me with a script to bring this up? Suggest at what point of the meeting I should do this, and a simple way we can collect the referral information.

So it started off by giving me the ideal timings and similar to what we've kind of already said is that you want to bring up referrals after you've already delivered the value or communicated that value, built up a report and the prospect is clearly interested or committed to working with you. The sweet spot is right after they've said yes or when they're expressing a strong interest. But before you wrap up the meeting. So you want to still do it in the meeting. Don't be like sending a follow on email, unless of course, you've already posed the question in the meeting and you then follow up and say, hey, you said you, you said you'd be great to give us some referrals, but you just need a bit of time to think about it. So I'm just doing that follow up. Here's a form you can fill out. Okay. But best to do it in the meeting there. And then if you've still got that, you know, open conversation about it, they're in that positive frame of mind, remember, because they have just said yes, they're excited. They're looking for reasons to.

Kind of solidify the choice that they've made, reasons to, you know, believe that they have made the right choice. So they're in a positive phrase of mind at that point. So here's the suggested script. Before we wrap up. Can I ask a quick favor and then wait for their agreement? And using that word favor creates that moment of reciprocity. Yeah. People, people like to give help. They like to give advice. People like to do that. Most people, you know, they like to, to, to feel useful. So asking for it as a favor or asking or actually, I could really use your help with something. That's a powerful way of doing it. So most of our clients come through word of mouth, great people referring, other great people. So as we get started together, I like to ask, is there anyone else, you know, maybe another business owner or friend who's been struggling with their books or, or could benefit from the kind of support we've been talking about today? Pause and let them think, let them respond. Obviously there and then they might not be able to just pluck somebody from their mind, but at least you have started the conversation now where you could then follow up with an email afterwards to collect them if they couldn't think of anything there and then. So if they can't think of anything, you can say, no pressure, if nothing comes to mind right now. But if someone does, I'd love to reach out and offer them a free resource or a quick chat to see if we can help. So it's letting your clients know that you are interested in referrals, and then you can also open up that conversation so that you can follow up. And it doesn't feel like a, a random, just kind of spontaneous. Would you like to give us referrals? It is a continued conversation when you then follow up with that. So how to collect them? Okay, you could just verbally, you could get them to write it down on a piece of paper. You could follow up if you've already had that conversation with an email or maybe just a, you know, a, a message on your preferred messaging service, whether that's Slack or WhatsApp or anything like that. You could send them a form to fill so that they've got some structure to that.

It could be that you have, that you offer them as well, some wording for them to reach out to that person instead of you. So rather than you being the one to reach out, like we kind of mentioned earlier with, you know, if somebody else is talking about your business being good, that's more powerful than you talking about your business. So if somebody else reaches out on your behalf and says, I've worked with them, they're really good, I think it would help you a lot. That's a little bit more powerful than you directly reaching out to them. So having that kind of advocate is, is a really powerful thing. So it may be that you create some wording that you can give to that client to say if you did want to reach out to people, here's some sample wording that you can reach out with just to let them know a little bit about our business and the kind of people that we're interested in. So that's something that you can do to help, help guide them, bring the right people in as well. Okay, so next up then, we have here the third one was the onboarding request. So this might be that you have a kind of three part onboarding email sequence or something like that. It may be that you do your onboarding in person, in which case, you know, you just phrase this prompt differently and you ask for a script maybe rather than an email. But for this, this example, I've said I have created a three part onboarding email sequence to send out to my new bookkeeping clients after their first week of working with us. As part of that sequence, I would like to request referrals. Can you create me an additional email to add to the end of my sequence? So here we've got, We've really enjoyed getting started with you over the past week. Thank you again for trusting us with your books. Thank you. If you have found our service helpful so far and know someone else who could benefit from our reliable, friendly and proactive bookkeeping partner, we'd be so grateful if you send them our way. Referrals are one of the biggest compliments we can receive and we don't take them lightly. We promise to look after anyone you send our way just as well as we look after you. Here's a quick message you can copy and paste to a friend and colleague. So again, here's the. You know, you're handing them, you're making it as easy as possible for them to give the referral. If the referral is really difficult for them to do and they're a busy person anyway, then they're less likely to do so. So we want to remove as much friction Give them as much opportunity as possible. So giving them a chunk of text that they can use to reach out is really helpful. So within that email that you're sending, here's a message you might send to your friends or colleagues. Hey, I've just started working with a great bookkeeping service and thought of you. If you're looking for help with your numbers or just want a second opinion on your books, check out this business. Here's their website and then include their that link in there. No pressure at all, but if someone comes to mind, we would love to help them. So there's an email that you can add to the end of your.

Onboarding sequence. And of course within that you could also add a form if you wanted them to do it, to reach out in that way. So next we have the success story. So after they've got a great result or they've done a great success, got a great success with you, that might be the point that you reach out to them. So here's another prompt. We just worked with a new business to help reduce their tax bill and managed to save them over $10,000 per year. We want to reach out to them to express excitement over such a win and check in with them. Request a success story and a referral. Can you, can you write the email? Okay, so I've kind of just briefly given them the outline of what we've managed to do. That's very simplistic. You know, we've worked, we've worked with them to save $10,000 of tax. So it's quite a simplistic one. But here's the email. I just wanted to say how thrilled we are with the results we've achieved together. Saving you over $10,000 per year in taxes is a huge win. It's always incredibly rewarding to help businesses like yours keep more of what you earn and set yourself up for long term success. We'd love to share your success, with your permission of course, to inspire others who might be in a similar position. If you're open to it, would you be willing to share a quick story or testimonial about your experience working with us? And then again, you might give them some, some kind of template to fill out or some questions that they can answer so that they've got some structure of how to give you that story.

Also, if you know any fellow business owners who are feeling the pressure of tax season or just want to make smarter financial decisions, we'd love to help them too. A quick intro is all it takes and we'll take care of the rest. Thanks again for trusting us. We genuinely love working with you and can't wait to see what's next for your business. So in that one, we're kind of celebrating that win with them. We're explaining that we like helping business owners in this way and that we would like to help other people.

So in a different kind of way, maybe, you know, I have just inputted those results that somebody has got in that previous prompt. It may be that somebody emails you and says something great about you. You know, unprompted, they send you a big thank you email. Like this. Great result. It's amazing. It's totally changed my life. And that gives you a great opportunity to follow up with them on that. And also you can create a more personalized response by taking that email and plugging it into Chat GBT and then responding to that email with drawing information from what they've said. Okay, so in this one, I have copy and pasted an email in here. We received this email from a delighted bookkeeping client. Can you write a follow up email to congratulate and explain that the best way to thank us is to refer? And then here's the email. Oh my gosh. I honestly don't even have the words, but I'll try. I feel like I've just had a year's worth of stress lifted off my shoulders. The cleanup work you've done is unbelievable. I had no idea how messy things had gotten until you swooped in and sorted it all out. Not only are things finally making sense, but you've already saved me money, real money, and I can actually sleep now without worrying what's lurking in the accounts. You're a miracle worker. Seriously. Thank you. So receiving an email like that would be amazing. I would, you know, as well message them back and say, so happy are you? Is it okay if we use this as part of our marketing? You know, is it okay if we share this story with other people so that other people can get great results? Because that's a great email to receive. But then when you respond, it can now pull wording from that specifically and respond in a personalized way. So. Wow. Your message made our week. We're absolutely thrilled to hear how much lighter you're feeling now that everything's cleaned up and back on track. That's exactly why we do what we do, so you can focus on running your business and actually get some sleep without the stress of messy accounts hanging over you. Hearing things like, you're a miracle worker genuinely means the World to us. If you're ever wondering how you can say thank you, honestly, the best way is to spread the word. If you know another business owner who's feeling overwhelmed by their books, we'd love to help them too. Just a quick intro is all it takes. We'll treat them with the same care and attention we've given you. Thanks again for your kind words. We're so glad to have you on board. So that's a way that you're responding with a personalized, you know, pulling words from what they've said and congratulating and sitting in that joy with them, but then also kind of saying they're currently obviously by the. The tone of that email. Oh my gosh. Amazing. You're a miracle worker. They're in that mind frame of mind where I would love to do, to give something back. I would love to sing your praises. So that is a great time and a great opportunity to ask them for that referral. Okay, so that created me an email. Of course, if you got it via like a WhatsApp or something else you can say, just give me a version for a direct message or a WhatsApp. And it will just slightly tweak that. So this message is a bit shorter. Hey, your message honestly made my day. Thank you. So glad we could lift that weight off your shoulders and get everything sorted. If you ever want to say thanks, the best way is honestly to refer us to anyone else who might be struggling with their books. Just send them my way. I'd be happy to help. Okay, so you can do it in a shorter kind of way as well.

Okay, the next one is the reminder email, and with this one, I want to show you how the difference in prompt can also help the quality of the email that you're creating, the. The wording that you're creating here. So first of all, create a standard quarterly reminder for referrals that we can send to our accounting and bookkeeping clients. So this one's really standard. It's got no extra information in there. Just a quick note to say how much we appreciate working with you and to let you know we've got. We've got space to take on a few more amazing clients like you this quarter. If you know any fellow business owners who would use. Who could use some support with their numbers, whether that's bookkeeping, tax, or just making smarter financial decisions, we'd love it if you sent them our way. Referrals are how we grow, and your recommendation means the world to us. Here is a quick link you can pass on. Thank you for being part of our community. Etc. Okay, good email, but very generic, very basic. Okay. If you, for example, have a niche or you work with clients in a, who fit a certain criteria, so you know, perhaps you work with startup businesses or you, you like to work with people who have a certain attitude to business, it's really important that you understand who your ideal client profile is. Doesn't necessarily have to be industry specific, but there should be, excuse me, at least some level of criteria that you are interested in bringing that person in. Okay. If you don't have an ideal client profile and you're asking for referrals from people, then they could recommend anybody and it could be somebody that's in an industry you don't particularly like. They could not really have the best attitude for business. They maybe can't afford your services because they don't earn enough, they're not in the right bracket. Okay. So you want to have a bit of an indication of who you like to work with and then this can help guide that client that you're asking the referral from. It can help guide them to bring the right people in. So in this prompt, and this is one that we have in the academy, I've actually uploaded my ideal client profile with the prompt and requested that it makes that email for me now with the ideal client profile information that I have within that prompt. So for this one, the subject line and this profile that I use is for digital nomads, okay? Entrepreneurs that travel a lot and it's got a full profile in there of who we like to work with. So with this email it's going to be more specific and it's going to give them a bit more guidance of someone who's a great fit here. So I hope you're doing well and enjoying life on the move. I just wanted to say a big thank you for being part of the Nomad tax solutions community. We genuinely appreciate your trust in us. As we continue to grow, we're looking to connect with more amazing nomads like you who could use expert support with their taxes, compliance and bookkeeping. If someone comes to mind, I'd love an introduction. Here's what makes someone a great fit. They are a location independent entrepreneur or freelancer. They're living and working across borders and feeling overwhelmed by tax or compliance. They value professional, flexible and remote friendly financial support. Referrals help us grow while giving more nomads access to the clarity and confidence they need to stay compliant and stress free. And if you refer someone who becomes a client, we'll send you a thank you gift as our way of showing appreciation. Okay. And your approach to, you know, incentivizing referrals as well can vary. I think I've got a prompt on that in a minute as well.

Some countries you are not allowed to incentivize, I believe. You know, some states in America, I've worked with someone before who says they weren't allowed to give a physical, you know, an actual monetary incentive for that sort of stuff. So just be aware of that and you know, do your research and check in your area. But you may just offer kind of like you might send them a thank you card, you might get them a Starbucks kind of gift voucher or something like that. It could be that you offer a reduced payment as we said in the start. You know, if you can give us referrals every year, then we can give a lower price on your service. But this email giving that criteria, you know, we're looking for someone location independent. They're living and working across borders, they're overwhelmed by tax. That person who is giving the referral can think, okay, well, who do I know that fits that criteria? And the people that they recommend are more likely to be a good fit for your business because you have now given them, sorry, some criteria to follow. Okay. So that is really important is to give that extra context so that you can create more appropriate, more appropriate content there. Okay, so those are the five ones that at least we've got here of when to ask for referral, and then some ChatGPT prompts there to show how you can start to build those referrals, set up those emails and, and that sort of good stuff.

So we know that we want to make.

Asking for a referral as easy as possible. We want to make it easy by implementing these systems. So this might be creating a form for them to fill out, create wording that they can send to their referral so that they don't really have to think about anything that wording could incorporate. You know, these are the kind of people that we're looking for for. You know, in that email that we've just looked at, we're looking for location independent. We're looking for these kind of people that struggle with these things. You could create some wording like that that's just standard wording that they can then send off to people that makes it a lot easier for them to ask for the referral because they don't have to sit down and type everything out and think about all that. They can just copy and paste that wording, which is helpful. Give them all the information that they need to send on to that referral. So make sure you give them the link to your website. If, if you want to give them a link so that they can book an appointment. If you want to send them a link to maybe your lead magnet, because you just want to start by offering them a freebie, but that puts them onto your list so that you can then start building them up to be a client yourself rather than it being a direct referral. You have at least still got their contact details then and you can warm them up to a point ready to buy. Okay. There are lots of different things that we can do to make that referral request as easy as possible. And I want to make it clear here as well that if you are going to be offering rewards.

Then you are rewarding the act of the referral, not the outcome. Okay? If somebody gives you a referral and they, they, you know, they do the effort, they make the connection and then you can't close that client because either they're not right for you or your sales process isn't good enough. And you, you can't, you know, close the client, that is your problem and not theirs. You don't want to punish them or penalize them just because you haven't had the success of converting them into a client. Okay, so we want to be rewarding the act of referring, not the outcome. Okay.

And various different ways then that we can incentivize that. So let's ask Chat GBT for some ideas around rewarding that. So.

Here'S the prompt. Suggest ways in which I could reward my bookkeeping clients for sending me referrals. So we've got financial rewards. Again as I mentioned, you have to be careful about this based on wherever you're based because it may not be allowed in various different areas. But it may be that you offer a financial reward, it may be that you actually go a little bit beyond that and you have some, some sort of affiliate arrangement, you know, where whenever you bring somebody in, you get this amount of money and that's something that sits on your website if you wanted to go to that level, that extent. Okay. Affiliate marketing is quite a big thing.

Okay. So you could offer some sort of, some sort of financial incentive, a non financial perk. It may be you give them something extra. So a free upgrade or a bonus. You can have a one off financial health check, you can get a cash flow forecast or a 30 minute advisory. Call with us as a thank you for referring that person. Okay. Maybe you give them exclusive access to something or, or piece of content, early bird access, whatever that might be. So something that's valuable to them, that incentivizes them to give that referral. Okay. Things like gift cards, personalized gifts. It may be, you know, a voucher for something. It may be a handwritten thank you card, a basket of flowers, you know, whatever. It might be just something that's nice, a nice gesture, maybe something that you do like that. Okay. It may be that you kind of gamify this where you have a bit of a referral leaderboard and people, you know, top referrer of the month, that might be going a little bit, bit above and beyond, but that might be the way you do it. It may be that you give a charity donation in their name. Okay, you've referred us, you referred us some business which allows us to give back to people. We want to give back to people, but we know that you're a business owner. We know that you've got great success with your business. We want to give that to people more in need. That's a great, you know, higher mission. And if you say that's people when you refer us, we're going to donate to charity, that can be a big motive for people as well. Okay. You might have something like a prize wheel or a lucky dip.

Okay, So a couple of different.

Suggestions there. There's some tips that ChatGPT said here as well. Make sure it feels proportionate to the value of the referred client. Okay? So if they bring you a massive client that brings you a, like a lot of income, then you should probably reward them quite substantially. Whereas if they bring something, somebody in who's, who's a bit smaller, then maybe, maybe, maybe the reward matches the referral. Okay, but remember, we're not incentivizing the outcome, we're incentivizing the act of referral, okay. Because we want to encourage them to keep referring people. Okay? Match the tone and the professionalism of your brand. Your brand. If, if creating a, a gamified leaderboard is not matching your brand, then don't do that option. If you would rather give a voucher or offer a 30 minute advisory call all on top of their normal service, then go with something like that and make sure they're easy to explain and deliver. You don't want an admin headache, okay? If you say, oh, we're gonna give you all of these amazing great things, but it's really difficult to deliver that, then just try and keep it as simplified as possible for your, for your admin sort of side of things. Okay. Okay. So next up.

I just jump back over here is having referral partners. So we can, obviously we can ask for referrals from our clients, but it may be that we actually also reach out to other businesses that have a similar audience to us but have a different.

Service. Okay. So they're not a competitor, but they have the same audience. So using the.

In fact, I'm going to jump straight over to the ChatGPT prompt because I actually really like the ones that it came up with here using the ideal client profile that I have here of we like to work with digital nomads. Okay. So we're an accountant, accounting bookkeeping firm that works with digital nomads. What kind of businesses would have a similar audience but wouldn't come compete with us? So they wouldn't be taking our clients away. But we could reach the same people. We could have a mutually beneficial relationship with that company so that we refer business to each other. Okay. And you. And create a system amongst you where you're referring them to them, they're referring them to you and, and, and you can offer discounts to each other's services and stuff and create a bit more of a system to bringing people in. So it's not just our clients that we can ask. These kind of partnerships can be really powerful as well. So here's a great prompt that I, that we've got here where it's getting it to do some research first for who would match this. So I've uploaded that ideal client profile. I work as an accountant helping digital nomads with their taxes. I've attached my ideal client profile for more context. I'm looking for some referral partners that I can set up a cross promotion with. They need to have the same audience but provide a different service such that they are not competitors. Can you do some research to find me a list of five businesses I could potentially reach out to? So the ones that it's come up with, first of all, WI Fi, okay. WI Fi Tribe. This is a service that curated co living and co working experiences around the world for remote professionals. So I'm thinking that that is. And it's given me a link to their website. But I'm thinking that's a business that provides WI fi to nomadic people. So you know, building WI fi units onto there so we could offer a discount to their product as a bonus that we give in our, that you know, adds value to our service. You know, if you Join with us. We can also give you a discount to this WI FI system. And then those WI fi people might also refer people to us as a, you know, as a reciprocal thing. Okay, we've got the Nomads Embassy, a Global Relocation Services and digital nomad visa support. So they're going to have a similar audience to us because it's people who are relocating, they're people who are working abroad. So it's a similar audience but they're not offering a competing service. So we could create some sort of, you know, collaboration with them. Safety wing here we've got health and travel insurance for digital Nomads. So again, similar service but not compete. Similar audience but not competing. And it's something that we can, you know, us having these collaborations with them adds value to us as well. Because if somebody is a digital nomad and they're a startup, they're kind of new and they don't have access to all of these people and these things that they're going to need. You recommending those for them and giving them this kind of resource list of, you know, here are a lot of great businesses that are going to be really helpful to you and we have discounts for them all or you know, we have a referral, we can refer you to them and get you some sort of extra perk that is also a valuable thing that you are giving them as well. Okay. Remote base. It curates remote work friendly destinations and helps remote workers plan travel. Okay, so this is the place where people can go to work remotely. And then another business here called Flown is a virtual co working and productivity support for remote professionals. So this was all done with the ChatGPT research feature. So I gave it the web access and it went and did the research. It found real businesses. I can then ask for the websites or I could go and look at these places and see what you know, if they have any kind of partnership program. So this first one at the top has a partnership program. So I could just immediately go and reach out to them via that because they already have a system. But for some of these other ones, maybe I want to create an email or a message that I can send to reach out to them to see if they'd be interested in a collaboration. So starting with the first one there, starting with the WI Fi tribe, can you research their website and gather information on them then then using that knowledge, craft an email I can send to open up a conversation about a possible collaboration. Consider what we can provide to their clients and vice versa and a potential referral system we could create between the two businesses.

So it's gone and looked at their website, gathered some information about what they do, their target audience, what their unique appeal is, the community that they have. And it specifically has looked at, look at their partner program as well. They're open to guest workshops, giveaways, social media partners, affiliate relationships and so on. Okay, so it's giving me some subject lines and it's then written me the email to reach out to them. So I'm reaching out with a potential collaboration idea I think your members will love. I run Nomad Tax Solutions, a remote first firm that specializes in tax strategy, compliance and bookkeeping for digital nomads and remote entrepreneurs. Exactly. Of the kind of inspiring professionals you bring together through your chapters. And chapters by the way, is a phrase that they use on their website. So it's pulling through from their kind of information. We help Nomads legally minimize their tax bills, stay compliant while traveling across borders, structure their businesses in the most tax efficient ways. I'd love to offer an exclusive tax planning perk to your community. Something like a free resource, a discounted one to one consult or a private work workshop on how to avoid double taxation as a digital nomad. In exchange, I'd be happy to promote the Wi Fi tribe to my audience via blog, newsletter or client onboarding system. Set up a referral system where you earn commission for any client referrals, collaborate and on co branded content for Q and A or Q&As for nomad navigating life and finances. Okay, so it's given some suggestions there as well of what kind of systems we might set up. We are happy to promote you in, in our marketing content but we might also set up a system where it you get money every time you refer someone to us or you get something, whatever it is. So that would be a really, really powerful system to set up. And I think you know, as well as having referral systems for your internal clients, also having a system like that with a joint venture where there is mutual benefit for both of you, you know, because if your clients are referring, it's generally coming from a place of I really like working with you and I want to share that, that joy with somebody else, you know, I want somebody else to have that great result. Whereas with a business kind of partnership like this, there's a mutual beneficial thing that's going on here. You know, I refer people to you, you refer people to me. I'm giving more value to my clients, you're giving more value to your clients because we're doing stuff for each other's community. So that is a super powerful way of doing those referrals, of having that, you know, outward business help, you know, a partnership there. Okay, so that's all of the systems I have for you today to go through with. Again, apologies for the broadcasting, not the broadcast not working the first time, and it cutting out halfway through. I'll be uploading this video soon. And again, you can watch it on repeat if you want. It's on YouTube. And I will see you all hopefully on the next one we do. Hopefully we won't have any tech issues on that one. And I'll see you all soon. Thanks, everybody, and bye for now.