Stop Chasing Leads: My Top 3 Referral Moves That Actually Work

What is going on? Team Matt here from the PT Profit, Leverage and Lifestyle show. Hope you guys are having an amazing day so far. It's a beautiful Tuesday afternoon here in Brisbane and I'm ready to deliver some amazing content for you guys. So last week I actually delivered a rockstar training on referrals. So, so I'm going to give you guys a little bit of a snippet of what we talked about. So my, my coaching calls, usually with my clients, go for an hour, but I'm just going to give you the highlight reel over the next 15, probably 15, 20 minutes or so. So we'll see, we'll see how we go. But I actually haven't jumped on here just with myself for a while. I've had heaps of guests coming on here as well and a lot of new listeners tuning into the podcast because of the guests that I'm getting on. So if you haven't watched the other episodes, you know, some epic episodes with some of my clients on there on their results, I've also had some epic people from the industry jumping on here and sharing some wisdom in their insights as well. So we're going to go through the referral process. So there's three different ways that you can get referrals. Um, and I'll, I'll give you guys a bit of a summary of each one and I'll go into a bit of detail with some of them. Some of them you might need a little bit more insight. So if you do want like the worksheet that I did with my clients on this, so it has all the information on there, just send me a message on Instagram or Facebook and I'll send you through the worksheet completely for free as well. Okay, let's get into it, team. So there's three ways to generate referrals. And the reason why this is such an important thing, right, is because like whether you're a face to face or an online trainer, you don't want to have to always be chasing leads. You don't want to be always chasing clients. And it's so much easier to get clients when they're already pretty much pre qualified from their friends and family. Because more than likely the clients that you coach are very similar to like they're, they're very similar friends and family that are ideal clients as well. Like if you're working with ideal clients, they hang around the same type of people, so they're also ideal clients. So instead of having to spend money on ads or doing content or calling People, it's so much easier if the, your clients can actually do the work for you. So that's why it's super important. And one of the big things that I mean for me, I give my clients a financial reward for referring people. But some of my other clients, for example, give vouchers for various things. I've used gift cards before, like Kohl's vouchers. I've also used CDK vouchers before. Give back to your clients when they do refer, because they don't have to do that. And it is obviously a testament to your coaching and your, your services that they're referring people. But make sure you obviously give back. So let's go through a couple of the options here. So we've got three things. So the first one is so easy, it's just asking. The second one is part of your goal setting and reassessment session. And then the last one is from like giveaways and seminars. So let's go through each one. Some of you won't know what a goal setting and reassessment is, which I'll go through first. But the first one is asking. Now obviously this is a no brainer, but you'll actually, if you want referrals, you just need to ask for them. More than likely, people are happy to refer. You're just not asking the actual questions. I've got a little graph that you can't see my screen right now, but as an example, like if you asked three times, you might get five referrals, but if you ask nine times, you might get 15 as an example. So the, the whole idea is the more times you ask, the more chances you have of actually getting referrals. Obviously that's a no brainer. Now when you're, when you're actually asking. One thing that I brought up with, one thing that I had a conversation with my client with the other day is how do you actually know what to, to give them? And the simple answer is just ask them what they want. Meaning, hey John, I actually been thinking about having some type of referral program to reward my clients that choose to refer their friends and family to me. If we had like a referral program in place, what would you actually want in return? That's all you gotta ask. They might say, oh, you know, I don't need anything, I'll just refer people anyway. That's a nice easy way to bring up referrals in a conversation. Some people will be like, oh yeah, you can, you know, why don't you get My partner to train with you, or can we train. Can me, my partner train together in a session with you, for example? You know, you never know what's going to happen from that conversation, but a lot of the time we'll be like, oh, you know, maybe a free PT session. Done, done deal. You know, my. Cost you an extra 30 minutes of your time. You know what I mean? Or maybe they, maybe they get a discounted rate on extra sessions, 50% off extra sessions for a month. Who knows? Just ask the question. And like, as I said before, one of the things that worked well for me is City Cave, which is like a recovery center here in Brisbane. I'm pretty sure it's around Australia these days, but it's like a recovery center. So they got like saunas, they got massages, they got float therapy, that type of stuff. So it's also going to help your client as well. So a lot of the time when people first start working with a trainer, they're going to be sore. So think about what can actually help your client even more. And then if you want to go step further, you can even develop some type of partnership with that business as well. If you're going to give referrals to that business a lot. And they can do the same thing for you to win. Win for everyone. So that's one of the, one of the strategies is just asking. And a lot of the time when you just bring up this type of conversation, they're going to be like, oh, yeah, all, you know, I'd like to have this or this. I'm like, okay, cool. Well, do you have anyone in mind that might actually want some. Some help? I'm happy to give them like a free session to see if they actually would like it. Who do you have in mind? Now? The next one we're going to go through goal setting and reassessment session. Now, a goal setting and reassessment session is as simple as it is. It's redoing the. Their goals, redoing their measurements, redoing their fitness, testing body scan, whatever measurements you're taking or whatever data that you want to analyze, you're redoing that. Now, we do that for my clients. We do that every six weeks, roughly every six to eight weeks. The reason why we do that is just so we can make sure we're actually on track and then we can realign what we're focusing on or redo the program or redo the training techniques or redo the nutrition, depending on the results that we've got for that client. So the other thing you can do as well during that session is forecast the results for the next 12 months and be like, cool. Well, we're on track with our 12 month goal. What are we going to do after that? So let's just say it's a weight loss client, right? And they're pretty much solely focused on weight loss. Let's say they want to lose 10 kilos. They've already lost five. There's only five kilos left to lose, which might take them another two months, for example. But what are you working on after that? So let's say you're doing a lot of strength training, so you want to do some like fitness testing and be like, cool. Well, we're actually getting so much stronger on your bench press and deadlift and squats. Why don't we set some goals to improve your strength as well? So now all of a sudden, that client is now going to stay with you longer because you've got some long term goals, not just that weight loss goal. So that's just a little bonus tip for you guys for retention. But if in your goal setting and reassessment sessions, you want to ask the referrals, when people are on a high, when they're emotionally highly driven, meaning they've got some results and they know that they're on track or they know that they've got good results, that's when you ask for referrals. You don't ask them when they've had a shitty weekend or they've had a crappy day at work. You ask them when, when you're like, oh my God, I've lost five kilos. I didn't realize I lost so much. Or you, you know, I'm down on dress size or wow, I've lost 5 centimeters off my stomach. That is the time to ask for referrals. Now a little bonus here for you guys. Bonus is if you can get the client to create a three way chat with them and their friend or family member saying something like this. Hey John, I just had a session with Matt. We're already down 5 kilos in a month. No, let me rephrase that. Hey John, just finished up a PT session with Matt. I'm already down five kilos. You guys should chat. That's all you've got to say? That's all they need to say. And then you, as the pt, take it from there and say, you know, hey, love you. To connect, you know, absolutely crushing goals with xyz, I'd love to be able to help. Would you be open to coming down for a free health assessment and free session to see if you'd get some value from it by creating a three way chat? It takes all the risk out of it because, you know, for the client, they're, they're taking all the risk in creating the three way chat, but because you've got the results, it's, it's not risky for them to do it, you know what I mean? So that's a little bonus. If you can get clients to create a freeway chat, then it makes things a lot easier. But basically the reason why we ask it in your goal setting and reassessment sessions. For one, they're in the correct emotional state of mind to be able to refer people on the spot. And two, if you've done it correctly with your value stack or your offer, you should actually include five free passes, five free health assessments or kickstart sessions or whatever you want to call them to family and friends. So you just got to remind them about what's already included in their membership. So it's not an added extra, it's already included in the membership that they get. You know, for my clients we usually suggest five of them. So you say, cool, you've lost five kilos already in the first six weeks. So let me just remind you, you've got five free health assessments to give out to your friends and family. Who would you like to give them to now? Can you imagine how easy it's for them? It's going to be to put, put some names down now that they know they've lost five kilos in the first six weeks. If you ask them then straight away to refer five people, they'd be like, I don't know, I'll get back to you, I'll let you know. They're not going to refer people because they haven't actually got any results yet. So you need to get people results first before you actually refer people and then only ask them when they have got results. So when they've just hit a pb, when they've achieved their first milestone, when they finally got the energy back, when they finally able to feel better and eat better, eat cleaner, because you remember they hang around very similar people. So chances are what they are struggling with is what their friends and family struggle with as well. Specifically, if you're an online coach, you might have to be doing paid advertising. Like it might cost you, you know, $200 to get a client, $500 to get a client. You save yourself $500 to get a client if you can use referrals. Okay, so every six weeks you should be asking, providing the clients got results, you should be asking, hey, just remember you've got XYZ included in your membership. Who would you like to give them to get your phone out? Just give me a couple of names and numbers. Or better yet, as I say, create this frame my chat and if they say, oh yeah, I've got my boyfriend Tim that would love to get some sessions done. Okay, awesome. If you don't mind, just quickly jump on your phone, go into Facebook, messenger or Instagram, create a freeway chat with us just so we can connect. Guess what happens then? Then that person will then check out your social media and ideally you've got some social media presence, you've got some value, you've got some testimonials. They're going to be pumped up to even have a conversation with you before you even sit down with them. Because you've put in the work behind the scenes. You've got the testimonials, you've got the value, you've got the social proof. It just makes it all easy. Okay, that's number two. Number three is from giveaways or seminars. You can be either. Most common one for a lot of pts is giving some type of giveaway. Whether it's face to face PT sessions, whether it's online coaching, whether it's free protein samples, whatever it is, same principles apply. So to do this one, this one's nice and easy. Let's just say for example you have, you're giving away some free personal training. So you might give away 12 weeks of free PC or four weeks, eight weeks, whatever it is. And you're doing that as a competition so people can win. You might have like a sign on sheet or a QR code up the front of the gym to generate some leads that way. Now to get your clients involved because you want your clients involved as well, because you want them to have a chance to win as well, all you're going to say is hey John, did you actually see a big giveaway? Or our seminar that we've got going at the front of the gym, have you seen it? Oh no, I haven't seen. I've just been busy. Okay, cool, let me show you. Go grab your phone and I'll meet you at the front. That's the first option if they haven't seen it. So cool. John, I'll put your name down. How would you like some extra entries in the draw to win? Everyone's going to say yes to that? Yeah. Perfect. I love some extra entries. How do I do it? Cool. John, for every person you put down that might want some free training, you're going to get five extra entries. So pull up your phone. Who do you know in your local area, if you're a face to face PC or if you're online, who do you know that would get some value from free personal training? From me. So you're not trying to sell the service, you're just trying to say who would like some free help on their health and fitness. And again, more than likely this person will know people that are similar to them, which is ideally your ideal client. Okay. And all you gotta say is just put three to five people down. You gotta get an extra 15 votes or 15 entries into the draw. Super, super easy. There's zero risk. And the only thing you want to say from there is, hey, like I know you put down Tammy and Karen and Timmy, just make sure you send them a message and say, hey, just FYI, I'll put you in the draw to win some free personal training. Hope that's okay because you probably end up contacting those people to give them something of value down the track. You don't want it to be like a super cold message. They're like, oh yeah, cool. My friend entered that competition for me. Yeah, I'll take whatever it is that I've won. Okay, so that's, that's the highlight reel. So just to summarize, you've got, Just asking is the first one. Then you got your part of your goal setting and reassessment session, which is part of their membership. They get their referral vouchers included and then from giveaway. So again, if you guys want the full worksheet that I did with my clients or if you want to watch the recording to the full one hour training on referral. So the referral amplifier, just send me a message on Instagram or Facebook and I'll send it through to you. And until then, I'll see you next time.