Why You’re Not Getting Referrals (and How to Change That Today) | 037

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:00:00

Foreign welcome back. I'm so glad that you joined us for today's episode, because our guest is amazing. His name is Frank Agin, and he is the president of AM Spirit Business Connections, which empowers entrepreneurs, sales representatives and professionals to become

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:00:19

successful and gain more referrals through networking. He also shares information and insights on professional relationships, Business Network, networking and best practices for generating referrals on his networking, RX podcast and through various professional programs. Finally, Frank is the

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:00:39

author of several books, including foundational networking, creating no like and trust for a lifetime of extraordinary success, and the three reasons you don't get referrals.

Frank Agin: 00:00:50

Welcome Frank, thank you. Thank you.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:00:53

I love, I love that title. Three reasons you don't get referrals, that's what we're going to talk about today, right?

Frank Agin: 00:00:59

Yeah, yeah. Well, there, there are only three reasons. It's just, there are three reasons. So I talked to,

Frank Agin: 00:01:07

I, I have an

Frank Agin: 00:01:08

organization. I've had 1000s of members talk to, haven't talked to them all, but a lot of people come to me and they talk about, well, I'm not getting referrals. You know, when people, for the most part, people small business, people like us, we network because we want to get referrals, or maybe

Frank Agin: 00:01:26

introductions that lead to referrals, leads to business. And in talking to them, it's always just one of those three reasons.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:01:33

So I love that. So talk, before we get into that, talk a little bit about what do we mean by networking and and why is that important for business owners?

Frank Agin: 00:01:44

Well, networking is really just, it's, it's not computer networking, it's, it's, it's really the verb that drives relationships, building relationships, connecting with other people. You don't do anything alone and in business, certainly in the small business realm, we need to have people

Frank Agin: 00:02:05

that we can rely on, certainly for referrals, but for information. I mean, you've got a podcast. Somewhere along the way, somebody taught you things about your podcast. I mean, that was my story, and I learn all the time. You know about I should do this. I should do that. That's neat. I should do

Frank Agin: 00:02:20

that, like, you do a test check. I'm like, I've never really thought about that. I've just kind of sweated bullets like, you know,

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:02:29

because I've done it and done an entire podcast that did not work.

Frank Agin: 00:02:33

That's embarrassing, yeah? So, you know, so we network for, you know, to get information. And so, you know, those are, but it's those are, I should say we have people in our lives who help us in all those ways and introducing us to people. And you know, it sometimes it's personal,

Frank Agin: 00:02:49

sometimes it's professional, but we don't do anything alone and just having people around us. And so to build those people around us is really kind of this term networking, and it does get a bad rap. But if people really stop and think about it, if you have a spouse, Where'd you meet your spouse? It's probably

Frank Agin: 00:03:10

somebody introduced you, you know, if you got a babysitter, how'd you find the babysitter? Somebody in the neighborhood recommended them, or maybe it's somebody through church or the kids school, you know. So we are networking all the time, and so it's really important for success.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:03:25

Yeah, that's really true. And I like what you said, that sometimes people think about networking and have have a connotation around it, yet everyone is networking all the time, like I just saw a movie. Was it good? Yes, you should see it. Or no, you shouldn't like anything. Good

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:03:41

Restaurants, everything that we do when we're communicating with other people we are networking, and when we're talking about doing it for our business, sometimes we we put on like a different hat and look at it differently, and it's all the same thing. We just, we just in imbue it with some kind of

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:04:03

connotation that sometimes puts pressure on us as business owners, right? Because networking is and let's just break it down a little bit what we mean when we say net everything is networking, all the communication that you do and through your business when you're networking, that might

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:04:19

mean that you're going to an organized meeting with other people, other business owners, other professionals, and you are exchanging information. You are building a sales force. You're educating people, you're telling them about what you do. And the ultimate thing from those networking organizations is

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:04:40

getting referrals. And so tell us, Frank, what is a referral? Well, a

Frank Agin: 00:04:45

referral, well, referrals is the best form of business. Referral is really just somebody talking about you when you're not there and saying, You know what the perfect person to help you is? Sharon. She's, she's the person. I know her, I like her, I trust her, and from what you've said,

Frank Agin: 00:05:06

I really think that she could be the person to to help you, and in that moment, you're you could be sleeping, you could be on vacation, you could be working with another client. And so these referrals, these people talking saying great things about us when we're not there are kind of working in the

Frank Agin: 00:05:26

background for us. And so that's, you know, really what a referral is, and

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:05:30

and talk about the power of referrals and what that does for you, for like, a third party to be saying that you are the person that they should be working with. Yeah, well,

Frank Agin: 00:05:42

usually, usually, what's happened when somebody's giving you a referral is, they've sort of vetted the person they're going to refer to you, and they know that, okay, they need life insurance or whatever it might be. And because, well, I used to be an attorney, my clients would come

Frank Agin: 00:06:00

to me and say, Hey, Frank, we are looking for, we're looking for an accountant. Okay, great, you know, here's somebody that I think would work well with you, you know, and they're just the accountant at that point. Doesn't really need to do anything. I mean, well, they do. I mean, they need to show up and

Frank Agin: 00:06:20

be on time, and and all the things you kind of take for granted, and then, you know, and they need to certainly have a price that's in the ballpark, but they're not having to try and sell themselves to the person on the notion of, well, the person already knows they need accounting or tax work.

Frank Agin: 00:06:39

They don't. The accountants nodding, not having to sell themselves on, hey, I'm the one. Because it's like, Well, Frank told us you were the person, so we're going with it. In fact, Sharon a lot of times when I was practicing law and less so now. But when it, when you when you're when you're a

Frank Agin: 00:06:59

professional like that. You want to give three names, right? It just kind of protect yourself. I got to turn my email off. Shame on me. See, we don't need to edit this out. So anyhow,

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:07:11

I like it when we make mistakes, right? We all do some accidentally. Turn off my mic on a podcast one time, yeah,

Frank Agin: 00:07:22

I would give clients three names, and they would be like, because I'm trying to, you know, trying to be, you know, here's three names, protect myself and give them options. So who should I call? Well, I gave you three names, I know, but which of the three should I call? I don't want to tell you,

Frank Agin: 00:07:39

right, you know, because I don't want to commit to it Frank, I don't want to waste my time. I trust you, just tell me who to call. And as I would just put my hand down on the sheet of paper and say, I can't tell you, just, you know, point, right? I can't tell you,

Frank Agin: 00:07:57

you know. So,

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:07:59

yeah, so whenever we're getting referrals, there's kind of two ways to get referrals. One would be through a professional association, where you know, like and trust this person, you you've interacted with them, you have a relationship with them. And the other way would be

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:08:16

through your actual clients and who people who have worked with you directly, so they can say, in addition to hey, you know you should use them, I've used them, and I was happy as well. So most of the time when you're networking, you're probably going to get the first kind of referral, unless those people

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:08:34

have also worked with you. And sometimes that happens too, whenever you're in these professional networking situations. And I think it's important to talk about, when you go to these networking opportunities, I call them business card ninjas. Don't be a business card ninja. They walk

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:08:50

up, here's my card, do do business with me. Here's my card. Do business with me, here's my card, do business with me. You're going to the networking opportunities with the view of, I'm building relationships, and I'm going to get referrals, and I'm going to build my network, as opposed to,

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:09:08

I'm going to get a sale today. Yes, you might get the sale. However, the other thing that you will get, and the longer lasting, more impactful, sometimes connection would be that referral, right?

Frank Agin: 00:09:22

Yeah, no, absolutely. I love the term networking ninjas, business card ninjas. And I think that's a big reason why people don't go to networking events, networking opportunities, as you put it, because they don't want a few they don't want to do that. They don't want to feel the

Frank Agin: 00:09:39

rejection. They feel like that's the way to do it, and in reality, and it may sound counterintuitive, that is the absolute wrong way to do it. And you're on LinkedIn, you get, I don't, I've never seen your LinkedIn, but I'm willing to bet that you get people just pitching you right out of

Frank Agin: 00:09:56

nowhere, absolutely, yeah, out of nowhere. And. Are pitching you on things that you don't need, and they're trying to convince you that you need them. But what I always try to if I can get someone's attention, and sometimes you can, lot of times you can if I get somebody's attention, but what I try to

Frank Agin: 00:10:14

explain to them is, Listen, if you want to pitch me, go for it, right? Go for it. The answer is probably going to be no, because I've got a good handle on what it is I need. But if you just have a relationship with me and just learn about me and let me learn about you, I still might not buy from you, but in in that

Frank Agin: 00:10:38

process, I'm going to learn about you, and I'm going to be more likely than to refer you to somebody else. And a lot of times, people don't see that. They feel like, okay, I'm now, I've got to, I've got to close this business here. And now it's interesting, interesting. You talk about how, really,

Frank Agin: 00:10:55

everything is networking, right? I mean, I'm married, you're married. And there was, there was an element of networking to me, meeting my wife, there probably was with you, meeting your husband, right? I mean, there's just, you know, and what? When people come to me, when I work with people

Frank Agin: 00:11:10

regarding networking, and they're just think, Okay, I just need to go to the event. I need to close the deal. I I bring it back to their personal lives. And how, you know, did you do that when you met your wife? Well, no, we dated for a few years. And it's like, well, that's how business works, too,

Frank Agin: 00:11:28

you know, it's this, it's this courtship. Sometimes it happens quicker, sometimes it you know, but it never, it never happens at the event, right? You never walk into the bar. Hey, will you marry me? Is Right? You know, it's not going to work.

Frank Agin: 00:11:40

And if it does, watch out, because you probably got the wrong person. Yeah.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:11:45

And then after you meet someone at a networking event, a lot of the ones that I attend, they recommend that you do one on ones. That means you get together one on one with another business owner, another professional, and find out about what the other person does, and in so doing that, it will

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:12:04

increase your ability to tell people about them. And when somebody says, hey, I need a plumber, because I just have the perfect plumber for you, I've I've met them, I trust them. So that's a really powerful place. However, sometimes people will go into these meetings with the view of, this is a pitch

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:12:25

meeting. Can you talk about that sort of situation?

Frank Agin: 00:12:30

Yeah. I mean, well, first, the first thing, I'll say, there are people out there who don't like to going, don't like to go to events, and I think that's fine. You can start with the one on ones. You can just literally reach out to people and say, Hey, Sharon, you know what? You know, I see we're

Frank Agin: 00:12:47

both kind of in the local area, or we've done a, you know, you and I did a one on one before we set all this up. I mean, it's just, it was just, hey, let's have a conversation. You weren't pitching me, I wasn't pitching you, and we weren't at a networking event. So you can start out with the one on ones,

Frank Agin: 00:13:01

if you are, if you're uncomfortable with the networking events, that's still networking in my book. Yeah, but I don't think at any point there's a at no point you should be, should you be pitching and I think the benefit of networking is, is that you're getting your name out there and you're

Frank Agin: 00:13:20

getting out in the minds of other people, what it is you do that they're going to be sending you people again, where it's a referral, where you're not having to sell yourself on anybody. You know, a lot of times people are trying to you should buy these leads. Buy these leads. There's a lot of

Frank Agin: 00:13:38

that going on. Ai, ai consulting, a lot of that going on. Well, I don't need that. I don't need that. But if somebody is coming to me, you know, if I, if I say to you, Well, I'm, this is what I'm looking for. I Hey, I need, I'm working on a book. I need some help laying it out. Right when you send me, somebody

Frank Agin: 00:13:57

who's does that sort of work, graphic designer, that graphic designer is not having to pitch me. I've expressed a need, and that's really the power of networking is, is that it allows us to get people that we know, who know, like and trust us, to put us in front of people who really need what we want, the

Frank Agin: 00:14:16

only thing we need to the only thing we need to convince that person that we're ultimately going to sell to, because they already want. What we have at that point is that the price is right, the deliverables are right. The Price Is Right, and I'm gonna be able to get the job done in the appropriate amount

Frank Agin: 00:14:31

of time right, you know? And that's really the, you know, benefit of networking. So when you're doing the one on ones, you should never feel like, okay, I've got to put this pitch in. You know, never ask the leading questions. It's just it's a turn off. And I think that's the quickest way to

Frank Agin: 00:14:48

really lose out on lots of other opportunities. Stop looking at the person across from you as, okay, there's my client. The person across from you is somebody that you should be helping you. Uh, and if you're helping them, they're going to be helping you. Somehow. It might involve them being a

Frank Agin: 00:15:05

client, but it doesn't have to be,

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:15:08

yeah, yes, because I've said in so many I thought they were like, you know, collaborative meetings, and they bring out their whole pitch deck and start turning pages, and I'm like, oh, okay,

Frank Agin: 00:15:20

yeah, Where's my wallet? Hang on to my wallet here.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:15:25

And it's funny, I actually recently had a had a call with someone, and I was under the impression they were interested in doing business with me, and by the end of the call, I realized that they that was not their intent in making the connection with me. So I try to when I'm making appointments

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:15:40

with people, and obviously, not always successfully, be really clear about, you know, I'm, I'm making this appointment because I'm, I have a need, and I'm looking at you to fill that need. And hey, I want to, I want to get to know you better, because I want to include, include you in my, you know,

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:15:57

sphere of influence. And I want to be able to recommend people to you find, find out more about what you do. So it happens even whenever you've been networking, as long as I have,

Frank Agin: 00:16:07

yeah, well, and it's, I mean, it's, it's too bad that you have

Frank Agin: 00:16:10

to kind of set those parameters, right. It's, you know, but, but you do, you know, and, but there are a lot of good, there are a lot of good networking partners out there. And I, you know. And either the people who don't get it, they eventually just go get a job, because it's just, it's not going to work for them. It

Frank Agin: 00:16:28

just doesn't, you know, but I need a sale by the end of the week. It's like, well, that's, you know, the universe. The universe doesn't bend to your whims. You know the you know, the universe and and the notion of relationships, it just is what it is. And sometimes it's just going to take a long time

Frank Agin: 00:16:45

to

Frank Agin: 00:16:46

get a client, yeah, depends what you're selling.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:16:49

Yeah. So networking is really powerful, and it's not always instantaneous. Sometimes it is. Sometimes you meet just the right person at just the right time. However, there is, there is a bit of, you know, finesse and tactics and technique to doing it so that you are

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:17:07

actually getting out of it. What you think that you want to get out of it?

Frank Agin: 00:17:11

Yeah, I always tell people that networking works. It doesn't work always the way you think it. You that You want it to work, right? So you might go to a networking event and I'm going to try, and I'm here to get a client, and you don't, but you come away with that tip on that great vacation. Well,

Frank Agin: 00:17:29

networking worked. It didn't work the way you wanted it to work, right, right? Networking works, but it doesn't always work in the timeline you want it to work. So you go to that event hoping to meet somebody. You meet somebody, but it doesn't work out. But three years later, they call you and say, you know,

Frank Agin: 00:17:43

I need you now. Well, it worked, just didn't work how you wanted it, the timeline you wanted. And it works, but it doesn't always work when you think it might work. So you go to that event, nothing happens. Then you're going to the gas station gassing up, you're standing in line to pay or buy a soda or whatever

Frank Agin: 00:18:00

else, cup of coffee, and the person behind you is a perfect person. I mean, it literally happened to me. I was at the little convenience store near my office, gassing up, and there's a guy behind me. He's like, I'm having a really good day. He bought my coffee. And I, you know, he's had a handyman

Frank Agin: 00:18:17

business. He just, you know, uh huh, give me your card, because I know people who need handyman all the time, you know, and he's gotten into my organization, and he gets lots of business. I never, I wasn't there trying to meet somebody. So it's just, we never know so, but

Frank Agin: 00:18:31

networking works. It always works.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:18:33

That's awesome. I love that. I love that take on, on that's it's not always the timeline. It's not always the thing that you think that you're going to get. But what I found in my business is I'm doing, putting in the work if I'm going to networking, if I'm doing all of the things to get

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:18:48

the word out that I need to get, that I need to do, it will come like I'm putting the energy over here. It kind of comes in the side door, maybe, yeah, and then you get business over here, and it was, you know, it just sort of builds on itself.

Frank Agin: 00:19:02

Yeah, I

Frank Agin: 00:19:04

one of the, one of my, my many, many metaphors. Sharon, I have lots of metaphors. My kids tease me, but I use golf as a metaphor. I don't know if you golf,

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:19:13

I wouldn't call it golfing. I have had a club in my hands and I hit a little white ball,

Frank Agin: 00:19:18

okay, all right, you're probably better than I am, but you understand the game of golf, right? And so I'll have people who will, people will be sent to me. Everybody said I should talk to you, Frank, I've lost my job, or people, you know, I just knew in business, people tell me I should, you

Frank Agin: 00:19:32

know, talk to you. And, you know, I'll ask them if they golf, or if they understand golf, and most people do. And I say, when you're teeing off from a 400 yard, you know, par four dogleg, right? Are you saying to yourself, hoping? Are you hoping to yourself, you'll drop it in the cup and people laugh, oh,

Frank Agin: 00:19:51

no, no, You never hit. You know, nobody hit the ball that far and get it in the hole. And I said, Well, of course, not. The game of golf is not about trying to get. Hit the ball in the cup on one shot. It's about sequencing shots together. And that's, that's the same thing with networking. You know, you meet

Frank Agin: 00:20:08

somebody, you and I meet I'm on your podcast. Somebody might call me as a result of it because they want me on their podcast. Or, you know, they're looking for an introduction, and that introduction leads to something else, and leads to something else, leads to something else. And the next

Frank Agin: 00:20:21

thing you know, you're you have a client in front of you. In fact, I have a I have a franchisee down in Pensacola in my business, and he called me on, I still remember, it was February 8, 2021 he called me, left me a Facebook message, me a LinkedIn message. It was a Monday morning, and I'm like, Oh

Frank Agin: 00:20:40

my gosh, you know, I heard you've got this franchise opportunity. You know, we'd love to talk to you about it, which is like, it's like somebody coming to you and just out of nowhere and just wanting to be a great client, right? Yeah. And so we're talking and going through the whole intake process

Frank Agin: 00:20:55

and answering all these questions. And I said, Okay, John, I gotta ask you, How'd you hear about me? And he gave me a name, and I don't know that person. That's really weird. He said, Well, they got your name from gave me another name. I'm like, Oh my God, I know that person. I just had him on my

Frank Agin: 00:21:12

podcast, you know, and he was with BNI, which we're competitor of BNI, which has really made it kind of odd. But then I started to think about it. It's like, well, I met that BNI person from somebody else I know. And there was, there were, long story short, there were seven steps in this whole sequence, right?

Frank Agin: 00:21:31

Started with a woman that I knew in Dallas, Texas, right, who connected me with somebody in New Jersey that went, here, went, there. Was just all over the place, kind of like my golf game, but ultimately I got to where I wanted to be, you know, and that's how people need to look at networking, is that, you

Frank Agin: 00:21:48

know, it's every every contact is going to get you one step closer to where you need to be. Sometimes it's only two or three contacts. Sometimes it's, you know, it might be a dozen, you know, a dozen in in 20 years. Who knows? But it's just you're, you're kind of building things that ultimately lead to, you

Frank Agin: 00:22:09

know what you want, right?

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:22:12

Absolutely. So we've talked about referrals, we've talked about networking, we kind of have defined all of the terms. So why would somebody not be able to get referrals? The three

Frank Agin: 00:22:24

reasons people don't get referrals,

Frank Agin: 00:22:26

yeah, that's a whole book on this. Give us the high level. Yeah, I will, I will. I won't get into it too much. There are three reasons and only three reasons people don't get referrals. The first reasons, they don't have a relationship your business card, Ninja, they don't have a relationship with

Frank Agin: 00:22:41

you, that ninja could be the very best at what they do, the very, very best in the world, right? They could, but you're not going to do business with them because you don't know them, don't like them, you don't trust them. So you have to have a relationship before somebody's going to do business with you.

Frank Agin: 00:22:58

And that's where the one on ones come in not just one, one on one. It may be lots of one on ones where you're developing a relationship.

Frank Agin: 00:23:07

The second reason people don't

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:23:08

before you go on, let me just jump in there and term a couple of times. So I just want you to define it for you. And it's pretty self evident, and I would like you to define it as well. What is know, like and trust?

Frank Agin: 00:23:21

Well, no, like and trust, just three words, no is and these are not my words. These are, these are kind of academic words. Knowing is just, you know, knowing somebody know, you know, an introduction, meeting you, that's just, we just know each other, right, right? And Jeff is the Jeff

Frank Agin: 00:23:39

clients, the one who we was, kind of the person who connected us, so that got us to know each other. And then we did a one on one, did a zoom one on one. Oh god, you know, I like Sharon. I think she's got, you know, she's, she's got a lot of insight, you know, and and then through that, you have to

Frank Agin: 00:23:57

determine whether you trust somebody. I mean, it's possible to, it's possible to know people and not like them, right? We we have people like that in our lives. It's possible to know and like somebody and not trust them. I used to be an attorney. There's a lot of people out there I know and like, I really

Frank Agin: 00:24:11

don't trust I have a beer with them. I'm not going into business with them, right? You know? So those are the three things that we have to have.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:24:20

And a lot of times that's something that's built over time, or it's built because you did business together, or it's built because you had a common situation, and you said earlier about, you know, that's my reputation on the line. So if I refer you and let go. Sorry. Let me put it

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:24:41

this way, you refer me and I don't take care of your client, or I do a bad job, or I don't return a phone call or show up on time that reflects on you. Yes, so whenever we're giving referrals, we are giving a piece of our our integrity. Away whenever we're saying, hey, this person's going to do a good job

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:25:03

for you. So it is really critical when someone does give you a referral that you are go above and beyond for that person, because it's not just the client in front of you, it's also the person who referred them to you.

Frank Agin: 00:25:18

Yeah, no. I mean, that's the quickest way to not get referrals. And that gets to the whole notion of trust, reliability, being able to do what you say you're going to do.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:25:29

Okay? Now, now that we got all that away. Number two,

Frank Agin: 00:25:33

number two, well, it's possible to have a relationship with somebody and not get referrals. And I use my parents as an example. My mom has passed my dad's 91 but I've never gotten a referral from my parents. Now I like to think they love me, right? I got me through high school and college

Frank Agin: 00:25:50

and all sorts of wonderful things that Mom and Dad always do, but I've never gotten a referral from my parents. And I'm not, I'm, I'm, I'm not trying to be a victim or anything like that. I have a different relationship with my family, my you know, my dad's a professor. Was a professor. He

Frank Agin: 00:26:06

just lived a different world. But I use that to underscore the point that it's possible to have a relationship and not get referrals. So the second reason is, is the reason my parents didn't give me a referral is I failed to educate them on how to recognize opportunities for me.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:26:20

Right? We think that they should just know, right?

Frank Agin: 00:26:23

Yeah, yeah.

Frank Agin: 00:26:25

That's the biggest reason why people don't get referrals. I see it in my organization. That's 80% of the time. People talk in terms of jargon. They throw a lot of jargon out. They use indefinite pronouns, anyone, somebody, everyone, those are indefinite pronouns, and the brain can't process those

Frank Agin: 00:26:44

things. They just fire out a litany of things and figures that somebody's going to remember that. So they do all sorts of things to kind of trip themselves up. And what I tell people, well, there's a lot to this getting recognition, but what I generally tell people is, don't tell me what you do. Okay,

Frank Agin: 00:27:05

I know you're a realtor. I get that. That's what you do. If I'm going to refer you, I need to know when you do it, when you swing into action. So if somebody says, Well, you know, if you know somebody who's moving mom into a home. You know, she's getting up in age, moving mom into a home, that's a

Frank Agin: 00:27:25

win. Chances are they're going to sell mom's home, or if you know somebody who's living in an apartment, a couple living in an apartment, and they just had a baby, that's a win. And so when we start to educate people on those wins, and it's really getting into this little, what I call 32nd stories. 32nd stories

Frank Agin: 00:27:43

about the clients we help and how we're helping them. That becomes like Velcro in people's minds, right? They just we hang on to those things. And so I if you tell me, if you know somebody moving mom into a home, I might not know somebody in the moment, but six months from now, when I have that conversation

Frank Agin: 00:28:01

with somebody who says, oh geez, we're moving mom into a home, bells go off in my head, saying, Oh, mister, Miss realtor, this is an opportunity for you. So that's the second thing, creating this recognition. You know, we need to help our we need to help the people recognize opportunities for us.

Frank Agin: 00:28:18

The third reason why people don't get referrals is we haven't necessarily empowered them with the ability to have a conversation outside of our presence, right? So I might recognize an opportunity for somebody I was a perfect person for. For Sharon, I don't know what to say, you know, and you

Frank Agin: 00:28:42

want to be able to finesse that conversation. Sometimes it's easy, but a lot of times it's not, you know, it could be something that's sensitive, like, like life insurance, right? You could see some that person needs life insurance. They just had a baby. How do I bring this up? I don't want to

Frank Agin: 00:28:59

offend them or the other one is like weight loss things, you know, but you have to be able to, you have to coach the people you're looking for referrals from on. You know, if you see this, this is why it matters. Think of me. But just, well, I'll give you an example. If you know somebody who is, if

Frank Agin: 00:29:19

you know somebody who's got a teen driver,

Frank Agin: 00:29:24

their insurance rates are going through the roof. It's just a fact of life. If you have kids, you get it right, right? Your insurance, your insurance, their insurance rates are going through the roof. So if you, if you're, if you see your neighbor and find out a little Johnny's got his temps, or little

Frank Agin: 00:29:38

Johnny's got his license, you know, you're not going to blurt in there and like, oh, you know, you know you need to call Bob the insurance agent, which you're probably going to want to do. And this is where the insurance agent will coach you just ask, What's having it? What did having a teen driver do your

Frank Agin: 00:29:51

insurance rates? It killed us. How about you? Oh, my God, Frank, you would not believe what it did to our insurances. I feel like I need to get a second job. So, yeah, we felt the same way, you know. So that's what I call kind of the segue. I've just brought insurance into the conversation, and then the last

Frank Agin: 00:30:07

piece of it is, is you, but what we did when it happened to us, is we connected with this guy, Bob, and he has, he has access to these different programs with different companies, that it didn't take all the pain away, but it really minimized it for us. Can I have Bob give you a call? So that's kind of that

Frank Agin: 00:30:26

third piece of teaching people how to have a conversation with others when we're not there.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:30:31

That's really great. I actually, when you were talking about how to refer people, I was thinking about I have actually a document that I sent that I can send to people that says, hey, here's what you can say about me to make an introduction or referral. And I love that you're you took that a

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:30:48

step further, which is, how do you have the conversation? Because that is the, that is the the sticky point sometimes is, well, yeah, and what do I say? Hey, here. Call Bob is not as effective as saying, hey, when we went through this, our insurance went up. I really love that. And there's it has the

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:31:10

whole, the whole system, which is, you know, introducing it, making it conversational and comfortable, and then saying, Here's Bob. And now, how can we connect you like there and wasn't just hit call Bob, but let me take it the next step and actually make that introduction for you.

Frank Agin: 00:31:28

Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's a finesse to it and but it's a really that middle thing. And I think part of it is, is we all just think that I was an attorney. Everybody knows what attorneys do. Why do I even have to say it? I'm an attorney. Send me your client. You know, so many people who need attorney.

Frank Agin: 00:31:42

Who need attorneys, and I wouldn't get in any referrals. But once I started saying, you know, if you know somebody who's renting going to be leasing commercial property, there's, you know, that's a when people would, oh my gosh, I didn't think of that. You know, of course, you don't, because you

Frank Agin: 00:31:59

didn't go to law school. You don't you shouldn't be thinking of I should be educating you,

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:32:03

right, right? It's really important to educate your your referral partners, so that they know what to say, what to look for, and what to say, and what and how to do that the whole way through. I really like that, that system. Thank you, very. Powerful was that the third one, did we get to three?

Frank Agin: 00:32:23

Yeah, we got to three. The third Yeah, have a relationship, educate people on how to recognize opportunities, and then the third thing is empower them with language so they can talk about you in your absence.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:32:35

And I think that that third piece might be the piece that people most often miss,

Frank Agin: 00:32:42

yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, the the the relationships in the heart, right? I really like Sharon. I really want to help her, the recognitions in the head, okay, I see opportunities. Okay, I get it. I get it, but it dies there. Unless I have the ability to say, You know what, I think I

Frank Agin: 00:32:59

have somebody who could really help you, you know, I'd like to arrange a meeting with you and Sharon, you know, this is why I see this working out. You've said this, and we've had coffee a couple times, and she's told me this, this and this, and I think there's something there. I mean, I always kind of couch it

Frank Agin: 00:33:15

in those soft terms, so it doesn't seem salesy, like

Frank Agin: 00:33:19

you got a user, you

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:33:20

know, it's right, yeah, you know. And then you have different personality styles, like, I want to refer everybody to everyone, because I think they're so great. And then you have people that are very slow to to gain that, know, like and trust. They want to make sure that they're that they, you

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:33:39

know, really are solid. You are who you say you are. So sometimes, even if you know you're you have all those pieces in place. It might take a little bit longer, just because that's the way that personality style is, or that communicator they want to, they want to take a little bit more time and be a

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:33:57

little more circumspect about things. And then you have, and then you have people that are just really shy and that's hard, so giving them the actual tools that we talked about today can actually help almost eliminate all of those things that make you hesitate based on, you know, well, that's not my style. You

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:34:17

could find a way to to make your style work with these steps.

Frank Agin: 00:34:22

Yeah, well, that's, that's the beauty of one on ones, is you can really, you know, you can really dial into these things. I'm going to really understand, you already know, like a trusted person, I would really want to understand what I'm looking for. Tell me a story about a client you're

Frank Agin: 00:34:36

working with. Don't give me general terms. Really talk about this client. Or, hey, here's a client I have. How do you see yourself fitting into this? Okay, now I see the opportunity. Now, what do I say to my client? Right? And that's, that's where the one on ones become really powerful,

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:34:51

yeah? And stories are really important, because what stories sell, right? Yeah. And actually, people remember stories more than you. Coming in and giving a list of everything that you do every time that you encounter them, you say the same list. If you say like I this happened to

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:35:08

me one time. I've been networking with this guy for, I don't know, had to be nine years. And one day I came in and told a story about a woman who came in with, you know, this slides. She came in with slides, and I told this little story, and at the end of the the meeting, he came up to me, goes,

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:35:26

I didn't know you did that. I'm like, I have been saying it for years, but hearing it through his story hits different and helps people remember differently.

Frank Agin: 00:35:35

Well, I mean, that's part of it, the story. Part of it is,

Frank Agin: 00:35:41

I have kids. You have kids. I do okay.

Frank Agin: 00:35:45

Have you ever told your kids something and they don't listen, right? I mean, it's just, it's part of, well, that what my point is, is this, this, this grown ass man, pardon my expression? Is just a kid. He's not listening, right? And it's not till the you know? Yeah, I believe. And I hear this all the

Frank Agin: 00:36:01

time. I say it all the time. Nobody hears, you know, nobody's they don't like me. It's like, no, they're just not listening. They're like little kids, you know, they're worried about, oh, geez, I need to do this. I need to buy toilet paper or whatever. And so it's just you have to hit them in the right moment. And

Frank Agin: 00:36:15

that's where kind of repetition comes in. Again, it gets back to relationships, and you know, we're going to do another one on one, and let's just keep digging away at this. And you know, eventually it works out,

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:36:26

yeah, yeah. So this has been really powerful conversation, and I love that you have opened it up to it's not that networking is everywhere and and you can have these relationships, and there are structures that are in place that can that can help you as well. So I really appreciate you

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:36:47

coming today Frank and talking to us about networking and referrals and and how to make that better, and actually how to use that ability, that marketing ability that you have in your business, where that the price that you pay most of the time is your time. There are some groups where you pay money to join as

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:37:07

well, and it's a lower cost than, say, buying ads on print ads or Facebook ads or Google ads or anything like that. So it's a it's a little lower dollar buy in for the most part, and how to actually, you know, because I think there are a lot of people that maybe go to these things and they're just it

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:37:29

didn't work. It's because you didn't have the right strategy going in. So thank you for giving us really powerful strategies and tools today and helping us up our networking game so that we can get better referrals, and we can better refer people that we know, like and trust.

Frank Agin: 00:37:47

Well, I appreciate the opportunity being on here, getting to know you better, and I'm going to get you on my podcast. We're going to make that happen. So this is going to continue on,

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:37:55

awesome, and you do have a gift for our listeners today. Can you tell us a little bit about this? I'm very excited.

Frank Agin: 00:38:03

Yeah, I wrote a book. I've written a number

Frank Agin: 00:38:06

of books, but one of the books I wrote is called giving journal, and it was just kind of my own self discovery of how I became

Frank Agin: 00:38:16

hyper focused on helping other people,

Frank Agin: 00:38:20

and so I put it in a journal. It just explains, it gets into a little bit of science as to, you know us, you know why we're giving to people, and gives people a framework to be more focused on helping others. And really, when you start helping others, that's when things start coming back, back to you. So

Frank Agin: 00:38:36

I've given you a link. People can download it for free. I don't even, don't even collect an email address. Just take it if you want it, great. Pass it on to somebody else. That's fine. I just want to try and help as many people

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:38:48

as I can. Awesome. So here's how you're getting at it. We have the profit connectors dot club portal. It's profit connect doors. Dot, C, l, u, B, that's the web address. You just go in there. It's free to go in and you can get Frank's gift today. You can find out his contact

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:39:06

information, his bio, of course, this podcast, and give you access to Frank and all of our other guests that we've had on the podcast, and access to their gifts as well. So Frank, before we go. Do you have any parting words that you would like to share?

Frank Agin: 00:39:27

You know what people always ask me, What's the one thing I can do today to get myself networked? And my answer is pretty consistent. Well, it is it? It is consistent. Find something you're passionate about and volunteer. You know, maybe it's homelessness, maybe it's pet charities, maybe it's

Frank Agin: 00:39:43

youth sports, it's something in your community. Get out there because we as humans are looking for people to do nice. We're looking for others who are doing things like that. But the other beautiful thing about getting out there and doing those things is it. It is absolutely networking. And you are

Frank Agin: 00:40:01

networking with people who share the same passion you do, and they're going to find out about you. They're going to what's what's that sharing about? You know, somebody's going to know and they're going to talk about it. So that's probably the most powerful thing you could start to do to get yourself networked.

Sharon Galluzzo: 00:40:16

I love that. Well, thank you so much, Frank, for joining us, and thank you for showing up. Every time that you show up, you improve yourself. So when you show up your future self, thanks you, and remember it's your impact. Go, make it matter. You.