Earlier this year I asked birthing business owners about their biggest challenges in running their businesses. One of the top questions was about how to get more referrals.

If you are like most birthing business owners, you’ve been taught a bit about getting referrals in the classes that you took to develop your area of expertise. Unfortunately, you’ve probably been misinformed on how to get referrals.

Have you heard any of the following in your courses?:

1. Once you have two or three births (clients, students), word-of-mouth will take over and you will have plenty of clients.
2. Talking to the local doctors is the best way to get lots of referrals.
3. Going to a networking meeting or joining a networking club will give you plenty of referrals.
4. Email or call a few colleagues who work with expectant moms and they will start sending people your way.

If you are like most birthing business owners none of the methods listed above have worked very well. Sure, on occasion you might get a referral but they probably aren’t consistent.

There are two completely different sets of people who will give you referrals. The first is, of course, your past and current clients. The second is colleagues. When I refer to colleagues I’m not just referring to other doulas, childbirth educators and midwives but to other professionals who work with your ideal clients. Who are those people? Well, depending on the type of business you have, there are some 40 or more types of  businesses or professionals that are possibly connected to your business. There are pregnancy massage therapists, prenatal yoga instructors, chiropractors who specialize in the Webster technique, and acupuncturists who specialize in fertility just to name a few.

In this article, we will concentrate on getting referrals from colleagues.

The fact is that there is more to getting referrals then being passive and waiting for people to refer you. There is also more to getting referrals than meeting people once, telling them what you do and then sitting back and waiting for them to give you referrals.

Here are just a few reasons that colleagues give you referrals:

Rule #1: They like and trust you.

Rule #2: There is an incentive

Rule #3: They completely UNDERSTAND what you do or how your service/product benefits their potential clients.

The biggest two mistakes made by birthing business owners is that they think that by meeting someone once, they are going to get referrals. People generally will not remember you after only one or two meetings, calls or emails. That isn’t enough contacts or information for them to be able to give you a referral.

The second biggest mistake is that those that own their own birthing business suffer from knowing too much information. You know so much about the benefits of what you do but you likely fail to communicate it to a colleague who isn’t directly involved in birth.

A great example of this is a doula. If you tell someone that you are a doula and they have no knowledge of a doula, they will get that glazed-eye look. They don’t care that you are a doula. Being a doula is a feature. It doesn’t describe the benefit of what you do. They can’t easily figure out how the fact that you are a doula can help their clients. If that was their one and only contact with you, you’ll be unlikely to get a referral. (More information on benefits versus features on page 109 / CD #4 of “The Ultimate Guide To Growing Your Birthing Business” )

What if instead of telling that that you were a doula, you told someone that you help people reduce the chance of having a c-section by 50%?

Now you’ve stimulated their curiosity and have begun to communicate clearly what you do. You’ve helped them to understand your service. Of course there is more to communicating with someone  then just giving them one sentence about what you do but that is another article.

What is the solution to getting more referrals?

First, get a very strong marketing message that really helps people to understand the benefits of what you do. If you don’t understand how to construct a strong marketing message, it is time to take some marketing courses. “The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Successful Birthing Business” shows you how to create a easy but very powerful marketing message.

Second, write a few articles about what you do so that you can email them to colleagues so that they become interested and further understand what you do. An article will give you more credibility as well especially if it contains stories of how you’ve helped past clients.

Third, create a plan for introducing yourself to more colleagues. This plan should contain a method that is repeatable even if you move to a new town. It should contain a way to contact colleagues on a regular basis. It should also have a way of educating them on the services you provide so that they can easily explain the benefits of what you do to others.

Although you will be contacting them on a regular basis, it should be done in such a way that won’t annoy them.

Make it easy on yourself so that you can leverage your time, money and resources. Don’t drive to meet each person. That takes way too much time. Use a combination of email, mail, phone calls and mini gatherings to successfully develop these relationships that will not only help your business but your colleagues businesses as well.

Perhaps it is easier to understand the referrals method with an example.

Kim Wildner, owner of Fearless Birthing ™, faced a difficult challenge 2 years ago when she was moving 8 hours away from her home town in Michigan to Wisconsin where her husband had just found a new job.

Her challenge was to re-launch her business as quickly as possible.

After a coaching session, we decided that her best bet was to follow the 9-Step, Menelli Method of Referrals (more information on The Menelli Method of Referrals can be found in The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Successful Birthing Business or at www.birthingbusiness.com/Ultimate.)

Kim started by making a list of all of the colleagues in her new town that she thought would be helpful to know. This list included doulas, midwives, etc.

Next Kim compiled a list of actual names, addresses, phone numbers, emails and websites.

She made up postcards and sent them out.

Later she followed up (several more times with different emails, phone calls and mail.).

Did it work? YES! Kim not only met a lot of new people from the area in which she was moving but she had referrals and clients before even moving!

With a little bit of strategy, thought and planning you should be able to re-launch your own business and get a lot more referrals.

Here is to your successful birthing business…!

Copyright 2009 Sheri Menelli.

Sheri Menelli is the Founder of The Birthing Business Institute. She is also the author of “The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Successful Birthing Business”. She teaches birthing business owners easy, step-by-step marketing methods to attract more clients in live workshops, teleseminars and through home study courses.

To access a proven, step-by-step system to attracting more clients and getting more referrals as well as the 9-Step Menelli Method of Referrals, go to http://www.birthingbusiness.com/Ultimate