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32 | Working with Referral Sources – Lactation Business Coaching with Annie and Leah
Today’s episode of Lactation Business Coaching with Annie and Leah is called “Working with Referral Sources.” Having referrals works both ways: it is a priority to service your clients when you are not available and it is also important to cultivate a relationship with others to become a trusted referral for their own business.
Annie and Leah share their own personal strategies to gain referral sources, as well as help colleagues to position themselves to become the go-to referral of their area. They also discuss the ethics of a referral relationship and how easy it is to become unethical because of the freebies that some people give you.
Show Notes
- Receiving and sending referrals (colleagues, birth workers, physicians, hospitals, NYLCA)
- Cultivating relationships with new referrals
- Maintaining ethics with referrals
- Keeping communication open
Quotes:
- “When we go and meet with referral sources or we’re putting ourselves out there, I know sometimes it’s intimidating so we might just kind of tense up and not really be ourselves and kind of be very stiff and maybe just give the answers you that you think the other person might want to hear.”
- “And there really is a lot of drawbacks to that because one, I think people read that. You know, they can tell when you’re not being authentically yourself. And two, you’re trying to build a relationship with your referral sources. And at some point, you’re going to not be able to keep that facade up.”
- “If I can’t see a client, I need to find somebody who can. And so, really maintaining those relationships and being a positive and productive member of our community ends up being beneficial for me from a business standpoint too because the more invested I am in my colleagues, the more likely they are to refer to me.”
- “I need to feel like I can trust them and so have a conversation with them, have an email, ask them hard questions, and be prepared to answer hard questions myself so that there’s a mutual understanding of what we’re in this for.”
- “Maintain that line of communication and it also allows you to let them know about things that might be changing for you. So if you’ve got something new that you’re offering or now you’re accepting insurance or you got a new location, that kind of thing, but it’s also finding out if anything’s changed for them.”
About Us
Leah Jolly is a private practice IBCLC with Bay Area Breastfeeding in Houston, Texas. Annie Frisbie is a private practice IBCLC serving Queens and Brooklyn in New York City, and the creator of Paperless Lactation.
The Lactation Business Coaching podcast is produced by us and edited by Jillian Grover, who also writes our show notes. Our theme song is by Silas Wade.
