B orders a jelly Welcome back to BNI and Power One. Thank you for joining me again today. Today's question comes from Ulrich in Mesa, Arizona. And he is referencing a previous podcast. So if you haven't listened to this podcast, I highly recommend you go to listen to it first and then come back to this one. And it is episode 794, which was on do reviews count, which is, again, this subject is sometimes members will ask for you to leave a review on their Google or what have you, and people treating that as a referral, which the answer is it doesn't, but you should listen to that. Okay, so Alrick's question. Hey, Tim, I just listened to podcast 794 and wanted some clarification regarding the passing of a personal referral slash ask. I agree it doesn't count as a referral yet, but if slash when that turns into a revenue source, how would you consider it? At that point, it would have produced a thank you for closed business. So then would also be a referral from the person that made the intro after the fact, right? I not entirely sure thinking about the play out but let just put it this way If you go and leave a review on a fellow member page because they asked you to that not a referral If the member gets business and the person says well it because you had a lot of great reviews it's still not a referral or thank you for close business because we're not really sure that any specific review did that. now if you're saying well what if the person went and said hey this review from tim is why i'm buying from you i still would not count that as a referral because there was no referral process all you helped your member you helped your member and um you know and they got some business out of it, but you literally didn't even do anything in the referral process of recommend. I guess it was just so passive, I wouldn't count it. If somebody were to say, hey, we should count this because they specifically said it was your review that made them do it, would I fight it? No. I mean, it's closer to a referral than the original podcast talks about, which is just saying, hey, count as a referral because you left me a review. But because I've stood on that ground, stand on that ground and say like leaving a review on somebody's website is a testimonial, it's not a referral. Something coming from that isn't also a referral or thank you for closed business. That's my general sense. Now, if you left a review and somebody called you and said, hey, I saw your review about Susan's business. Can you tell me more about it? I think I might need the service. And you have a conversation and you make the connection. That's a referral because there's a referral process going on and it's above and beyond the review. And then you make the introduction, you make the connection, they do business. That's a normal referral And you got the referral because you left the review that triggered the conversation that you got into and you were able to you know quote close them to talking to Sue now that's a referral. But me just going on Google and leaving a testimonial for you is a way to give back. Of course, that's why we do testimonials, and 784 is all about testimonials and why they're important. But it's not a referral, and it shouldn't become a referral because you did it six months ago and somebody happened to read it. It's the value of testimonials and why we give them, and that's great. But it shouldn't pad a stat. I'm just not a big stat padding person. I just don't believe in, like, let's just put it in because these things will happen and they're great and they're valuable and that's why it's, you know, B&I has so much more value than just what shows up in the thank you for closed business box. So I don't know if that answers the question entirely or adds some clarity or just adds more confusion. But generally speaking, leaving a review on your fellow members page is not a referral. And because the person got business because of the reviews on their page doesn't then make it a referral. If somebody calls you and says, hey, I saw you leave a review about this business. Can you tell me more about it? And you have a conversation and you close it into a referral, then yes, that's a referral. But short of that, I wouldn't count it. I wouldn't count it. I wouldn't try to track it. And again, just because somebody bought off the set, you know, if somebody called me and said, hey, we're coming to you because you have so many great reviews, I wouldn't know which one to thank for that anyways, right? And what do I think? Every member who gave me a testimonial in that case? Do we split it? Do we divide it? You know, 15 of my members left reviews, I got a $1,500 referral. So let's give everybody 100 bucks. Like I, it just gets even more confusing. And I wouldn go through that I would really want to know on my own again with data like what coming in how it coming in How do I make that more effective Am I even being effective in what I'm doing? And this would muddy that water as well. So there's a lot of, you know, unintended consequences, I think, to trying to do so. But I don't, it's a good question. Good follow-up. Thank you for listening. I do appreciate that. And hopefully this added a little bit more clarity to it. For everybody else, if you've got topics, questions, anything of the sort, go to BNI Power of One. Leave it there. If you're finding value, let me know. Leave a comment. Leave a review. Help me help more members. Jerry Maguire. But share it with your fellow members. If you're finding value, maybe somebody else will. Maybe multiple of them will. And it'll help encourage more activity, more effectiveness, and ultimately more results. That's why we're doing it. And as always, have a great day. marketing is hard but I'll tell you a little secret It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn ads. Go to Libsyn ads.com. That's L I B S Y N ads.com today.
