2 Challenges with personal network referrals and how to overcome them

Context: I am a commercial real estate broker, which is a narrow space in real estate. I am tapping into my personal network and cold calling the market at the same time. In tapping my personal network I encountered two challenges and am currently testing out two potential solutions. 

For anyone looking to leverage their personal network for any purpose (investors, leads, partnerships, etc.), you are likely going to run into some of these issues yourself. So I thought, "Why not share this framework I build with the BP Community?" 

I'd love to hear your thoughts, what has worked for you, and anything else you want to share, thanks for helping me improve my process!

Personal Network Recommendations Challenge

Personal and Family network recommendations come in two forms:

1. 1. They are specific to the industry, like another broker in town they’ve worked with before
        -- this is mostly not helpful
2. 2. People are recommended ambiguously as, “oh, you should meet this person”, but without any introduction, contact info shared
        -- this is only halfway helpful

Why is this happening?

1. 1. Likely a lack of understanding about what I do, what I am looking to achieve 
2.      -- this is in my sphere of control 
3.      -- what to do: refine the ask
4. 2. My network may be in a lower social tier than many property owners because they don’t own property themselves 
5.      -- this is in my sphere of influence 
6.      -- what to do: prove myself & make the ask

Potential Solution #1: Refine Your Ask

I’m looking to connect with business owners and property owners.

Anyone that runs a business is involved in real estate in some way. They could be a farmer, service provider, any office space user, developer.

High-value contacts are people like building developers or general contractors, large business owners, head of a board of an organization that owns or operates in real estate, etc.

I’m looking to learn from and find a way to help these people.  I’m NOT going in trying to sell them on me or my services.

Potential Solution #2: Prove Yourself & Make the Ask

Facilitating introductions requires trust, they are opening up their network to someone they've not worked with personally, someone who is unproven. If the introduction doesn’t go well, it could have a negative impact on their personal relationship, which is what causes the hesitation to facilitate an introduction.

Overcome this with empathy -- call out that I understand the risk in making an introduction. I greatly value any introduction and treat it with sincere care. I only request 15 minutes with any person to start, I’m not going to take up their time. I am not trying to sell anything. My goal is to learn from others and find a way to help them, whatever that looks like.

Make the ask by saying, “XYZ sounds like the perfect person for me to connect with. Would you make a warm introduction for me? A text or email is perfect. I will treat the recommendation with care and won’t take up their time or try to sell them anything.”

Follow-up if they agreed to make an introduction.

Hopefully, you can relate to the challenges of tapping into your personal network and the people they know, and these suggestions help you overcome some of the most common challenges out there.

I'm implementing these solutions as we speak and would love to hear your feedback and suggestions for improving the process of opening up my personal network beyond current connections to future connections.