Five Reasons Your Leads Referral Group Sucks (Part 2)

We talked about the first two reasons in Part 1.  Here’s three more - do any of them sound familiar?

3) It’s a Clique

Membership might be easy, and the locked in industries specific and wide open to lots of people, but this kind of group is typically quite small.

New people are not warmly welcomed, they don’t go out of their way to talk to new participants, conversation is entirely self-referential (thus, outsiders don’t know what they are talking about) and any violation of group rules/mores are harshly dealt with (either verbally or with body language - see how many eyes are rolled).

Not a single person approaches you to schedule a one-on-one after the meeting.

This is not a leads referral group.  This is a private social club using the leads referral group technique to write off having breakfast/lunch together legitimately as a business expense.

I've seen it personally once but I've heard of it many times. The only good news I have for you with groups like this is that it’s hard to find one without being invited, especially if Meetup is the main way you find new groups – they’re not typically on Meetup as they want to keep their little group... little.

4) The Leaders Act Like Bosses

Let's talk about your participation
in our charity 5K run ONE MORE TIME.

For me, one of the best things about leaving corporate life and doing my own thing is that I don’t have someone that I report to on a daily basis that’s allowed to yell at me (or rather, sternly talk to I guess – I haven’t worked for many yellers) for any reason.

It’s one of the perks of going on your own, right?  No boss.

But some leads referral groups have a culture where the leadership – either one person, or a committee – feels like it has the right (or goodness gracious me, the duty) to order the membership around.  It seems to be more common in groups that have a pretty steep membership fee, but it’s not just them.

They’ll shame members into activities or hold them to group goals/standards as if they were setting down a business plan in a corporation, and all of their jobs were on the line – and if the goals aren't met, there is hell to pay in a stern talking to, sometimes in a public meeting.

Yes, it’s fine for groups to have goals, standards and rules. But to act like the world will end if it is not met, and we’ll all be fired (especially for goals that are not related to generating leads for members directly) is just crazy.

This is not a leads referral group – this is an old-fashioned J-O-B.

5) No New Blood

This is more about apathy than anything, and it’s really the way to spot a dying group.

There aren’t any new guests to the group in weeks – you’re the only new person they've seen in a while.  And they will tell you this.  And they will latch on to you like a starving man on a half-eaten bison burger from FnG Eats.

This group may be quite friendly and nice, but honestly, if you’re the first new person they've seen in weeks, it’s not a viable group - these guys are not out making new contacts, finding new customers, and trying to grow business.  They are coasting and hoping you, the newbie, will do that work for them.

If you have some free time, and this group works for you for other reasons (such as location/time/target customer), it's okay if you want to get in there and start trying to grow it. I wish you luck.  But make sure you really strongly consider the time/effort investment in a dying or dead group before you go down that path - you will be growing that group all by yourself for a while.

So, those are the five reasons your leads referral group sucks.  Are you wasting your precious time/money on groups like this?  Is your favorite group starting to show any of these signs?

Did I miss anything?  Let me know!