Sales & Marketing Playbook
Host Your Own Referrer Event
​​
Boerman Moving & Storage in Woodridge, Ill., works with about 500 real estate agent referrers, and their Director of Marketing, Kelly Bennett, creates events throughout the year for those referrers. Through the events, Kelly keeps Boerman top of mind for those referrers while furthering personal relationships with them.
One 2021 event was an October Murder Mystery event hosted at the Boerman warehouse and sponsored by 7 local companies, including a staging company, a home warranty company, an insurance agency, a restoration company, a mortgage company, and a law agency.
Kelly gave us some tips and tricks for putting on a Referrer Event.
​
Things to Think About
Why?
Your goal is to get as many of the right people there as possible, so it’s important to think about what will get people there. Ask yourself what you would like to see as an attendee or what events you’ve been to that really wowed you.
​
Just a Happy Hour doesn’t drive urgency at this point; you should always add value. That doesn’t have to mean a class, but something people want – maybe it’s a chance to get away from screens for awhile or a chance to develop relationships with other professionals. That could mean a trivia night, a game night, a murder mystery event, or a truck pull.
If your Why is to show your gratitude to referrers, make sure it appeals to all of them.
​
If your Why is to promote your company, make sure your theme, signage, staging all point back to your agency logo, mission and promise.
Who?
Invitees – Have your team put together a list of all the people they’d like to have at the event. Start big! You can always whittle down later if need be. List real estate agents, mortgage lenders, and anyone else who currently refer business to you, but don’t stop there. Consider inviting professionals who have the potential to refer you, even if they don’t yet.
​
Sponsors – If you’re framing the event as a fundraiser (consider Give Kids The World as your recipient organization!), you might want to work alongside sponsors. If that’s the case, you should begin eliciting sponsorships at least 8 weeks before the event date to give yourself time to discuss the opportunity, finalize sponsors, and create signage to thank them for their sponsorship. Offer sponsors the opportunity to add people to your invite list.
Where?
The event space you’re able to secure goes a long way toward deciding what you’re able to do. You’ll have to prioritize your goals for the event when deciding on a venue:
​
-
Securing a haunted-looking mansion provides amazing atmosphere for a Murder Mystery event, but using your own warehouse space allows you more time for setup.
-
Reserving a parking lot along a busy street for a Truck Pull might be costly – especially when you have your own huge parking lot at the warehouse – but the drive-by traffic offers exponentially more promotion for your company and sponsors.
-
Using a venue close to you might sound optimal, but if it isn’t a central location for all the people you’re inviting, you might enjoy the event by yourself.
What to Prepare ​
Gather Your Team
It’s pivotal to have a team with a shared vision of the event. You need help to host events, but you also need to be able to trust that your team has in mind what you want. Discuss the event as a team and sketch out what you’re talking about. Some people are visual learners, so you’ll have to make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to the vision for the event.
Get Help with Decor
If you know a staging company, offer them an in-kind sponsorship for handling your décor for the event. Make sure they have the floor plan to start from and know all the details about your theme.
​
​
​
​
Create a Theme
Having a theme makes it easier to plan and gives your attendees an idea of what to expect. Even if your theme is just “Black and White,” it will cut down on some of the decisions to make, such as colors for linens and flowers on the tables.
​
​
​
​
Plan Your Food
Depending on the event, you might offer a sit-down meal, passed hors d’oeuvres, or just drinks. Whichever makes sense, contact a caterer for options. Do your best to develop a good relationship with a local caterer; the food can make or break an event!
​
​
Draw Your Floor Plan
Once you know the type of event you’re setting up, you’ll be able to draw a floor plan. Will there be food involved? Add tables. Is it a lengthy event? Make sure you create seating if you don’t already have tables. What’s the temperature like? You might need to rent heaters, fans or tents.
​
​
Prep a Digital Leave-Behind
Stay top of mind even after the event by getting in their phone. Create a Contact in your phone that you can easily share with attendees. Bonus – this means they’ll give you their cell number so you can send them the contact:
​
First Name: Moving
Last Name: Your Name
Company: Your Agency Name
How to Invite Others
Take that list you created with your team and sponsors and determine whether the number fits with your venue space and catering budget. As a rule of thumb, you can expect about 70% of the people you’ve invited to show up.
​
For the Boerman October Murder Mystery event, Kelly sent a virtual Save The Date notice about 6 weeks before the event. Two weeks later, they mailed paper invitations, and a week later they sent a video expanding on the theme introduced by the Save The Date and invitations. The video explained what attendees should wear to the event.
​
Throughout the full 6 weeks leading up to the event, the whole Boerman team personally followed up on the invitations with their contacts. Those face to face, phone and text conversations gave the invitees the personal connection and the impression that someone was counting on them to attend – which really helped when it came down to the day of the event, since it was a cold and rainy evening.
How to Set it Up
Get Help with Decor
If there’s going to be a VIP attending the party, assign people to make sure they interact with that person as much as possible during the event. That doesn’t mean handing over a business card immediately and selling them your services, however. The marketing team at Boerman is a proponent of the soft sell through referrer events. Kelly and the team have seen that when referrers get to know, like and trust the event team, those referrers are more likely to trust their Boerman colleagues and Boerman as a business.
Recruit
Don’t be afraid to use your full team to set up for the event, not just the marketing staff. If you have sponsors, you can recruit them, too! Assign jobs via email so everyone knows what’s expected of them when it comes to both set up and teardown.
Vendors
Send all vendors a detailed Day Of Event schedule so they know when you expect them to arrive and when you’ll be ready for them to pick up any rental items at the end of the event.
Timing
Give yourself more time to set up than you think you’ll need. It’s better to have people standing around talking once they’re finished than frantically finishing setup after guests have arrived.
Follow-Up
Don’t just send a blast thank you email! If you want to send a note to the full group post-event, always offer something, such as a link to photos from the event. The Boerman team also texts people they’ve interacted with at the event to set up coffee chats or offer more information on something discussed during the event. Furthering the conversation sets you up for success by facilitating more personal connections.
Timeline
12 weeks - Begin planning
10 weeks - Start eliciting sponsorships
8 weeks - Consider venues
6 weeks - Finalize venue; consider catering and rental companies; send Save the Date
4 weeks - Send invitations; finalize caterer and sit-down meal or passed hors d'oeuvres
2 weeks - Confirm catering order and attendee numbers
PRO TIP
Don’t try to do it all yourself! Delegate or you’ll be a mess by the time the event date comes.
​
​​
​
​
​​​​​​
PRO TIP
Flowers are great for decorating; a few flowers as a centerpiece can go a long way toward creating an atmosphere and providing Instragrammable photos.
​
​
PRO TIP
Besides creating atmosphere, creating levels for seating can serve strategic needs – cocktail tables take up less space than round tables, and cozy conversational seating facilitates in-depth conversations.