|
|||||
| 3 Tips To Jumpstart Your Referral Engine |
|
If you are like most small business owners I speak with, one of their primary sources of leads is word-of-mouth and referrals. After studying the main differences in those businesses that excel at word-of-mouth, I have come up with some conclusions that will more than likely help you business as well. Here are three (3) tips to Jumpstart your referral engine: Tip # 1 – Expect Referrals – If you do such an insanely good job for your clients, why wouldn’t you expect them to refer you? I am shocked how little business owners ask for a referral. If you start expecting referrals as a component of doing business with you, I think you will be surprised with the results. A little “law of attraction” never hurts. Tip # 2 – Create A Referral System – I think one problem we all run into is that we don’t integrate referrals into our overall marketing and sales process. This includes making statements like, “My job is to make you so excited about the job I did, that you will refer 3 others that need my product or service”. Or, you may have an ongoing internal marketing campaign highlighting recent work you did, then ask if they know of any others that might need your assistance as well. If you don’t ask, you won’t receive. Your clients are busy. Many times it takes a gentle nudge to remind them you exist and how you can assist others. Tip # 3 – Give First! – One powerful referral tactic is to focus on being the “connector”. If you aren’t part of an existing networking group, start your own database of those you can refer business. When you find a prospect or client that needs another businesses product or service give a referral. By taking the first step and referring business, you will build good will and reciprocity when the opportunity arrives to refer you business. You can also use this technique if you desire a relationship with a potential partner. Seek out opportunities for THEM, then open the conversation talking about how you can help them with their efforts FIRST. Then, start building the relationship to feed your referral engine. Have a great weekend! Go Target, Attack, and Profit! ~Matt |
Posted in 
Tags: | 3 Quick Referral Marketing Tips |
|
What if you were to make a conscious effort to add a complete referral marketing system as a part of your overall marketing strategy. The key here is “system”… That means it is a reproducible process that you can use to over and over to get the desired results you want. More referrals! Here are a few tactics to add to your referral marketing system, and efforts: 1) Give more referrals – Pretty simple right? Sure is. Leveraging the laws of reciprocity will surprise you. Be on the look out for leads for other businesses, even if they aren’t currently a customer of yours. By giving first, you will be surprised at your results. 2) Give testimonials – If you work with local businesses, and you haven’t given them a testimonial by all means give them one. Proactively at that. By delivering your customer, partner, or prospect a testimonial for their business you create top of mind awareness of yourself and your company. 3) Send An “Ideal Client” letter to partners – Identify a group of 10-20 ideal referral partners for you. Then, create a letter that states you are interested in referring them business. In the letter, create a form that outlines what a perfect referral might be for them. Included in the letter, add your list with all the answers for your ideal client and referral as an example. This technique works! The key here is that you make this part of your system. Not a one time event, but something you do on a regular schedule. That could be weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Just do something! Best,
|
