“Your best source of new business is referrals from happy customers or clients. You cannot receive a better lead than one that has been sent your way with a strong referral. You cannot have a more motivated prospect arrive in your store or restaurant than someone sent there by a raving fan.
The challenge is: How do you get your satisfied customers to actively promote you to their social and professional networks?
The answer: You have to train them to do it, remind them constantly, and make it head-slappingly easy.
Here are the five basic steps to more and better referrals that all businesspeople should embed in their marketing plan:
1. Constantly ask for referrals
Too many businesspeople forget to ask. The best time to do so? In the midst of delivering excellent service, and regularly thereafter. When working with real estate and mortgage agents, we discovered the best time to ask for a referral was before the loan or home purchase closed, while the agent was still actively involved with the client and had their full trust and attention.
Don’t be shy, either. I had a client that thought it would threaten his client relationships if he “cravenly asked for referrals.” He thought that doing so would make him appear desperate, and diminish him in his clients’ eyes. That is the wrong mindset: You deliver great value to your customers, and want more people to benefit from your talents. You should be proud to ask “whom else do you know that I could help?” It took me months to get that client to try asking proactively for referrals. When he actually tried it systematically, he quickly landed a new $15,000 consulting contract. He still hesitates, but is solving that by developing an “ask method” that fits with his professional demeanor, and has set specific 2012 referral goals to keep himself motivated.
Always assume your clients would be happy to refer you. Let them tell you if they are uncomfortable doing so. (Explore why, too: There may be some lingering dissatisfaction that they are keeping from you.)
2. Teach your customers how to refer you
This is the biggest improvement you can make in your referral campaigning. Many clients would be happy to refer you, but don’t know how to succinctly present you and your service to others. Solve that by giving them:
Cheat sheets with your core value proposition and a handful of client results. These could be your brochure, or simply buckslips that answer two questions: ”What do I do?” and “Why me?”
A permanent box in your printed and e-mailed newsletters that answers the same questions (and entices the reader to your site to get the full answer.)
Instructions on how to go on Yelp and other review sites to give you a review
A request for referrals on the back of your business card”
Written By: Kern Lewis to read full article click here
San Diego Referral Network aka SDREFNET 