I have a question for you. How many different systems do you have in place for getting your existing prospects and customers referring their family and friends to your business? If you don't have at least 2 systemized methods for generating referrals, it's time to start putting some in place.
As a business owner, you already know how much easier referrals are to work with, especially if they have been sent to you by somebody they trust. Referrals are great because they rarely need to be 'sold' to since they already see you as someone they can trust. They will also rarely ask for refunds, they will complain less and be more flexible that customers who come to you from advertising.
Referrals are typically also happy to buy at higher price points meaning your margins and profits are higher without having to work any harder at all. And since they already see you as an expert, you have positioning as a trusted authority, meaning you can guide and influence them much more effectively.
The fact is that a properly designed referral program could cut your marketing and advertising budget by thousands of dollars a month. That means you can make a lot more money than you do now, while spending less and not working as hard to convert the sales.
So what's the best way to start generating more referrals?
The easiest way is to get yourself to the top of the awareness or top of mind of your customers. If you make a concerted effort to get to know your customers and what they really want, you can find out this information quite easily. You can do this either individually by sitting down with clients over coffee or lunch, or as a group by surveying them. Either way, you want to find out what their most important interests and issues are.
Once you know what's important to them, start sending them valuable information in the form of books, articles, reports, interviews, and videos on the topics that they'll find most helpful to them. In other words, you want to try to actually help them - who knew!
Lots of businesses send Christmas and birthday cards, but in today's tough and ultra-competitive economy, this really isn't enough. You must stay in touch with your customers much more often than that, or they will forget about you and your competitors will simply vacuum they up and away from you.
The secret here is to SHOW people you care about their well-being more than anybody else in their lives apart from their family and friends. If you do that, you're going to constantly be at the top of their awareness.
So when they're socializing with work colleagues, or playing golf with their buddies, or having dinner with friends or family, and somebody mentions an area where you can help, your customers are automatically going to think of you, and recommend you as somebody they trust.
The main point of all this is to not just go through the motions of doing it. It's critical that you really do start to connect with your customers, and then send them helpful information regularly that really does give them value. If you just do this for 30 days and don't do anything else, you'll start getting referrals because you'll be one of the most valuable people your customer knows. And when you have one referral system underway, go for 2, then 3 then 4. The sky really is the limit with this proven customer getting strategy.
As a business owner, you already know how much easier referrals are to work with, especially if they have been sent to you by somebody they trust. Referrals are great because they rarely need to be 'sold' to since they already see you as someone they can trust. They will also rarely ask for refunds, they will complain less and be more flexible that customers who come to you from advertising.
Referrals are typically also happy to buy at higher price points meaning your margins and profits are higher without having to work any harder at all. And since they already see you as an expert, you have positioning as a trusted authority, meaning you can guide and influence them much more effectively.
The fact is that a properly designed referral program could cut your marketing and advertising budget by thousands of dollars a month. That means you can make a lot more money than you do now, while spending less and not working as hard to convert the sales.
So what's the best way to start generating more referrals?
The easiest way is to get yourself to the top of the awareness or top of mind of your customers. If you make a concerted effort to get to know your customers and what they really want, you can find out this information quite easily. You can do this either individually by sitting down with clients over coffee or lunch, or as a group by surveying them. Either way, you want to find out what their most important interests and issues are.
Once you know what's important to them, start sending them valuable information in the form of books, articles, reports, interviews, and videos on the topics that they'll find most helpful to them. In other words, you want to try to actually help them - who knew!
Lots of businesses send Christmas and birthday cards, but in today's tough and ultra-competitive economy, this really isn't enough. You must stay in touch with your customers much more often than that, or they will forget about you and your competitors will simply vacuum they up and away from you.
The secret here is to SHOW people you care about their well-being more than anybody else in their lives apart from their family and friends. If you do that, you're going to constantly be at the top of their awareness.
So when they're socializing with work colleagues, or playing golf with their buddies, or having dinner with friends or family, and somebody mentions an area where you can help, your customers are automatically going to think of you, and recommend you as somebody they trust.
The main point of all this is to not just go through the motions of doing it. It's critical that you really do start to connect with your customers, and then send them helpful information regularly that really does give them value. If you just do this for 30 days and don't do anything else, you'll start getting referrals because you'll be one of the most valuable people your customer knows. And when you have one referral system underway, go for 2, then 3 then 4. The sky really is the limit with this proven customer getting strategy.
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In this IM Target Review we look at how you can get started online easily, even if you have never built a profitable website before.
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