Happy customers are amongst your top sales and marketing assets, and if you’re doing things right, no doubt you get referrals already, but are you getting what you deserve ?
If your business is new or you don’t supply to a specific localised market where word of mouth spreads quickly, then word of mouth is probably hard to come by unless you do something to stimulate it.
Get referrals by making it a logical step in your marketing and sales processes
Without a formal process you’re probably relying on your customers to go spread the word for you, but why would they when they’ve got a ton of their own problems and priorities to deal with, its not personal, its just life ?
Unless you make referral generation part of your business process you’re probably missing out on some great business that would otherwise sit right under your nose or be snapped up by your competition.
So what should you be doing to get more referrals ?
There are in fact many ways that you can generate referrals but to help you on your way I’ve focused on some general areas to get you thinking about way to promote referral generation.
5 Ideas To Get Referrals
1) Get referrals by earning them.
You stand a higher chance of generating referrals and getting a positive response to your requests when your business actually delivers on its promises and creates a great experience which customers will want to talk about.
2) Ask and you’ll get referrals.
If you don’t ask, you don’t get, so make sure you ask your people to ask for referrals, as well as asking for the referrals themselves.
Make new customers aware that part of doing business with you entails them passing you referrals and the reasons why this is good as it helps you and your customers and you’ll be more likely to generate referrals.
3) Get referrals through promotion.
Give customers a goof reasons by running regular referral promotions and give customers cards, discounts, or gifts to incentivise referral generation. Go one step further and offer a financial incentive.
As long as your costs are covered offer a reduced price to customer who are willing to pass you a set of warm leads. Stipulate the number of leads, say 3 or more and ensure that your customer have spoken to each lead and they are open to you reaching out to them.
Events are also a great way to generate referrals and introductions, so create an environment conducive of referral generation.
4) Say thank you and your customers will help you get referrals.
Make a fuss of each personal referral you get and reward customers that do pass referrals. Present them with gifts and compensations that show your appreciation of their effort.
Give your customers who pass you referrals a priority status in your business so that others understand their importance. Talk about them in news, on your website, on a wall of fame in your business.
5) Get referrals by tapping into digital marketing like social media.
Allow people to spread word of mouth online by using social media to your advantage. Make sure your website and articles have the capability to make sharing your site and its content quickly and easily with others and promote on-going referrals.
One tweet or Facebook post can be distributed by thousands in minutes.
Get your websites listed or referred by other websites so that people can find you quickly online.
