Generating endless referrals

Generating referrals for your business is one of the easiest methods to increase your profit margins effectively. However, few business owners understand the real reasons people refer them business in the first place.

 

 

Okay, first mistake. Have you ever met a business owner that is simply not interested in anything to do with anyone else other than their own existence? These selfish suckers are the worst kind. They will ring you out of the blue and expect you to forward on a promotional offer to your database or they may even have the audacity to ask for referrals directly, when there hasn’t been regular contact.

 

What’s wrong with this? Other than the fact that it’s completely selfish and a one-sided approach, it comes across as rude and brash. Why would anyone want to assist someone who only ever calls when they want something and with whom no genuine relationship exists? Business owners, in their rush to make a buck and put food on the table, have forgotten all about the basic fundamentals of building business relationships and nurturing and caring for them over time. Whatever happened to personal contact where we actually picked up the phone just to see how someone was doing without any type of agenda whatsoever? Have we lost all sense of community?

 

A little exercise you can do to make sure you are referable and that you are establishing key referral networks is to make a list of all your key colleagues and clients. Write down next to each of them what you’ve done for them lately (i.e. a quick check-up phone call, emailing a relevant article or even sending them a magazine of interest).

 

It doesn’t have to be much. It just needs to be something and it needs to be personalised. If you’re expecting to generate referrals from these individuals over time, you need to keep in consistent contact. A simple strategy to generate more referrals is: always be in sight, in mind, all of the time.

Understand why people refer you business

 

When seeking referrals from your existing business colleagues, there are a few core reasons that these people will proactively talk about your business with anyone they can. They are:

1. They like you

2. They love your service

3. They talk to you on a regular basis

4. There’s a reward/incentive

5. You asked them for a referral

 

Hell, who would have thought that it was that simple? It is! People will purely refer you new business based on the fact that they enjoy you as a person and you have a service that has helped them solve a problem or that can assist their clients, friends and colleagues. Ask yourself, “Are you lovable enough that everyone is going to talk about you?” If not, a personality overhaul may be in dire need.

 

Observe yourself in conversations with your key referrers and closest networks. Do you speak 90 percent of the time? Is it about what you’ve been doing? If so, learn to zip it and take the time to find out about your colleague’s business challenges, life and what you can do to help them. You will notice an instant shift in the quality of your business relationships and you will also increase your chances ten-fold of generating new referrals via them.

 

Referrals will come from one of two places in your business: existing customers and colleagues. Do you have a referral strategy for each of these segments and do you clearly understand what their individual incentives and needs are?

 

Your existing customers, for example, will send you referrals proactively when various incentive campaigns are run (they may be competitions, discounts, bonus gifts, and the one that the gyms love: “Refer a friend and reduce your monthly membership fees!”). Whatever you choose, it must hit a home run for your target market and be compelling enough that they will tell all of their friends.

 

Ultimately, you are looking for the one or two diamonds in the rough that will forward an email campaign on to their entire friends list in Outlook or ring up their own network to tell them how good you are. These individuals can be hard to come by, but when you do find one or two, you’ll be set for life when you look after them.

 

Generating referrals all comes down to the quality of your relationship, the quality of contact you have and the consistency of contact. It’s not brain surgery; it’s the ability to connect with other human beings and be likeable.