One highly effective no cost way to improve profits is referral marketing. Besides being a no cost marketing approach, referral marketing is powerful because it leverages off of existing relationships you already have, such as with your customers.
Many companies say they do referral marketing but we have found that many don’t fully leverage the referral method. They don’t consistently employ referral marketing throughout their organization and they often only use one referral marketing method although there are more than ten methods we share with our customers.
Here are 8 quick tips for boosting the number of referrals you obtain:
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Consistently ask for referrals and train your employees to always be asking as well… but never use the word “Referral”. Instead it is about, “Who else we can help?”
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Educate your employees about the importance of referrals and explain the impact it can have on the health and profitability of your company, and more importantly on improving the quality of life for the referral prospect.
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Reward customers who provide referrals with a thank you and possibly some other show of appreciation (gift or even compensation)… with that said, compensation alone will NOT generate referrals in most cases.
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Follow up with people who indicated they would provide referrals to make sure they actually do in fact provide them. Use multiple follow up methods such as phone calls and direct mail.
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Periodically audit your referral process to make sure referrals are being pursued in the optimum way.
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Identify and track the source of each referral so you will know what referral approach is working well and which approaches are not.
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Don’t limit your referral marketing to customers. Approach your suppliers as well.
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When asking for referrals, be specific by describing exactly what an ideal prospect would be for your company.
If you are doing referral marketing now, re-examine how you are doing it now and consider the aforementioned tips. If you aren’t doing referral marketing, take a first step and send out a letter to all your customers asking for referrals.
To Your Success,
Scott Hallman
