Best Practices Index
- Make a habit of collecting emails to add to your list.
- Teach Your Contacts How to Refer Business to You
- You can get what you want by helping others get what they want.
To make your referral based marketing work most effectively you need to be in constant contact with as many people as possible as often as possible. So you need to always be adding to you list of contacts. Just remember that you are building a permission-based list, which means a person must give their permission before being added. Here are some tips for growing your list.
- Have a sign-up sheet available at your place of business
- Train employees to collect addresses and permission at every point of contact
- Collect addresses at tradeshows and events
- Collect business cards of people who request information
- Add the addresses of leads that you don't close
.
Do your friends, family, and busienss contacts know how to refer business to you? Do they know how to spot your potential customer? Do they know the questions to ask to find out if a potential customer would be right for you? If not you are wasting a great resoure. Answer these questions then create a referral statement for the back of your business cards.
1. Who is your target customer? Age? Gender? Business type? Income range? End consumer or business? Location? In answering this question don't be too general, just define your sweet spot. Define your most profitable customer.
2. How should they refer you? In order of priority: 1. Recommend that they make a personal introduction. 2. Ask them to make a call on your behalf and tell the potential customer to expect your call. 3. Ask them to send a personal note or email to expect your call. 4. Ask them to give you the targets contact information.
Here is a sample referral statement for a mortgage loan officer:
If you know someone who is thinking about buying or selling a home in the next few months they need to meet me. I can save them money and help ease them through the process. If possible please arrange a personal introduction so that I can meet them. Or give them my card and tell them to expect my call, then call me at 770-555-5555 or send me an email at myemail@myemail.com with their contact information. I appreciate you having the confidence in me to refer me to your friends.
Here is a sample referral statement for a financial planner:
My typical customer is between the ages of 35 and 55. They make over $100,000 a year, own a second home and have children in high school or college. If you know someone like this I can help them make a better plan for their retirement. If possible please arrange a personal introduction so that I can meet them. Or give them my card and tell them to expect my call, then call me at 770-555-5555 or send me an email at myemail@myemail.com with their contact information. I appreciate you having the confidence in me to refer me to your friends.
Try this the next time you met a new prospect. Instead of spending time your time touting the benefits of your product or service. Spend your time asking your prospect about his business and personal life. The point of your conversation is to learn what his or her problems are. Ask what problems his busienss if facing on a day to day basis. It may be that they are having difficulty finding the right employee for a key position. Or, maybe a restaurant owner has great business at lunch, but his evening business is off. It maybe that her business is going great but she is having difficulty meeting the right man to round our her personal life.
Dig deep and make connections
Once you find out what your prospect's problem is, key in on that and ask questions. We call that "digging deep". In the case of our businessman looking for a key employee, have him describe the perfect candidate for you. File this information away in the back of your mind and as you meet new people size them up against the job's qualifications. If you run across the right person make a connection. The point is that if you can help your prospect fill a key position your job of selling him on your product or service is going to be much easier. And in this case you will also have anonther allie in the company, the new key employee.
Helping people get what they want may be as simple as recommending a good plumber or as difficult as finding someone to lauch a new product. But it all boils down to having lots of contacts, knowing what their strengths and weaknesses are and connecting people to help solve problems.
