Ways to Build Your Referral Business

Re: Ways to Build Your Referral Business

Hi

Growing a small business is tough work. The sales function is a time consuming task with a constant need to fill your “sales funnel” with fresh, qualified prospects on a regular basis. Finding the best qualified leads from your business does not come from a cold contact situation but from building a strong referral business. This feature looks at seven tactics to drive the referral side of your small business.

REFERRAL BENEFITS
The business of referrals makes sense for most companies for the following reasons:

1. Referral business reduces your sales expenses and sales cycle. With less time calling cold prospects, your small business can focus on customers and their circle of influence.
2. Referrals can build your level of satisfied customers. The cycle self-perpetuates with more satisfied customers referring others to your company.
3. Referrals increase your sales, revenue. According to world-renowned sales trainer Tom Hopkins in Sales Prospecting for Dummies, your closing ratio for non-qualified leads is 10 percent versus a 60 percent close ratio with referred leads.

Thanks

Re: Ways to Build Your Referral Business

1. Join and become active in two different types of associations.
Choose an association that is related to your industry or field, and another that has more of a general business focus. You'll meet experts in your specific market in the first type, and mix with successful entrepreneurs from all areas in the other kind. Each will provide valuable contacts.

2. Share your knowledge freely.
Consider giving presentations at no charge for a local Chamber of Commerce or other associations in which you participate. Donate samples of your product or service for fundraisers. Volunteer to write articles for smaller publications that reach your target audience. All these activities serve to increase your visibility while giving you an opportunity to showcase your expertise and generate good will.

3. Provide referrals yourself.
This not only highlights your credibility and connections, but it's also likely to generate in-kind referrals on the part of those colleagues and associates for whom you've generated business.

4. Recruit cheerleaders.
Build a team of supporters for your business. This may be a group of friends, family members, and colleagues who not only cheer you along, but sing your praises to others they know, spreading the word about your business.

5. Create an informal advisory board.
Establish a group of professional advisors that you can call on to help you with planning and problem solving in your business. These may be associates you meet at a trade show or conference, someone you've done volunteer work with, or former client contacts. This equation works both ways-be prepared to give strategic assistance to their businesses as well.

6. Do a good job for your clients.
This strategy may sound like common sense, but it's the most powerful one of all. When you do a good job for your clients, they not only bring you repeat business, but will send other business your way as well.

7. Maintain visibility at the local level.
Be an active member of your local business community. Volunteer for select nonprofits aligned with your field, attend Chamber of Commerce mixers, and participate in local activities as your schedule allows. The personal bonds you create can fuel new business opportunities.

Re: Ways to Build Your Referral Business

1. Referrals always begin with providing your current customers with prompt, reliable, quality service. They’ll be happy to spread the word on your behalf—often without you having to ask.
2. Ask your current customers if they know of any colleagues who are looking for the kind of service you provide. Follow up with a call or letter to those businesses. Make sure you get your customer’s permission to cite them as a referral source.
3. If a customer compliments you on your work, ask them to put it in writing for use as a testimonial in your marketing materials. Again, make sure you have their permission to use their name for that purpose.
4. Always acknowledge a customer’s referral with a thank-you note or phone call. If you send a card, consider including a coupon to popular restaurant or discount on a future purchase.
5. Many retail and service businesses lend themselves well to formal referral incentive programs with cash, gifts, or discounts. Make sure these “rewards” fit in your budget, and that you have clear rules and guidelines.

Have a nice day

Re: Ways to Build Your Referral Business

Hi all........
I want to share something more with you guys regarding "Building your Referral Business"....

Ask at the right moment: when your customer is happy with your service, at that time you can ask him to share his experience with his friends and society…Thus you can build your business through someone’s reference.

Create different levels: It is tempting to think of recommendations and referrals in strict terms. Say online review, there are many different levels of engagement when it comes to online reviews, and hand written experiences are the most extreme. A much simpler style is thumbs up or thumbs down. Star ratings are another easy method.

Let your Customer save your details: The philosophy behind letting your customers save your details easily is that you want to be there in the moment when they do get asked by someone to refer a business or service.

Have a personality: The basic fact is that people don’t usually keep in mind businesses, they remember other people. For this reason, having a personality is of supreme importance. When you can foster personal connections with your business, you give them a grounds to remember and recommend you to others.

Admit failure: This last tip will seem like an odd addition to the list. After all, we are generally taught to hide (or at least never confess) our failures for fear that it may make us or our businesses appear susceptible. The surprising fact is that admitting a mistake can be one of the unintentionally best ways to humanize your business. Nothing can endear your business more to a customer than making a mistake an going overboard to correct it.

Re: Ways to Build Your Referral Business

Hello
Building a referral-based business is a five-step process that involves cultivating a network of strategic partners who are likely to refer business to you.
1 – Compile your contacts into a database
If you don’t already have a database of your current and past clients, your recommended vendors and service providers, and potential referral partners, start compiling that information into an easily accessible format. There are numerous programs out there to stay organized, such as Top Producer and Act! On the web, you can use HighRiseHQ.com. Or, if you are short on cash, use Microsoft Outlook to keep track of your information.
2 – Organize your contacts each day
Make a commitment to spend five to ten minutes each day adding any contact information you’ve collected to your contact database. Whenever you collect business cards or write details down on Post-It notes, make it a priority each day to input that information.
3 – Attend a networking event each week
The best way to meet new people is to join a business or networking organization and attend events. You will meet a lot of new people to add to your sphere of influence.
4 – Commit to personally contacting two people each day
If you only contact two people per day – through phone conversations, email, or mailing a handwritten note – that translates to ten per week or forty per month. The more you touch base with people, the more likely they will be to refer business your way. Other ideas for follow ups – send out an annual home valuation to past clients, endorse local business owners in your sphere, or send local real estate market updates (for instance, if their home gains value). You should also try to meet your top referral sources in person once or twice a year.
5 – Send monthly follow ups
A great way to follow up with potential referral sources is to add them to your monthly real estate newsletter. Each month, you can send out local market statistics, housing trends, new listings, and a featured article in your area of expertise. Only send this newsletter to people who have granted you permission first – it can be incredibly annoying to receive unwanted email. Before you end any conversation you have, simply explain you offer a monthly newsletter and would they mind if you sent it to them.

Re: Ways to Build Your Referral Business

First, have an initial process that not only helps you make the sale, but makes you referable at the same time. Keep reviewing your process to make sure you are bringing as much value as you know how to do. Second, develop and use a client-service model that drives your behavior. Your clients can tell the difference if you have a plan that helps you determine when and for what reason you contact them. Most advisors wing it with their service, and never truly work their book for more business and more referrals.

Re: Ways to Build Your Referral Business

1. Referral marketing is the most cost-effective way of attracting new clients. Generating prospects from targeted advertising, direct mail, telephone calls, and other methods have their own level of effectiveness. But the cost of getting new clients from referrals (in terms of both time and money) is far less expensive. For this reason alone, all small businesses should make establishing a referral marketing program a priority.

2. Prospects that come from referrals make great clients. Because these referrals come recommended by someone they know and/or trust, they are generally easier to convert to a paying client. As clients, they also usually make fewer complaints about your service, are generally more loyal, pay their bills, stay with you a longer period of time, and are more likely to refer other prospective clients to you.

3. If you have a reluctance for "business networking" or asking others for referrals, consider adopting a different mindset. Consider this: there are many businesses that are as ready to use your service as you are ready to offer it to them. In fact, data from recent research indicates that 53% -88% of business-to-business professional services buyers are willing to switch to new service providers.*

Re: Ways to Build Your Referral Business

Referral Business Tips-:

1. Referral marketing reduces your sales expenses and sales cycle. With less time calling cold prospects, your small business can focus on customers and their circle of influence.

2. Referrals can build your level of satisfied customers. The cycle self-perpetuates with more satisfied customers referring others to your company.

3. Referrals increase your sales revenue. According to world-renowned sales trainer, Tom Hopkins, in “Sales Prospecting for Dummies”; your closing ratio for non-qualified leads is 10 percent versus a 60 percent close ratio with referred leads.