Is it time to rev up your business’s referrals? In this short series, we’ll share the elements and building blocks of a referral engine that will help your company go the distance. To get started, let’s look at three components.
1. Be Referable
The first thing to do is to make sure your business is eminently referable. After all, there’s no sense in asking for referrals if there are some squeaky wheels among your customer touchpoints. Therefore, review those customer touchpoints—from incoming calls to outbound sales activities to making the sale and retaining your customers. Make sure are no snafus that prospects might encounter (acknowledging that there are always unanticipated road blocks).
For example:
– Will a prospect encounter long wait times for a return call?
– Does your office create a welcoming environment?
– Is your website up-to-date with relevant information?
– Would you want to do business with your client-facing team?
2. Identify your current referral sources
Who are the people who are already sending prospects your way? What types of businesses are they in, and what types of potential buyers are they referring to you? In other words, look for the people who already have your back. Then consider who among them you could “recruit” to become a referral partner as well as a customer or colleague.
It is important that this not be a one-sided relationship so think about this from the flip side: to whom can you refer business? After all, part of being a good referral partner is establishing a two-way referral highway.
3. Communicate about your ideal customer
Be clear with your referral sources about the kind of customer or business you’re looking to meet. Assuming you have already determined this, tell them who your ideal client or customer is and why. If you offer multiple products or services, for which are you seeking referrals? There might be opportunities to build revenue in an underserved area of your business.
Get your referral engine in gear
Contact Advantage Marketing for help with this key marketing activity. We’ll look under your company’s figurative hood to help you refine your ideal customer profile, identify strong referral sources, and script out your “ask.”
Don’t miss the other articles in the Building Your Referral Engine series:
Part 1: 3 Important Building Blocks
Part 2: Warm up your pipeline
Part 3: Make it easy for others to make referrals
Part 4: Move prospects through your sales funnel
Special Offer! The Referral Engine Workbook
