Educate Your Referral Sources and They Will Reward You For It

Do you know the number one reason that business owners
don’t get enough high quality referrals?

Fear. That’s it.

Now, on one hand you might think that I mean that some
business owners are just flat afraid to ask for referrals.
There is no question that there is a great amount of truth
to that but…

The biggest stumbling block of all is that your clients and
your referral network are afraid to refer your business
because they don’t really know how to do it.

You must train them, educate them, and take them by the
hand and show them how to provide you with killer referrals.

Here’s what you must do to create an effective referral
marketing system.

1. Narrow your target referral – tell the world you are
after a very specific type of prospect. This is a good
thing for any of your marketing efforts because asking the
vague “know anyone who needs what I do” will severely limit
the number and quality of leads you receive. Be specific.

2. Be able to tell your referral resource – what you do
that is extremely valuable – not, I’m a marketing
consultant – that much I hope they know. Something more
like – “I help financial planners triple what they charge.”
Consider uncovering a statement like the one above for your
business and then print it on the back of business card in
the form of a question. “Know and financial planners who
would like to triple what they charge?” Then leave some
space for someone to write a name and phone number. This
type of tool will put your referral program on autopilot.

Now you’ve got their attention. Now you’ve given them nice
tidy way to refer you.

3. Tell your referral source exactly what you intend to do
with the referred lead. “I will call them and offer them a
free evaluation as a gift from you and then add them to my
quarterly tips newsletter.” See, most people figure that
you might stalk them and hound them until they give. So
outline your referral marketing plan for your source and
put them at ease.

4. Tell them why they want to refer you – you must help
them understand how they will benefit by providing
referrals. In some cases, the motivation might simply be
that they will be seen as helping their friends and
clients. Don’t overlook the power of this motivation. Many
business owner can themselves benefit by introducing you to
their clients. On the other hand, in other cases the
motivation may need to be a bit more tangible – something
like a trip, finder’s fee or free product.

5. Follow-up – thank them and let them know how successful
you have been because they referred business to you.
Communicate with your referral sources every step of the
way. Send them movie tickets when they introduce you to a
lead and then a nice gift basket when that lead turns into
a client. This type of follow-up will encourage continued
participation from your sources. The more involved you can
get your sources, setting up meeting on your behalf and
verbally endorsing your product or service, the better.

Take the time to create this educational component of your
referral system. Document each step and then go out there
and boldly present your case to your clients, referral
sources, and referral network. This is the missing piece of
the puzzle for most business owners who attempt to grow
their business by way of referral.

——————————
John Jantsch is a marketing coach and the author of
Referral Flood – How to create a flood of new business
without spending one dime on advertising. You can get more
information at http://www.ReferralFlood.com or by sending a
blank email to mailto:subscribe@ducttapemarketing.com
http://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com
Copyright 2004 John Jantsch