Everyone loves getting referrals. I know I do! When a prospect comes to you by referral, there is a pre-established sense of trust which makes for an easier sale and a great start to your business relationship.
So why do so many business owners invest large amounts of time and money trying to attract “cold” prospects while ignoring the vast amount of referral business they could be tapping into?
While I don’t have the answer to that question, I do have 5 Ways to Generate More Referral Business:
- Be Referral Worthy. If you want referrals to be a major source of new business, you need to make sure your business is referral worthy. What can you do to create a memorable experience for your customers? What do your customers value, and how can you provide this in a way that your competitors don’t? Going that extra mile will turn happy customers into raving fans who will want to tell their friends about you.
- Choose Your Referral Partners.There are many potential referral sources: current customers, people in complementary industries or even people in the same industry whose client base is slightly different from yours. Who are your best customers? Who can put you in touch with the types of people/companies you want to attract?
- Make It Easy.You are busy, so are your referral sources. Make it easy for them to refer you. Consider writing an email that they can forward to their contacts talking about your company. It should be written from your customer’s perspective and give a few reasons why they like dealing with you and how it could benefit their contacts. In most cases, the purpose of the email isn’t to complete a sale; it’s to open the door to a conversation between you and the prospect, so keep this in mind when writing the copy. Ask to be cc’d on the email, and for them to mention that you are being cc’d in their message. This gives you the recipient’s email address and permission to follow up with an email of your own.
- Host Events.Invite your customers and referral partners and encourage them to bring potential clients along. People love events that include food & drinks. You may want to have an open house or networking mixer, or perhaps something more intimate such as a small lunch or dinner for select referral partners and their guests.
- Offer Incentives. While receiving a referral commission may not necessarily be what motivates people to send referrals, it is good to offer something to show your appreciation.Depending on the amount of your referral fee, a gift certificate for something they can experience may be more impactful than a commission cheque.
PS: It is only a referral when the prospect is expecting your call. Otherwise it is still a cold call. Talk to your referral sources and ask them to introduce you by phone or email so their referral is expecting to hear from you.
Do you have any referral tips? Send them along. We’d love to hear what’s working for you.
With Vancouver’s hot real estate climate, it’s more and more challenging to get into the real estate market, and while finding a property in Vancouver with a barter component may be unlikely, there are other great options to use barter dollars to purchase real estate and get on the property ladder.
This isn’t the only opportunity to use barter dollars to purchase real estate. 7 km west of Sun Peaks Mountain Resort, 6 acres of land in a picturesque valley is being offered for $199,000, with 40% of that payable in barter dollars. A lot in New Brunswick, upon which you can build 2 dwellings, is also for sale for $25,000, with 50% accepted in barter dollars.
John Madsen has been involved in barter for many years and has used barter in more than 100 real estate transactions involving land, mainly in rural BC. John was able to pick up properties using barter dollars during the ‘80s when interest rates spiked and people wanted to unload their recreational and holding properties. Several years ago, he sold a property near Shuswap Lake to a computer repair company that belonged to First Canadian Barter Exchange.
