Referrals, referrals, referrals.
Oh how great they can be-am Im sure some of you have already experienced.
Often times I see very successful entrepreneurs like yourself who do a great job in generating a healthy amount of business for themselves. However they lack the skill to turn one transaction into multiples sales from just that one sale. They understand the importance of relationship building but find themselves just focused on a select few clients that they loose track of the overall big picture in running their business.
In today’s blog, we’re going to discuss the importance of referrals in business and how they can not only help you skyrocket your business, but also save you a great deal of time while you’re at it.
Excited?!
You should be ;)
We’re about to crack the code on how to save yourself a load of time and generate a flow of sales your way, but also be able to attract and maintain high quality relationships along the way.
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For starters, let's chat about the benefits of referrals and look at how they can help you in your business. Here goes.
decrease time in converting leads: so instead of applying the same sales cycle and timeframe to every single lead that comes you way, instead focus on doing the same great job that you’ve been doing but doing so with efficiency in mind
encourage existing clients to promote your business: this can come in the form of a referral program when clients are rewarded for the business they bring to your doors; I’d encourage financial ones for now
increase your lead to client ratio: the faster you can convert the leads that come your way, the faster you can generate referrals (aka extra clients) from them
improve client relationships: work with your existing clients to come up with a solution that rewards them the way they want to be rewarded for bringing you business; keep the win-win mindset alive here
factors into community building: when you incentive your existing clients to bring you what you want and in return you give them what they want in return, it adds to the community that you’re trying to build; whether that be online or offline
decrease your cost per lead: whether you are paying someone to bring you leads or you are taking time out of your day to generate them manually, you are still spending money while you’re at it-lets begin thinking more along the lines of efficiency here
Need I go on any further?
Sure!
build higher client satisfaction rates: when you take into account the needs of your existing clients, you are more than able to do the same for new ones-this puts you in a place to operate with a better habit in place
naturally encourage loyalty program: this would go hand in hand with the above in terms of collecting the needs of your clients and creating a program that encourages their presence inside your business and them some-keep ‘em happy!
leading into referral bonuses: (refer to above) you’ll even begin to notice how all of these benefits add to each other along the process ;)
Can you see what I see?! Ya, referrals are where its at!
You see, it's easy to focus on one new client after another. However we all know that no matter where we generate our business from, the need to always be producing at an all time high is crucial for any business to success.
Now let's fact it, not many of us can afford to hire full time employees to help set up some meetings for us and get some deals on the books. So instead, let's talk about how we can begin implementing a few key strategies today to help generate some referrals our way.
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A few steps to consider:
1. Create a referral program for new clients as well as existing ones:
make sure its encourages them to promote your business, in exchange for an incentive in return
2. Implement your new referral program into the closing stage of your sale:
this would be offered to them after a set amount of time in which they’ve been working with you. That time frame would be contingent upon what program they signed up for and what time frame is needed for that promised service or set of results to be delivered to the client.
3. After a client has finished completing a program with you, integrate the 3 C’s into your operations:
Renew: have a program service and/or product ready to promote and offer to them(can throw in there a small promotional discount for existing clients as a bonus). Also make sure you have a great cadence strategy on when you plan on promoting this and that its not just brought up at the end of their program term with you.
Review: encourage them leave a review for your business on any online platform that is most beneficial to your business growth. This can on a search engine such as google, a review site such as yelp, or social media platforms such as instagram, facebook and/or twitter. You can then(with their permission), add these great reviews onto your site to help generate more business your way.
Refer: ask them to refer business your way and remind them of the incentive your have within your loyalty program. Refer to the renew step here as well-make sure your cadence allows for you to encourage the referrals along the course of your client’s experience. You can decide what that would look like for you and how to most appropriately incorporate that into your operations.
4. Create an affiliate program:
1. reach out to some of your friends, family and or other influencers within your field(s) to promote business your way
2. offer them incentives in exchange; these can be in the form of discounted rates with your services/products and/or cash/prepaid credit cards as rewards
….this list can go on n on n on.
But you get the point, right?!
You see, referrals all begin with the quality of our relationships and without them, we wont be able to really integrate them into our business. What you’ll naturally start to notice is that the more you maintain quality relationships within both your personal and professional circle, the more you’ll be able to leverage them to scale your business at a rate you’ve never seen before.
It all boils down to that initial relationship and goes up from there.
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Here’s another way to look at this. Let's start with this, you have this one really great client relationship. Its one of the most high quality ones you’ve ever experienced since starting your business and you view it as the ideal relationship you’d like to maintain.
they purchase a product/service that you offer; whether that be that purchased a coaching program with you for a set amount of time or a one time product
within a number of weeks they decide they want to buy another product/service from you being they’ve seen great results so far from working with you that ends up going well for them also
they then become naturally inclined to tell their friends and family about the great results they’ve generated from working with you
you introduce them to your loyalty program(which they will be rewarded financially for referring others to you; make sure its a program that benefits them tremendously)
they see the win-win-win scenario here and refer more clients your way (to break this down, the win-win-win would be your original client benefiting from your work and from the financial reward of referring someone to you, the new client that they just referred and how you’ll help them also generate some great results and also your business and how it will grow to a new level with this one high quality relationship that you’ve built).
those clients also end up seeing great results from working with you
the cycle continues and that same client then refers someone else to you and so on n so forth
......the rest is history
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So what are you to do now that you have all this knowledge at your disposal?! I’d highly recommend applying it right away, especially if you don’t already have a system in place to generate the clients your looking to bring into your business.
A great way to go about this would be to follow the four step process above, but do so by setting aside a generous amount of time to dedicate to this task. You’ll notice that once you start working on it, you will find more n more areas of growth and opportunity for you to find financial prosperity within your business.
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Until next time my friends, keep your head up and know that whatever “obstacle” that comes your way throughout your business journey, its really just a blessing in disguise.
XO
-Bauer
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