Article contributed by Robyn Henderson.
Businesses live or die by the volume of regular referrals they receive. Yet many business operators place little or no energy on the art of giving and receiving referrals. As a result they regularly experience erratic cash flow. Let’s look at six strategies to ensure you maintain your regular referral flow.
1. Where Do They Come From?
Diarise time next week, to track your last 25–50 clients, where they came from, how much $$ value you place on past and future business opportunities with them, and how much money was spent to get their business in the first place? If the business came from a referee or sphere of influence, did you in fact acknowledge or thank that person and advise them of the outcome of the lead.
TIP: Many referral sources dry up, because the referral recipient did not follow up or give feedback. Always give feedback to your referees, whether actual business eventuates or not.
2. How Well Do You Know Your Prospects?
Create and maintain a database of prospects and aim to add to this list every week. Keep updating information about these potential clients until you have complete contact details, list of their interests outside of work and any major achievements. The more you know about someone, the easier it is to communicate
and network with them regularly.
TIP: You will get real value from the magazines and newspapers that you read, by looking for items that may be of interest to your prospects. Cutting out an article, or better still sending a copy of the magazine itself, with a with compliments slip on the page of the relevant article—with a note, ‘Saw this and thought of you’— will certainly make you top of mind with these prospects.
3. How Often Do You Make Contact?
The universal law of recency states, that the person who made the last contact, more often than not, is the person who gets the business. Not everyone has effective data management systems in place. So, when they need a new supplier or to re-connect with an old supplier, they often have no way of tracking where
your business card is, or how to connect with you.
If you are regularly sending prospects and clients an e-zine, newsletter, update, new product release, or just a keep in touch article, you make it easy for people to do business with you.
TIP: Make contact with current clients and prospects every 60–90 days. Ideally send something that will be of interest to them—not just something that promotes your business.
4. Visibility Is Critical
Building a profile in your community or industry can be costly. However, some low cost/no cost ideas would be to have a magnetic strip with your business name and contact details put on your car. Wearing a name badge when you shop locally, helps people get to know your name as well as what it is that you do. Reports show that 80% of the population have trouble remembering names, so again we are making it easy for people to make contact with us. Sponsorship of the printing of a local school’s newsletter or junior sports team can be very inexpensive and may give you access to potential clients.
Offering to contribute a regular column in the community newspaper lets you share useful information as well as get the spin off of raising your profile.
TIP: Aim for regular community exposure, rather than one-off splashes that can quickly be forgotten.
5. Spend Money Locally
Spending money in your community not only contributes to the local economy and provides employment opportunities—it is great way of showing support to others. Sometimes you pay slightly more for certain products, however, if you want people to support your business, look at how you can support theirs.
TIP: As Anita Roddick said, think globally, act locally.
6. Give Away A Referral Every Day
We have all heard the saying, ‘What you give out comes back tenfold’. The law of reciprocity at work can give us a steady flow of leads and referrals. If you are unable to give a daily hot business lead, think about referring a restaurant, movie, supplier or share a positive customer appreciation story within your network. As this becomes a daily habit, you will fi nd that you start to receive daily referrals from others. The interesting phenomena with referrals is that the people you give the referrals to, are always indirectly connected to the people you receive referrals from.
TIP: Always ask the new client or prospect, ‘How did you hear about my business or me?’ If you don’t track referrals they are guaranteed to disappear.
The final tip in giving referrals must be to always ask for feedback. ‘I have found John to be a true professional; if he doesn’t meet your expectations, please let me know.’ Mastering the art of giving referrals may take practice, however, when mastered, it will ensure the longevity and growth of your home-based business.
