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Get New Customers:
5 Steps to More Referrals
 How do some small biz owners do it? They don't take out expensive newspaper ads or hire copywriters and designers to create glitzy brochures. Yet they seem to have a steady stream of customers.
It might be because they make it easy for current clients to refer new business to them.
Why You Should Encourage Referrals
Referrals are golden prospects. They already trust you (to some degree) because someone they know and like has recommended you. They are less skeptical and often have been "pre-sold." And did you know that research shows that people who are referred to a business tend to spend more money?
5 Tips for Educating Your Referral Sources
Ideally, all your happy customers would send you a steady stream of new business. But in the real world, your existing clients don't automatically know how to refer. They may not even know about all the products and services you offer. Here's how you can help them:
1. Know your target client and your service or product niche. Be specific. Who exactly are you looking for? A financial planner might say, "I help teachers in South King County public schools leverage their assets to reach financial freedom 15 years before retirement." Much better than, "I help people with their financial planning" because your referral source now knows exactly who to be on the lookout for.
2. Say exactly what you will do with the referral. Have you ever hesitated to provide a referral because you didn't want to subject a friend to an annoying, hard-sell pitch? If someone says to me, "I'd like to call and offer them my free SEO report and invite them to sign up for my free monthly newsletter," well, I'm much more comfortable with that.
3. Give them a reason to refer. If you have an exceptional product or service, your customer may be delighted enough to just be helping a friend solve a problem. Other times, you may want to reciprocate: give your referral source a free product, connect him or her to a potential client or help them in some other way.
4. Let them know how it all turned out. Have you ever referred business to someone and never heard a word on the outcome? The best way to get more referrals is to acknowledge the giver and let them know what happened with the new contact. Besides being just plain good manners, communication makes the giver feel appreciated and don't we all want that?
5. Send a separate thank-you. Send, at the minimum, a brief thank-you note, whether the referral resulted in new business or not. If it feels right, you might even send a small gift basket or a coffee shop gift card.
If you add this 5-step educational process to your referral system, you will see your base of referrals-and your business-grow.
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