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Referrals for Sales?

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Firefly2008

Firefly2008

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Jul 31, 2009
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Just wondering if anyone relies heavily on client referrals for new business?

If so, how do you go about it? How would you phrase a request?
Would you ask the same client for a referral more than once?
How successful have the referrals been?

Thanks

Noreen
 
I find it quite difficult to get that many client referrals. We have lots of happy clients, but we don't get that many referrals. People say "Oh, I recommend your service all the time", but how come we never hear from those people we've been recommended to?

We have a core of clients who do regularly refer work our way and we do the same for them.

You will see from other threads that while many people suggest offering a reward scheme for referrals, or a "referrer's fee". However, I am completely against this. If someone recommended a service to me and then I found out later they got a referrer's fee, I would then be wondering, "Did they recommend that service because they are great... or because they were getting £50 for doing so?"
 
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Totally agree with Ashley_Price.

However there are different things to recommend. One thing is to recommend good SEO services, which probably will be same fine working for every client, another one to get recommendation for a shampoo, that will be different to each type of hair. Primitive example, but..

I'm trying myself in photography. And from very beginning I was doing photo-shoots for my friends only. Their friends have found my photos very nice and asked who did that. And their friends to. I haven't got lots of clients, as I'm not doing any advertisement and SEO for it, but all my client were referred from another one.

So it may work in different ways depends on what you are promoting. :)
 
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As Paul, we get most of our business from referrals.

Because of what we do, clients are happy to share success with friends/neighbours/relatives, though I'm sure that might not be the case if you were in the business of pest control, weight loss, or similar sensitive industries.

I would suggest having a telephone call with them directly and asking point blank.

Also, a BRIEF mention in a company newsletter might serve as a reminder.

If neither of those work, then offer them an incentive.
 
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I get a lot of business through referrals but this tends to be my personal legal services such as will writing.

If the client who referred is an old lady, for example, then I will send her a bunch of flowers. :)

Offering incentives is good but it doesn't have to be an actual monetary amount. Free services is always an option...... after all the hardest thing for a business to come buy is cash, offering free services is a much more cost effective way of showing appreciation.
 
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you can rely on client referral but being it the main engine to push the business? i guess not may contact an expert that can give you the right leads like the lead generation company UK or strive for yourself but it is kind a hard to put up a marketing plan while maintaining the load of your to sustain the company everyday
 
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The trick with referrals is that you can't expect them to happen at zero cost. People need rewarding for a referral so it's important to create a compensation scheme of sorts. After all, what you are doing is creating a bigger reason why for the person referring.

Many of the breakfast clubs are based on generating referrals for each other. The power with these clubs is that you see the business being passed around on the day and feedback is provided. So whoever gives a referral usually gets a referral - simple barter compensation in this case. You could try this with both suppliers and customers if you know their target market.

It is important that you systemise your referral system, otherwise it is prone to collapse.
 
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Firefly2008 said:
Just wondering if anyone relies heavily on client referrals for new business?

If so, how do you go about it? How would you phrase a request?
Would you ask the same client for a referral more than once?
How successful have the referrals been?

Thanks

Noreen
Click to expand...

It is really and important part of business if you have referals from your client's old and new because that means they trust you and your business...
 
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Most businesses can do very well with a good referral system. If you do not systemise then it becomes adhoc and does not work as well.

Getting a referral is only the beginning. If you do the right things, you can leverage a lot more business from your referral network if you know how. This won't work for every business but it certainly works very well and can become a major source of income.
 
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Personally I have considered a kickback solution for people who recommend our products, however I don't believe that this will influence the likelihood of referring. People pay 1-2.000 GBP for our products, so a small kickback just wont cut it.

I'd rather invest that small kickback in going above and beyond when it comes to customer service. Sometimes I add a really nice chocolate with the products without the customer knowing. I talk longer with the customers and relate to them on a personal level. I care about the product I sell, and do everything I can to ensure that the customer will be happy with it.

At the end of the day - if your customer is truly happy with your product/service, he will recommend it to others. And getting there with all your customers is incredibly hard, but worth it at the end of the day.

You could consider reading the article "How to get referrals" from Seth Godins blog, it can definitely help grow some thoughts on referrals.
 
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Sorry if I am stating the obvious here, but referral marketing should only be one part of multi-media, multi-faceted marketing for a business.

No business can rely on one approach because it's too high risk. You need to mix online and offline marketing strategies.
 
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Firefly2008 said:
Just wondering if anyone relies heavily on client referrals for new business?

If so, how do you go about it? How would you phrase a request?
Would you ask the same client for a referral more than once?
How successful have the referrals been?

Thanks

Noreen
Click to expand...

I don't "rely" on it (no business should ever rely on one form of promotion), but I do get a steady influx of customers thanks to recommendations.

These recommendations come from clients wanting to help people they know as opposed to doing it for any sort of incentive, however.

When it comes to reward-based referral systems, it has to be worded so it's clear that you only expect genuine recommendations based on the quality of your product/service, and that a referral 'fee' is nothing more than a thank you as opposed to trying to essentially bribe people into saying nice things.

For a more formal method of referral-based marketing, it's best to look at an affiliate system, where people can use it to form their own businesses and create their own incomes by sending customers your way.
 
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