The Vault Atypical Insights

Referrals Are Your Best Sales Opportunities

Written by Rachel Coughtry | Apr 13, 2017 1:43:00 PM

Every day, your customers go looking for your service.  Every day, they face a barrage of loud advertisements and pushy salespeople.  Every day, they end up frustrated.  Why? Because what they’re really looking for is this: a personal recommendation from a trusted friend or colleague who will vouch for your business.  Are you providing your customers that opportunity?

In today’s world of slick marketing campaigns, it’s easy easy to forget about the power of customer referrals, but every business needs a robust referral system to continually connect with ready, qualified prospects.  A well-tuned referral system dramatically (and quickly) increases business.  Plus,

  • It’s free! Your cost per lead is almost nothing when your customers act as your sales team.  People recommending you are literally unpaid salespeople.
  • You’ll close more sales.  As a recommended vendor, you have a huge advantage over your competition.
  • You’ll close bigger sales.  Let’s face it: Prospects are largely distrustful of salespeople.  However, when your organization is introduced to a customer by personal referral, that distrust goes out the window.  You’re more likely to close a larger sale as a result.
  • It’s ongoing.  People like spreading good news about a service they have received.  When you make a sale from a referral, that new client is most likely going to refer you to others in his network as well.  

Can we all agree referrals are great?  I think we can.  So what’s missing?

It’s one thing to be aware of the need for referrals, but another entirely to have an actual strategy in place to get them. The truth is that even companies that understand the importance of word-of-mouth marketing are missing out on a lot of new business. Sales are being left on the table simply because people aren’t asking for the connections they need. Current approaches to referral-generation are old fashioned, ill-conceived, and unlikely to achieve strong results.  Lacking a true referral strategy, these companies miss out on a substantial amount of new business.

On May 17, 2017, we’ll welcome Stacey Brown Randall of Growth By Referrals for a presentation on how to create a business strategy that can dramatically increase your business growth through referrals.  Stacey will share the mindset, principles, and strategies necessary for you to achieve the results she did in her own business, which was built almost entirely on referrals. Just as she teaches her clients, Stacey will instruct you on building a Referral Growth Model™ that can be executed, automated, and measured.  You don’t want to miss this one! Networking begins at 7:30 a.m. and the presentation begins at 8.  Details can be found here.

Referrals are your best sales opportunities, and the most cost-effective strategy for gaining new business that there is. Implementing a comprehensive system that generates them is one of the most powerful things you’ll do for your business.  We’ll help you through the process of building it.  See you on May 17th!