Get More Referrals

If you are like most firms then the majority of your business will come from word of mouth referrals. Well not really. There’s a fundamental difference between word of mouth and referral. Word of mouth is not intentional, it’s almost accidental referral. Yes you want it as its usually good news about you and you’ll get it by doing a good job and have a great product or service. But lets’ focus on true referrals. It’s here that you need a formal and systematic approach to get those referrals. Here’s a few ideas.

1.   Referral Links
Get your web site listed on other sites – it’s called referral linking and Google loves them!  It makes your site more important in its eyes and that puts you further up its ratings. You can find out which sites link to yours by going to Google and putting the following in the search field:
Site: (your domain e.g. bizvision.co.uk)

2.   Referral price
In this tactic you have a standard price say £140 but you offer a referral price of £97 if your new customer will give you 3 warmed up leads. If you have the margins then this is  a good strategy.

3.   Get Linked In
Linked In is a vastly under used yet great networking tool. Don’t just sign up but join a few group and be active in commenting within those groups. You’ll soon get referrals. Link in with me at www.linkedin.com/in/spotlearn

4.   Give out referral cards
This one is an oldie but goody! Get some specially printed referral cards that your customer can give out. Always include an offer preferably for both the giver and the receiver.

More referral ideas in another issue