Recommendations, comments, referrals and reviews. It is impossible today to run a business without recommendations and referrals.
A good referral system involves three elements: ask, seek and knock. Today with all the robocalls going on, and the busyness of social media, and the frenetic economic environment, getting a referral or a series of referrals on a consistent basis requires a great deal of intentionality and focus.
Perhaps the simplest and best way to create your referral pipeline is through your email.
An important factor to the success of any referral program is to set for yourself goals: How many referrals are you looking for in the month of August? How many referrals are you looking to receive in the second quarter? How many referrals do you want to receive in the fourth quarter?
Not every season is going to be a good referral season. So that being the case, identify the best months to start cultivating your crop of referrals. Developing a referral pipeline is a great deal like farming: you cultivate the ground, you water the ground and fertilize it, pick the right seeds, and then make sure that you nourish it regularly. Only then, and after a period of one or two cycles, begin to look for your referral crop. Asking for referrals is not begging! In the same way that you go to networking meetings to make connections, the purpose of every connection is to deliver a value-added service to people within those networks.
Email is the best way for referrals.
Every email must have a referral design, which involves a strategy and something that is actionable in it.
#1 Build an email list. You already have a potential list of referrers, it's called your email list. Begin to put your list together and identify the individuals. I don't recommend just shooting out emails and asking for referrals; what I do recommend is keeping your referrers and potential referrers up to speed on what's happening in your business. Remember emails not only can be read by the people that they're sent to, they can be forwarded to other people, so in every email make it referable.
#2 Another tactic is to make sure that you have a place where you can leave testimonials from individuals on your website who are very satisfied and are happy to recommend you.
#3 Make sure your emails are personalized. Also begin to think about those individuals that you could possibly refer business to.
#4 Begin to track your email sent and opens to your list. Track those people who are responsive. Always be intentional and deliberate about who you believe would make a good referral. Who makes a good referral? Those individuals who are happy, successful, and connected, well connected.
#5 As mentioned before, every referral cycle is different. There are the cycles of building a list, then the cycles of establishing credibility; those are the cycles when you are planting the seeds of quality and execution in the minds of your referral base. One of the best times to obtain a good referral is at the point-of-sale where they're happy with what they have received. If you are a Realtor, it's a good time to consider reminding your customer that you always appreciate referrals from present clients. Happy clients, happy business.
