Every professional sales person knows that one of the greatest ways to grow a business is through referrals.  Getting referrals isn’t something that only the sales department should be responsible for though.  Many levels of employees usually deal with a customer and sometimes it is the front line employees who have the most contact and strongest relationship with the customer.  A lot of people teach you that if you take good care of your customers they will automatically give you referrals, but that is not necessarily true.  I’ll bet some of your very best customers haven’t given you one referral.  Why?  Because they are busy and have a thousand other things on their mind, just like you do.  The key to getting a consistent stream of referrals is to build the referral process into the transaction.  Asking for referrals as a sales person can be uncomfortable and can make non-sales people prefer to get a root canal at the dentist.  But, it doesn’t have to be that way.  People often make referrals difficult and uncomfortable because they ask for them at the wrong time. Wait to ask for a referral when the client is happiest, shortly after they’ve received the product or service. It is also important to remember that the sales person shouldn’t always be the person who has to ask for the referral; the sales person is not always the individual who has built a rapport with the client. The person delivering the product or service is usually the person who has built a relationship with the client. By developing a cross-functional team of sales, service, and product delivery people, you can develop a referral process that is a win-win for everyone.

Here are a series of tips that you can share with your team to help get referrals and build your network.

• Listen and remind the customer of benefits that are important to them- be aware when clients tell you benefits during a phone call or general service call so that you can bring those benefits up during a request for a referral.
• Describe your ideal customer- Describe some other solutions that you have provided for other companies or organizations.  It will help them start to think of other people they could refer to you.
• Give a benefit for giving a referral- Create some form of thank you or recognition for giving referrals and make sure your clients know about it. Examples could be movie tickets, flowers, thank you notes and, of course, cash, go a long way towards motivating folks. Don’t worry so much about what, just realize that appreciation goes a long way with people.
• Suggest They Already Know Someone- If you know of a specific person or client that you would like to be referred to, provide your client with the opportunity to mention them. Just try to avoid putting the person on the spot. Instead, bring it up and give them time to consider the referral.
• Ask for an Introduction- Asking for an introduction is a great way to break the ice with the client and also gives you a real example of someone who has benefited for your product or service.

Just constantly remind yourselves and your employees of the benefits of asking for the referral and then just ask for it.  

Now once you have the referral, you have to know how to turn them into a client.  Make sure that even though you were referred to them by another customer or friend that you just don’t assume that they know about your business and how you can help them.  People want to buy from businesses and individuals they know, like and trust.  The referral may have some trust for you since they know the person who referred them, however, they need to fully understand what benefit you can offer them.  The greatest way to turn a referral into a client is through education.  Take time to understand their business and their needs and educate them on how they can benefit from your product or service.  Trying to close a prospect, even a referred prospect, before they really understand the value you can provide them is like asking someone to marry you without going on a date. 

Create a referral system in your business for who and how you ask for referrals and then once you have a referral in your hands, educate them on how your product or service can benefit their company.  And once they have become a happy client, ask for a referral!

Visit our website at www.financewithafp.com or call us at 877-237-7287 to learn about our Friends & Family program.  We’ll give a $100 cash referral gift to anyone who refers a customer to us that results in a closed deal!