People Want Referrals

People Want Referrals
People don't want to go to the telephone book to pick a lawyer. People don't want to pick a real-estate agent from the Yellow Pages--or an accountant, or a chiropractor, or an insurance agent, or a dentist, or a mechanic. People want referrals! Historically, the only problem has been linking the people who need services or products with the people who provide them. A structured word-of-mouth campaign begins by acknowledging that there's a segment of the public that wants you and your service as badly as you want their business.

People from all walks of life want referrals--not just the business community, but the general public as well. Few people want to choose a dentist, for example, from a printed advertisement. People want to have more personal information before making such selections because whenever you choose a professional exclusively from an advertisement and have no other source of information, you may be taking a big risk as to the quality of service you will receive. With referrals, the risk is greatly reduced. Someone else has done business with that person and is recommending that professional to you with confidence.

As Dr Ivan Misner says, “Networking empowers the individual, and people in networks tend to nurture one another.”

Referrals Are Good Business
Compare a lead that you receive from an advertisement with a similar lead (that is, referral) that you get from someone you know. The referred lead is easier to close and costs less to obtain. Often, the referral provides a higher-quality client or customer with less chance of misunderstanding or disappointment. When I ask audiences why referral business is better than the business they get from ads, they say the referred business:

·                  is easier to close,

·                  has far fewer objections,

·                  has a stronger sense of loyalty,

·                  remains a client longer, and most important of all,

·                  has a higher sense of trust.

Relying on the advice of a mutual friend or acquaintance, the referral starts with a higher level of trust for you and your product or service. Getting dozens of people to send such referrals your way every day is what building successful word-of-mouth business is all about.

What would your business look like if.....

    .....you NEVER had to guess where your next referral was coming from?

    .....you had a community of people to support and mastermind your referral business?

     .....you had 4-6 highly trained referral partners working for you?

     .....your target market was actually seeking you out?

     .....you knew how to refer to others the way they wanted to be referred to?

     .....you had a way to keep your referral pipeline full?

     .....you were working a whole lot smarter and a lot less hard?

"What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds." --Wayne Dyer

Stretch you mind around word-of-mouth marketing and your business will explode.

Comments

[Sharan Tash]

Great comments. I would like to add something to this. When I do presentations I am amazed at how many people say, "I can work with everyone that ----", or "I am looking for anyone who---". This scares me because they are not giving me information that I can use to narrow my search for them.
There is an architect I mention in my speeches all the time, Chris Turley who stated to me that he works with PITA clients. That was GREAT to know because so many architects do not want to work with difficult clients.
I met with a financial person that is willing to work with people that don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest.
Word of mouth is great, but you MUST be specific on what you are asking for so the connectors out in the relationship networking world can help you.
Sharan Tash
The Professional Networker