Three Easy Steps to More Referrals

Getting referrals is like an iceberg; you’re not seeing a great deal of what is actually there. In the case of an iceberg, ten percent is readily visible, while ninety percent lies beneath the surface. In the case of referrals, you’re probably receiving ten percent of what you could and should be getting, while the opportunity for the other ninety percent goes unrealized.

If you are like many self-employed professionals, you believe that getting referrals is a passive event — that people who appreciate your abilities will spontaneously recommend you to others. Although this happens occasionally, it’s not the rule. In fact, few of us can rely on this to provide a major portion of our revenue. There is, however, a way to easily and effectively generate a greater number of income-producing referrals.

First, you have to realize that getting significantly more referrals requires that you take an active role. No longer can you just sit back and wait for them to serendipitously appear. You might think this is easy, but it requires that you change your way of thinking, and that is often difficult.

Second, you must not only ask for referrals, but ask for them at the most advantageous time. Too many people make the devastating mistake of asking for referrals at a time that defeats their efforts.

Third, you must develop a system. To do otherwise means you cannot accurately measure your effectiveness and, if the results are less than stellar, make the required changes.

It’s a mindset

Getting referrals is no different than most aspects of your business. You need to take an active role in order to produce positive results. This is contrary to what many of us believe to be true when it comes to referrals. We believe they just happen — that they are the residue of good work. To some degree this is true, but not to the point where you are going to receive all you want or need.

Consequently, you have to change your way of thinking. You have to understand that getting bona fide, profitable referrals takes work — that you have to strategize and take the proper measures to achieve your goal.

Timing is important

They say the number one reason we don’t make sales is because we don’t ask for them. I believe the same is true for referrals. To get the number we want — the number we deserve — we have to consistently ask for them. Asking for referrals isn’t necessarily limited to asking in person. You can request them on your invoices. You can include a reminder in your e-mail signatures when corresponding with clients and business associates. You should be asking in as many ways and as often as possible… within reason, of course.

Consistently asking for referrals is key; asking for them at the proper time is critical. Too often, we ask newly-signed clients to refer us. This, in some cases, is appropriate and leads to the desired results. In the majority of instances, however, this leads to the clients’ wondering how much nerve it took us to ask for a referral before ever performing any work. In essence, we’re asking new clients to recommend us without their knowing for a fact that our work is worthy of their endorsements.

Although the perfect time varies, a rule of thumb is to ask after your clients convey to you how thrilled they are with your work. Don’t pounce and ask for referrals immediately, but work it into the conversation, using your clients’ words. (It’s also a great time to ask for a written testimonial. We’ll discuss this next week.)

Systematize

Now that you know to ask for referrals and when to do so, you need to be able to measure your effectiveness. I keep a list of my clients and business associates in a spreadsheet. I record next to their names the dates I have asked for referrals and the results. This let’s me quickly see who is referring me and where I need to step up my game. It also keeps me on track. I can’t tell you how many times I think I’ve recently asked a particular person for a referral, only to discover that it has been several months. So systematize, measure, and react accordingly.

Now that you know how to easily and effectively get more referrals, it’s up tp you to take an action. By doing so, you should finally see that ninety percent that had been hiding below the surface.

Are You Leveraging Your Unpaid Sales Force? Five Keys to Growing Your Business through Referrals

You’ve honed your technical expertise, you’ve established your business and got your team in place, but why was it no one told you you’d also have to develop marketing and sales skills?

That’s not what you were expecting when you established your professional services practice, be that as a lawyer, an accountant, a designer or consultant. In fact the idea of selling leaves your cold.

The reality is most of us dislike selling. Equally, we don’t like being sold to. This simple fact is often overlooked, yet it has the potential to be the key that unlocks the growth of your business.

People do business with those they know, like, trust and respect. In other words they want to build a relationship with you before they invest their hard earned money in your solutions and services.

Referrals are often the most powerful way to expand your business requiring little marketing spend and providing you with immediate credibility through the reputation of the person referring you.

But how often do you miss the opportunity to ask for a referral? Do you have a specific strategy and action plan to manage your referral process? Are you leveraging the support of your unpaid sales force – your clients who already know, like, trust and respect you?

Here are five keys to growing your business through increasing your referrals.

How to ask for a referral

Review your current clients and identify three of them that you can contact this week about the potential of them referring you to others.

When you speak with them, thank them for their business and tell them you enjoy working with them. Advise them you are in the process of expanding your referral based business. Explain that you would like to partner with them to help you grow your business and ask if they could refer you to 2 or 3 of their contacts.

Make sure you advise them of the profile of your ideal client that you would like them to refer you to. If they are able to identify someone, ask if they would contact the person ahead of you reaching out to them to introduce yourself.

Make your clients proud to refer you

Most of us delight in great feedback and there is nothing better than having someone thrilled because of the results they have achieved through working with someone you referred to them.

When a client refers you, their personal reputation is on the line. They won’t refer or recommend someone who they don’t believe in. It’s therefore paramount you deliver to your highest standards when working with the contact you have been referred to.

Connect with your potential new client

When you make contact with your potential new client, reference the person referring you and advise them that your mutual contact thought it would be a great idea if the two of you connected.

Make sure you don’t overwhelm them with your great technical expertise. Actively listen to their challenges and concerns. Offer suggestions and be generous with your advice – make them feel you have their interests at heart.

Remember, you can’t convince them to work with you; even though you have come highly recommended, they have to grow to know, like, trust and respect you on their own terms.

Keep your client in the loop

Don’t forget to keep your original client informed of how things progress with the personal contact they referred you to. That is not to say you should disclose anything confidential – just make sure they know that you have made contact and whether you are going to work together.

Reward your referral partners

Consider rewarding your referral partners, perhaps by entertaining them to lunch or introduce a different service agreement or fee structure to formally reward your clients for their referrals. After all, they’re helping you grow your business and are sure to remember to provide you with referrals more often if they know their support is appreciated.

Don’t wait for your workload to quieten down before you implement a referral strategy. To grow a thriving professional practice, business development needs to be part of your ongoing agenda. Developing and implementing a referral strategy can help you propel the growth of your business without the anguish of feeling you have to sell and with little investment in overheads.

Business Networking Referrals When You’re New To Town

Business networking referrals are the life-blood of any computer consulting business. It’s a who you know type of marketplace. This makes tapping into a source of referrals absolutely critical.

The problem is, what happens when you don’t know your next door neighbor let alone any other business networking referral sources?

Business Networking Referrals An A New City

Many people who start a computer consulting business are going to be moving, or have moved, somewhere new. This move is often what precipitated the business in the first place.

If this is you, you might think you don’t know anyone. You are also probably overwhelmed by the thought of getting business networking referrals before you’ve got a sense of what’s what in your new community. The fact is, you DO know a lot of people and these people know a lot about the community.

Get out your checkbook and credit card statements and look at how many people you have met through your purchases – these are all potential business networking referrals:

Many of the vendors will be small business owners and managers. This is your target market. They might become clients, and they surely know others who could be clients.

The Real Estate agents are plugged into who who’s and what’s what in the community. Tell them about your business and use them as a source of business networking referrals.

Attorneys, mortgage specialists, title officers, etc… again, these business networking referral sources are priceless.

You will be amazed by the number and type of businesses you have been in contact with already.. Get the word out to these businesses and start right away with setting up a rich source of business networking referrals.

The Bottom Line on Business Networking Referrals

Even when you move to a new town your business networking referral pipeline is still strong. Look at your credit card statements to figure out what business you have spent money with in the local area. From movers to real estate agents and landscapers to decorators, you have already been in contact with business networking referrals. Make sure you use every opportunity you have with these people to market your new business and begin to build a strong business network.

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About the Author

Fast and Easy Business Growth For 2010 – Build Your Close Contact Referral Network

Your business can explode when you understand where to find referral partners and how to effectively connect with them. When you connect with others and referrals begin to flow, you will have countless opportunities to grow your business and to grow the businesses of your referral partners. But most people never break through to this level of networking.

Does this sound like you? You’ve joined your chamber of commerce, industry association, and a community service group. You’re attending meetings regularly and you have volunteered your time and talent to each group. And while you have begun meeting people and some leads have come, you know you should be getting better results. What is the problem? You are likely focusing on the wrong thing or the wrong people.

If you’ve been in your industry for any length of time you know the kinds of businesses and people who are good referral sources for you. Accountants refer to tax attorneys, real estate agents refer to insurance agents, and event planners refer to caterers. No doubt there are obvious cross-promotional opportunities in your industry as well.

And of course we all understand that customers and prospects who fail to buy from us are excellent referral sources as well. But what most people fail to recognize are the not-so-obvious referral sources in every group.

If you want to rapidly expand your referral network you should have in place a way to generate, track, and convert referrals and leads for both clients and networking partners. You should have a networking partner pipeline as well as a customer pipeline. And both should be filled and being refilled all the time. Your networking partner pipeline should have prospective close-contact networking partners in various industries.

Close-contact networking partners are those people who you will be referring to and receiving referrals from. It is different from your open contact network. In your open network you may have two or more people that you refer business to in any given category. These people are in your prospective networking partner pipeline. When you choose one to connect with and with whom you’ll refer exclusively, that person becomes a part of your close-contact network.

The easiest way to fill your networking partner pipeline is to take the membership list from your chamber, association, or service group and systematically meet the people who are likely to need to meet the people you know. Focusing on the people who need to know the people you know will make it easy for you to give referrals to them. When you give referrals you get referrals. People who need to know people you know are more likely to know people you need to know as well.

If you are a mortgage broker you probably have a real estate agent in your close-contact network. And you should have a mover, a certified public accountant, a lawyer, a financial planner, and an insurance agent too. But here are a few you may not think of: Hairdresser, haberdasher, handyman, human resources professional, and health care provider. Each of these professionals need to know the people you know and vice-versa.

Spend some time meeting the people who need to know you in your chamber, association, and service club and put them into your close-contact networking pipeline. You’ll see your network grow and your leads and referrals become a part of your sales pipeline and customer base.

12 Strategies for Building a Referral-Based Business

Nearly every commercial real estate professional I know hates cold calling! Well, not everyone, there are a few out there who not only love it but who do it really well. But for the rest of us, there’s a better way.

If you’re ready to do more business in less time, work smarter, not harder, and increase your income, READ ON because referrals are the way to go!

Referrals are the most important and powerful strategy for increasing your income because they shorten the sales process. Referrals connect you with more qualified clients, generate more callbacks, and get you more “yes” responses in less time.

The definition of a referral: “Any name or contact information given to you for the purpose of doing business.”

If you provide excellent service to others, you not only earn the right to ask for referrals, but others will be eager to offer them. The key is to “ASK”. Furthermore – go the extra mile delivering “WOW” client service and people will be lining up to do business with you. Just remember you still will need to qualify the prospect before agreeing to take him/her on, the key is working with only “A” and “B” clients.

The best way to begin building a referral-based commercial real estate business (and never cold call again) is to follow the 12 strategies outlined below:

Step 1: Declare a specialty and become known for that specialty.

Step 2: Be Referable, act and dress professionally, always follow up and do a great job.

Step 3: Develop a one-page strategic referral plan declaring goals and outlining the steps you need to take each week and each month to reach your goals. Refer to this plan daily.

Step 4: Use your database for more then just an electronic database. Store the information you’ll need to remember for future conversations (i.e. hobbies, family, travel). This information can then become conversation starters.

Step 5: Keep current with the latest technology and USE IT! Keep in front of your clients and prospects regularly with email – newsletters, snippets of useful information. This will remind them you’re still around.

Step 6: Develop scripts for talking to others about giving you referrals. Have scripts for talking to colleagues, friends, and family. Having scripts makes it easier to ask when the time comes for the conversation.

Step 7: Develop a Top 20, a list of 20 people in your sphere that are in a position to refer to you. This list could include a colleague with a different specialty; lawyers, bankers, architects, and so on. This is the list of people who will get the most attention when marketing.

Step 8: Eat meals with others two or three days a week. How about making Monday, Wednesday, and Friday “lunch out” days? During these lunches you will form and strengthen relationships, thereby increasing your referability.

Step 9: Develop Strategic Alliances, groups with whom you can associate and attract referrals. Examples are SIOR and ICSC.

Step 10: Network. Set a goal to attend one networking event each month. Join groups like LeTip and BNI. Form your own breakfast clubs or mastermind groups. But be sure to go beyond having an enjoyable conversation and leave with a pocketful of referrals.

Step 11: Give Referrals. It’s really so simple. To get referrals – give referrals. Be mindful of those in your circle whom you can refer to. What goes around comes around!

Step 12: ASK! The easiest and yet the one thing most professionals never do – ASK!

There are dozens of other ways to increase business. Keep in mind – most commercial real estate professionals do nothing but pray for clients to fall in their laps.

If you do just 3 referral-building action steps per week, your productivity should increase by 20% per month, that’s 240% by the end of the year!

Develop a strategic plan that is focused on building a referral-based Commercial Real Estate Business. Include things such as how many referrals do you want in a year, a month, a week? What action steps do you need to make this happen?

Some professionals are comfortable with asking around at a networking function, others write an email or letter, and still others have a one-on-one conversation. The point is: Put the steps you are willing to take and put them into action.

What will be your three action steps this week?

About the Author

Attract Referrals With These Four Pillars

Many professionals are not mentally prepared to receive referrals. As strange as that may sound, it is true. Years ago, I learned the actions that successful professionals perform in order to generate a lot of referrals. I also learned that these professionals had a different understanding of referrals and a different mindset than the professionals who were not receiving as many referrals.

You will generate significantly more referrals if you understand, believe, and practice these Four Pillars of Referrals. Review them from time to time and make sure that you have implemented them in your business.

The first pillar is understanding and believing that referrals are the best way to grow your business. Why? There are four reasons. One is the fact that prospects prefer to meet you through a referral over any other way. If you need a plumber, would you rather pick a random name out of the phone book or would you rather use the one your next door neighbor had a great experience with? All of your prospects fall into that same situation.

Another reason is that referrals lead to a better closing ratio than any other method of client acquisition. The endorsement from the referral giver, implied or actual, boosts your credibility with the prospect and that increases your probability of converting the prospect to a client.

The third reason is that referrals are the most cost-effective method of building a business. This is pretty basic. Marketing costs money. Referrals do not. The final reason referrals are the best way to grow your business is that a referral-based business is more stable than a business based solely on the results of marketing campaigns.

In addition to the fact that referrals are the best way to grow your business, you must understand the second pillar, which is the two requirements that precede every referral. The first requirement is value. You must provide value to the referral giver in order to earn referrals. The comparison I use is the Relationship Bank Account. When you meet someone, an imaginary account is established. Helping them makes deposits. Requesting something makes withdrawals. Before you can ask for something, such as a referral, you must have a positive “balance” in the account. In other words, you must provide value to them before you can ask for referrals.

The second requirement is trust. Before receiving a referral, you must stronger mutual trust with your contacts. This is accomplished by delivering everything you promise and always maintaining your integrity.

The third pillar of earning referrals is to understand the value of leveraging. There are three components of this. First, not every person is a prospect for your business. However, most people know several hundred other people. They know people who could be a good prospect for you. In other words, you do not know who they know. You want to earn the right to know who they know. As mentioned in the prior section, you do that by providing value, even if they are not a good prospect for your business.

Second, everyone can be a potential source of referrals. In other words, everyone should be treated as if they can provide you with referrals and prospects.

Third, you should always work to turn one relationship into many relationships. As mentioned earlier, you must constantly being on the lookout for ways to provide value to a relationship. In addition, you must also being constantly seeking ways to leverage a relationship so that you turn one relationship into many. Continuously ask yourself “How can I benefit this person and earn the right to know who he knows?” You must constantly be looking for opportunities to ask for referrals as well as opportunities to give referrals.

Even if you have mastered the first three pillars you will not receive much benefit from it until you have an understanding of how to put all of this into a system, which is the fourth pillar. You must have a system that accomplishes three things. A good system makes it easy to automatically provide continuous value to contacts, remind them that you welcome referrals, leverage your contacts, and track the sources of the referrals you receive.

Quite often, I work with individuals earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per year who spend no money on marketing. They get all their business from referrals. Every one of them clearly understands, believes, and practices these four pillars. I encourage you to do the same.
About the Author

Top 5 Tips for Getting Business Referrals for Life

According to Ken Blanchard, a raving fan is someone so excited about you and what you do that they want to brag about you. That is how I feel about my veterinarian. Dr. C. has been taking care of my pets for over 20 years and I wouldn’t change for anything. Why? There are many reasons, but there are some things that turned me from a loyal customer into a fan. When I had my Welsh Corgi, Mikie, he became ill with valley fever and at one point was so sick I was afraid to move him. Dr. C. offered to make a house call. This was virtually unheard of, even then. When Mikie grew old and died, he sent me a card with a personal note in it about Mikie. In between times, he delivered great service, but those two events didn’t just make me a regular client, I became a fan. So what else qualified him for me being a fan and can create fans for you and your business?

1. Be someone they can enjoy as a person: My vet has a quiet, calm way about him that assures me that everything is going to be all right even in the times when things didn’t go well for my pets. He is friendly and remembers me and my pets. He also has the admirable qualities of honesty, sense of humor and compassion. So while I know that he is an excellent vet, I enjoy going to his office because I know I’ll be treated with respect and as a friend. If you have problems relating in a positive way to your customers, clean up your act. It costs little to be kind and give others the benefit of the doubt and the rewards will be far beyond the extra money you will earn.

2. Continually Improve: If you increase your level of service in your business or the quality of your product by a small percentage each month, you will be ahead of the crowd. By constantly upgrading everything about your business, you stay fresh, your customers are excited about the changes and you don’t get burned out by boredom. Let your customers know about future changes and upgrades for the product they bought. And if there is a problem with the product, let them find out about it from you first!

3. Stay in Touch: After you have delivered your excellent services to a customer, keep in contact with them. Each quarter ask if they’re having any problems or have ideas for improvements. Send holiday greeting cards that don’t include an advertisement for your business. The realtor that sold us our first house in Tucson, would drop by every December with a special treat she had made or baked herself. We lived in that house for five years and guess who we used as a realtor when we bought another? Relationships need to nurtured. Simple acts such as a phone call to check up on clients are a great way to do this.

4. Go Beyond the Ordinary: When you do more than is expected, you stand out from the crowd.They say it’s the little things that count. One of the main things you can do is be available. So many businesses rely on automated customer relations. When someone calls, have someone there to answer the phone. If you are working alone, return telephone calls and emails as soon as possible. Have a message that tells the caller when you will get back to them. Structure your business so that you exceed the standard for your industry. The example of my vet making a house call was a prime example of going beyond the ordinary. Do the industry equivalent in your business.

5. Educate Your Customers: I like to take time with my coaching clients to let them know about what I do, how I do it and why. The more your clients know about your business, the more they are a partner in the service you deliver. I’m not talking about giving away trade secrets, but letting people be as well informed as possible. My vet does that with me. When I am given a new medication, or he does a procedure on one of my pets, he makes sure I understand what the medication is and why the procedure is necessary. He makes sure I know and understand as much as I want to know.

You can have fans, even raving fans. Customer needs are rarely static. If you want raving fans, you need to consistently deliver better and better service.One of the side benefits is that you become your own best fan: proud of yourself, your work and your business.

About the Author

5 Promotional Gifts to Promote Your Small Business

Small business owners everywhere know how difficult and expensive it can be to get their name around. This article is aimed at those businesses that work within their own community and deal directly with the general public and perhaps some businesses. Here, I would like to look at five of the often overlooked products that really generate business. Promotional gifts spread the word around town that you are there so if you own or manage a small business, this article is for you.

Perhaps you have already experimented with business gifts and are simply looking for ideas. With this in mind, I will now present the promotional gift items I feel no small business should be without.

Promotional Pens: There are pens available in every price bracket. Some cost only pennies where others can be quite expensive. I usually recommend looking for a quantity of good quality plastic pens. Try to stay away from the really cheap pens as they usually do not write very well and people will not use them. By offering printed pens with you logo and contact details to your customers, you are giving them a product they need often and will use. Each time they do, they will see your details. If budget permits, it may also be a good idea to purchase a small quantity of executive metal gift pens to give on occasion to your key customers.

Fridge Magnets: There is no doubt that these small logo printed products generate business. Almost everyone has at least one on the refrigerator. If you are in a position where you deal regularly with the general public, they could even work better than a business card. Print some with your logo and details and give them to your clients instead of a card. They can then put them on their fridge and will see your details each time they are near it. They will never need to go looking for your details again.

Promotional Mugs: Mugs are one of the biggest selling promotional gifts around the world. They can be difficult to send through the post but if you are dealing directly with the people in your community, they can be and excellent marketing tool. Almost everyone takes a coffee or tea break during the day. If they are using your mug, they will be reintroduced to you each time they do.

Logobugs: These very inexpensive fluffy flags are loved by many. In case you are not familiar with them, they are the pom characters that usually have eyes and feet and a flag banner that is printed with your logo and details. They can easily stick almost anywhere by an adhesive area under the feet. These cute characters can and will get your details out inexpensively and in a fun way.

Keyrings: Everyone needs a good keyring. They a attached to their house, business and car keys which means they are taken everywhere. By offering your customers good quality plastic or metal promotional keyrings, you can rest assured that your details will be with them every day wherever they may travel.

Networking, Referrals and Your MLM Business

So what do these topics have to do with each other? Actually a lot more than you and unfortunately not all of it is a good thing.

For years it has been very apparent to me that building a business through networking is the way to go. For anyone that has built a sizeable business, experienced great success and had the pleasure of referrals being key to that process, you fully understand this concept.

Have you ever been in a position where you really had no choice other than to make cold calls?

For many people the thought of having to make cold calls is enough to send them into a serious state of withdrawal. Still others are more than willing to take on choirs or tasks that otherwise would never get completed when faced with the prospect of having to make cold calls.

While I am not one of the above, Thankfully, I can tell you that when compared against other forms of sales and marketing the level of productivity has some serious suck potential. Your closing rate, your retention rates and often times the quality of the new prospect is simply not what you had expected.

Ever had a new customer that wasn’t exactly a good fit for your product or service?

Chances are you ended up spending massive amounts of time trying to satisfy and/or keep that client. Regardless of your success with this particular client I can tell you that you’re probably wishing you had more clients that did not consume all of your time because they were a better fit from the start. Enter the world of networking, building relationships and most importantly referrals to prospects that you actually have a much better chance of success, creating a long term partnership and none of the hassles.

At least this is the way that it is supposed to go. The reason I say this is that as of late I have had a number of conversations with people that understand the potential of networking, are actually out networking, but simply don’t get it.

Hopefully you are asking: What don’t they get?

The challenge I see on a regular basis with these networkers is that they forget totally about the building relationships part of the equation, see everyone they meet as a new prospects/client and want me to buy something from them today.

What about the hundreds of people I know that may be potential prospects for their business?

Taking the time to build those relationships is can lead to an exponential business growth that many people have only experienced in their dreams. While I may be a great prospect for them, if these networkers will take the time to educate me on their ideal client I may know 10 or 20 people that would be a great fit for them. And, how awesome would it be if during the process, I volunteer the fact that I have been looking for exactly what they have to offer.

While many people have discovered the power of the Social media and the internet as a whole when it comes to building their MLM business, there are still large numbers of people making the same mistakes online. How often have you met someone new only to have them trying to sell you on the “Next Best Thing” (NBT)?

More times than not, they know absolutely nothing about me and they are bombarding me with information about why I should be involved in their new opportunity. Often the same rules apply on the internet and through the various Social media sites as they do when networking in person.

For those of you that are fortunate enough to live in Indiana you know that we have countless opportunities for networking and growing our businesses. While the Rainmakers networking events represent one of my favorite groups, I was recently following up with a gentleman that I had met there only to get the response “I am not interested in your business”.

The really funny part about this was that I had not offered anything, wasn’t going to offer anything and frankly he would not be a good fit as a prospect for me. However, I do know of a number of people that could use his services and as a matter of habit was following up with him to schedule sometime to talk. My primary goal being to verify that these guys would be a good fit for him, and how best to refer him.

While I don’t know this for 100% sure, I will guess that he is someone that has a very limited understanding of networking. To complicate matters further, since he sees everyone he meets as a prospect, he automatically assumes that if someone wants to talk with him it is because they see him as a prospect. The sad part is that this guy easily just missed out on several thousands of dollars of revenue.

How important are referrals to your business?

How much more would your business grow this year with 5 strong referral partners? When was the last time you met with someone to get a better understanding of how you could best help them with their business? If you have an MLM business, did you realize that one of the other names commonly used for the industry is Relationship Marketing?

Regardless of which industry you are currently involved in take the time to find the various networking opportunities in your area, develop a few key referral partners and then watch the explosive growth you will experience in your business. Networking on the Internet works the same. Make the time investment required to build those ever so important relationships and watch what happens to your business. Referrals and Networking are the way to go for true success in life and business. Let me know how important referrals are in your industry.

To Your Success!

Starting a Business? Why You Need to Know Customer Management

Getting customers in the door is the first obstacle to building a new business. Historically, entrepreneurs were primarily concerned with the customers in front of them at the moment and seeking out new ones, but they did little to court their established customer base. As evidenced by the frequent shopper cards we now collect everywhere from Subway to the grocery store, big business has finally realized the error of their ways. In small business, managing your customer base is even more important. Consumers who are already familiar with your company and product benefit the business in multiple ways.

Targeted Marketing and Repeat Business

First, they are excellent candidates for targeted marketing. If the business is set up to collect information such as what they usually buy, when they usually shop, and even personal details like their birthday, anniversary, and other hobbies, you can use that information to encourage further sales from current clients. Every visit from a potential customer is an opportunity to gather data that will help you cater your marketing efforts to your customer base. It is estimated that the cost of sales for standing customers is a fraction, perhaps 10%, of the cost of finding new customers. Why not take advantage?

Referrals

Referrals are also a strong opportunity with your current customers. Offer a premium or discount to those who refer your company, and be sure to thank anyone who does. People like to be in the know, and if you offer a good product or service, people will be happy to refer you…as long as they think of it. Sending targeted emails or postcards to your current client list encouraging referrals can be very effective, especially if there is something in it for them.

Gather and Manage Customer Data

The key to successfully managing your customer base is in gathering useful data. Every website should include a way to capture leads, such as an opt-in form where interested individuals can submit at least their email address to join your mailing list. Many brick-and-mortar stores request a street address from each customer as well. You can create a birthday club or frequent shopper promotion to collect relevant data as well. The trick is to ask for data that will actually help the marketing plan. If you won’t be calling anyone on the phone, don’t ask for phone numbers. Email addresses are a given, because sending out newsletters or promotions via email is extremely cost-effective. Mailing addresses are good, too, if you might send coupons or other promotional materials out.

Respect Customer Privacy

Personal information is a bit more tricky — people are sensitive about their privacy. But, if you have a legitimate reason for collecting the data, such as a freebie on a birthday or the like, most people are happy to give it up. Also consider developing a survey or hosting a contest or sweepstakes to collect additional information. Gyms often do this, then offer a three-day pass to everyone who enters…it not only gets potential clients in the door but gets them motivated to join up! Collect data every chance you get — signup sheets at shows, business cards at networking events, website opt-ins, and follow up those leads with interesting newsletters or promotions. Always tell your customers how their data will be used, and whether you will share your mailing list with others.

The world of social networking has opened up even more customer management opportunities. The more of your customer base that is your friend or fan on Facebook or following you on Twitter, the more they are reminded that your business exists. It takes time to keep after your clients, yes, but they are the reason you are in business at all. Managing your customer base is an essential portion of marketing, and can be the difference between struggle and prosperity.

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