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The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

How to Build a Referral Machine in Five Steps

How to Build a Referral Machine in Five Steps

Referrals are the lifeblood of sales success. They are the ultimate "social proof" because people trust friends and influencers more than any advertisement delivered by the brand.

A referral is someone who has a personal reason to check out your brand and who approaches your products or services with a positive-leaning curiosity. They may even be a pre-qualified lead if the referral itself was based on personal knowledge.

Therefore, inspiring and rewarding referrals is a process that every brand should master. In this post, we'll break down a five-step plan to consistently generate a high volume of quality referrals. Here's how to create a smooth-running referral machine.

Topics: referrals

How to Ask for Referrals (with Examples)

Ask for Referrals

Everyone agrees that referrals are an essential part of growing a business. Furthermore, it's the most cost-effective way to build customer relationships and win new customers. Despite the sundry benefits of a referral program, how to ask for referrals has never been easy.

Acquiring a referred customer will cost you almost nothing, and they have a high degree of loyalty and retention. In fact, a referred client has a twice lifetime value compared to a non-referred customer.

Let's face it: asking is the best way to get customer referrals. But breaking the ice and asking directly for referrals can feel awkward, right? It might sound like you are desperately trying to ask for a favor.

Topics: referrals

Get Out Of Your Own Way: Asking For Referrals

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When was the last time you asked for a referral? Go ahead and fill in the date here ______________.  If the answer is yesterday, congratulations. If you can’t remember any time recently, you should stop and figure out why you are not doing this.

Think about it. When you are looking to hire a professional what do you do? Of course, you ask people you know and trust who they would recommend, right? Well, a referral is an implied recommendation. Clients who give you the name of someone to contact feel comfortable about the expertise you bring to the table and its potential to help the business or person they are referring. So, again, how often do you ask satisfied customers for a referral? I bet you are thinking, “Not often enough.”

Topics: referrals sales strategy Sales

The New Word of Mouth

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Personal recommendations are a powerful thing. Good or bad, they have the power to persuade us in one direction or another. Think about it—when most of us have little to no knowledge about a particular company or product, we typically ask those whose opinions we trust: family, friends or coworkers. As we all become more and more connected, most of us have also begun to rely on digital reviews.

Topics: referrals Digital reputation management

4 Simple Ways to Capture Client Testimonials

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We all know how powerful testimonials and success stories are as a tool to open doors with prospects who don’t know you yet. But, capturing such information has traditionally been time consuming and difficult. How many times has a client promised to write a testimonial letter for you and then never did it? It's usually not because your client is insincere; more likely they just got too busy with other things that were a higher priority. Besides, who writes letters today anyway?

Topics: customer satisfaction referrals Sales

Referrals—Just Try Them!

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The other day I was talking with a sales manager who was lamenting that his people were having a very tough time getting appointments with quality prospects. We talked about all the ways we recommend salespeople warm up otherwise cold calls, but we ended up focusing on perhaps the most powerful way to get a warm reception — a referral from a current, satisfied client. The problem is, most salespeople simply do not ask for referrals because they are not accustomed to doing it. So we decided we would instruct everyone to ask five clients for a referral in the next week. Simple, yet new! You know what is going to happen here.  

Topics: referrals Sales

3 Things Every Successful Seller Should Have

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Three of the best things you can have as a salesperson are also the three things that seem the most difficult to get ahold of. Referrals, testimonials and case studies have all helped a salesperson at one time or another either get a great first appointment, or to help set appropriate expectations. But, I still get asked time and time again how one can go about getting more referrals, testimonials or case studies. The challenge is, you, as the salesperson, are the only one who can make any of this happen!

Topics: referrals case studies sales strategy Sales

Sometimes you just need a little help opening doors

opening doorsOur grandson wanted desperately to go outside and play at the splash table. Of course, at one year old, he’s not allowed to do that without supervision. 

Topics: Social Media referrals Sales