Referrals - How and When to Get Them
by: MichaelWalsh |
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Business referrals are one of the tried and true (but sometimes frustrating) ways to grow your small business. A few years ago I learned a fact about how the brain works that when I applied it, exploded my referral business. Below, I'm going to quickly outline it for you so you can start using it today.
The normal advice given is to prove your worth, make sure the customer is happy and then ask for a referral. While it's sounds good, this is a really just a great way to eventually wonder why you get so few referrals. You understand if you've ever tried it.
If you wait until you have proven your worth, most of the time you've completed your work. Your client is pleased but then they are immediately on to the next thing. You're gone from their mind. It's not personal-it's the natural way their brain works.
Your brain is programmed to pay attention to what's immediately of consequence. What just happened is already starting to fade. When you are in the middle of doing a task you can hold all the details in mind to a very exacting degree. A couple days after you have finished, many of those details have faded, because you are on to the next important things.
For example, a mother sleeping in a 14th floor apartment above a noisy street can sleep, oblivious to the noise below. Yet when her baby stirs two rooms over, she's up like a flash and at her child's side. The reticular activated system is the brain's system to selectively and automatically focus what you pay attention to.
Have you ever noticed how, once you like a certain car, you start to see them everywhere? Did they just suddenly appear or were they there all along? Your RAS responds to your interest by making the cars noticeable. They were there all along, before you liked them but they were not important so the RAS ignored them.
How to Use a Customer's RAS to Refer Business
You prime the pump by talking about referrals right away.
Here's how to do it:
"Mr. Smith, if we do business, there will be a time when you will be thrilled with what we provide. We won't take on a new client unless we know we can provide what they need. A single client fee is not worth the potential loss in reputation from taking an assignment where we are not confident of success.
"Mr. Customer, I'm confident that if we start together, eventually you will be pleased with the results you get. I don't take on new business if I can't deliver a great result and provide what they need.
My business uses referrals to spread the word. And to make sure that happens I keep working until you are happy.
Of course, if you refer me that's a positive thing and it will only happen if you are thrilled with my services.
Once that takes place, I'm betting that you will want to tell you friends and associates about my service. Which is great! I'm going to make sure that you are so excited and pleased with your results that you can't wait to tell other people about me.
If you refer us to a colleague, it will be because of a benefit you see for that colleague by working with us.
I will commit to acting professionally and with courtesy in all dealings with you... and I will offer that same level of service to your friends.
I will ask to see how I am doing along the way, to make sure that you are more than happy. Any people you refer will also get the same level of service. OK?
By planting seeds in this manner (or in your own style), you will increase your effectiveness in gaining referrals. Your customer's RAS will automatically and most importantly, without their having to remember, respond by bringing to their attention the colleagues that will benefit from working with you.
You will end up getting and keeping more customers at a profit.
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About the Author
Hoping to discover secrets to easily make your or more doubling, even tripling or more? Check out Michael Walsh's free Business Growth Report For even more great free information go to Business Growth blog Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory
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