How to Start a Successful Client Referral Program
Conventional marketing teaches you to spending money, get people to raise their hands, and if you get enough response, it is a wise investment. It is the proverbial 80/20 rule: Spend 80 percent of your dollars on outbound marketing and advertising activity; spend the rest on current clients. What if there was a way to work smarter? To spend 80 percent of your marketing dollars on your current clients. Can you imagine the return? A client referral program allows you to do exactly this. And here is how to set one up. 1. Concentrate on ensuring your existing clients understand all your services. People talk most about your work when they best understand it. But unfortunately, the majority of our clients have really only experienced a small portion of our true skills. For example, if you are a Public Relations professional, your clients may have experienced you writing press r webdesign eleases, distributing the release to the media, preparing a written result of your activities, and hearing you discuss a certain promotional angle. But that same client has likely never experienced what you do in your PR follow-up (fax, email, telephone, leave messages, re-fax, re-email, chase down a reporter, pitch, etc.) In other words, the inner workings only privy to your own technical capabilities, such as selling a reporter on your client’s story idea, are skills you maintain and focus on. But a client never experiences this. So what happens? They don’t understand everything involved with your services and can’t fully appreciate all of your expertise. And as a result, referrals don’t come as fast as you like. Remember, referrals come faster when others recognize the extent that you help improve their lives and these same people can explain what you do to others. 2.