No matter how well you perform as the main salesperson for
your business, there will always be certain key salespeople
available who can communicate the benefits of your products
or services better than anyone.
Are you recognizing and rewarding these important people?
Are you encouraging them to reach out to as many prospects
as possible?
Are these key salespeople loyal to you and your business?
Do you even know who these critical salespeople are?
You should. They are your customers.
Customers are the most overlooked and under appreciated
marketing assets a business has. And just like regular sales
employees, your customers need to be motivated to sell on
your behalf.
Aside from answering a specific question from a friend or
family member, people rarely start up a conversation about a
positive experience they had with a business. It just
doesn't often
happen. Customers will tell an average of nine people about
a bad experience with a business and no one about a good
experience.
If you sit for an hour in the waiting room at the doctor's
office you will tell people about it. If the waitress brings
you a roast beef sandwich and you're a vegetarian you will
be sure to mention it when you go home. But when the doctor
sees you right away and the waitress brings you your salad
it doesn't cross your mind to say a word about the
experiences to anyone.
So if good service and reliable products don't motivate your
customers to spread the good word about your business, what
does? Have you tried asking your customers to sell on your
behalf?
It's like asking someone to dance. Take a deep breath, work
up the nerve and just ask your customers to mention your
business to their friends and family. Ask your customers to
share with you their friends and family members who could
benefit from your services. If your customers are pleased
with their experience then they may be willing to share some
names and numbers with you.
There are more organized ways to request the assistance of
your customers as well. Implement a formal referral program.
Every time someone comes in and mentions that a current
customer referred them, reward that current customer. Keep
track of referrals in your customer database and enable
customers to accumulate significant discounts. Provide the
business-generating customers with free services as a
sincere thank you. Recognize them with a hand written thank
you note.
Heck, reward them with cash.
Present each customer with an offer to meet with, give
guidance to, or advise anyone important to them who might
have a need for your services or products. Mention that
there is no expectation of purchase, but a desire to offer
the value that your customer appreciates to his or her
friends, family, and co-workers.
A loyal customer who brings in new customers is incredibly
valuable to your business. You are spending a specific
amount of marketing money to bring in one customer, except
now with
referrals you are acquiring more than one customer. With a
successful referral program you are slashing your marketing
costs per customer.
Implementing a successful referral program is the highest
leverage marketing tactic that you can carry out.
Shawn McGee Marketing provides consulting, advisory, and
marketing audit services to small business owners
nationwide. Realizing that engaged small business owners
often operate with
limited amounts of time and financial resources, Shawn
developed the Leverage Marketing Small Business Toolkit.
This 3 book toolkit, which includes a comprehensive
workbook, is a way for industrious small business owners to
easily, thoroughly, and cost-effectively learn how to
generate more income.
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