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Get More Referrals With This Free E-Course

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Thursday, January 12th, 2012

ReferralTipsDid you resolve to generate more business from referrals this year? If so, you will want to grab this free e-course, 5 Tips For Successful Referral Marketing.

The e-course consists of five lessons, delivered via email, that will show you some proven techniques for generating high quality referrals on a consistent basis.

Here is a quick outline of what you will learn:

  • How to get referrals even if you are just starting out or when you are trying to break into a new market or industry
  • How to increase referrals while providing value to your community
  • The six components of a fully functioning referral marketing system
  • 5 real life examples of successful referral systems
  • One referral tactic that could become your core point of differentiation

The course is completely free. I’m not going to try to sell you anything at the end of the course. I’m not even going to automatically add you to a mailing list (I will invite you to my newsletter, but it will be up to you).

So go grab your 5 Tips For Successful Referral Marketing and start generating more business today.

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Categories : Marketing, Referral Marketing
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Marketing Between the Sale and Delivery

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

easybuttonLast week I participated in a conversation on Facebook about a topic that I that I think a lot of business owners face, so I thought I would share it here.

The gist of the conversation had to do with the fact no matter how clearly we try to spell out the terms and conditions of our services, most people don’t read them before finalizing their purchase. The frustration comes when something happens that surprises the customer causing them to complain, even though it was clearly outlined in the terms and conditions.

While we can’t please everyone 100% of the time, I think marketing can help reduce this frustration and improve the overall buying experience with something I’ll call, for lack of a better term, marketing between the sale and delivery.

When we think of marketing as a synonym for selling, then marketing between the sale and delivery may seem inappropriate for addressing this situation – particularly in a B2B setting.

If we think of marketing as education, communication, and expectation setting, then I believe marketing has a lot to offer in addressing the issue outlined above. We worked hard to create expectations via marketing before the sale; we need to continue setting and managing expectations after the sale.

“But I already outlined exactly what will happen and what they should expect.” you say. I’m sure you have, but just like other forms of marketing, communication, and education, you message is more effective when delivered more than once and using different media.

It is important to remember that when someone buys your product or service, they have a lot of other things going on in their life. I’m sure you are a busy person – let me ask you a question. Would you rather have another project put on your plate or have 2 items added to your action list for today? Most people that I know would opt for the 2 action items; they don’t have time for another “project”, even if they don’t know that that entails.

Are you giving your new customer a project? If you give me a 3 page document of terms and conditions, you’ve given me a project. I need to ready it, figure out what I need to do, figure out what order to do them in, schedule them, and complete them.

Regular readers here know that I like to talk about the difference between being efficient and effective. Documenting a list or terms and conditions and including them in an information packet that is given to the customer at the time of the sale is an example of being efficient. Taking the time, before, during, and after the sale to make sure the customer knows exactly what to expect and what is expected of them is being effective. Being effective will get you more repeat businesses and more referrals.

You can still be efficient. Many of the marketing technologies you used to make the sale (i.e. email marketing, mobile marketing, direct mail, etc.) can also be used after the sale. Use these tools to deliver information in small, bite-sized chunks of information that people can quickly consume and act upon. Rather than giving me a project, give me a task, complete with a deadline and the resources I need to complete the task. Wow, you made it super easy for me to get that done, thank you.

In Duct Tape Marketing, we are fond of saying that if you want to get business from referrals you need a referable business. Use the time between the sale and delivery to separate yourself from your competitors and become a business that people love to refer.

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5 Ways to Use Your CRM System to Get More Referrals

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (1)
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

ShakingHandsMost professional service firms rely heavily on referrals to grow their business. Having a systematic process for requesting, giving, and following up on referrals is essential if you want to consistently receive quality referrals. When designed and used properly, your sales and marketing database can be your secret weapon for giving and receiving referrals. Here are five ways you can use your database to get more referrals:

  1. Achieve top of mind status – Have you ever had a coffee or lunch meeting with someone who you thought would be a good referral partner but the relationship never developed? When developing new referral relationships, it generally takes more contacts or “touches” early in the relationship to help you establish top of mind status. Use your database to record things you learned about your contact in your meeting (their needs, likes, contact preferences, etc.) and set up a reminder system to contact them 3 or 4 times in the first 30 days. Rather than calling to “check in”, use the information you recorded to provide them with helpful resources and connections.
  2. Stay top of mind – by having your system remind you to touch base with your contacts on a regular basis. The more relevant your stay in touch messages are, the more effective they will be, so use the information you have captured about their likes, interests, and preferences to deliver relevant and effective messages.
  3. Quickly identify people by expertise and relationship – One of the keys to building your business through referrals is to give referrals to others. Having a database that allows you to quickly identify and connect people in your network who will benefit from meeting one another will help you become the “go to” person people turn to when they are looking for help.
  4. Provide feedback on referrals you have received – if you want to improve the quality of the referrals you receive, it’s important to provide feedback to your referral sources. Set up your database to remind you to always provide feedback to your referral sources. Let them know why someone was a good referral and how you were able to help them. If they referred someone who was not a good fit, take responsibility for that by explaining that you haven’t done a good job of educating them about how to spot your ideal customer. Thank them for the referral and explain who it is you are best suited to help.
  5. Know and nurture your best referral sources – do you know where your most profitable customers come from? Many of us can name our top referral source, but may struggle to name the 4th or 5th best source. Focusing attention on those who already refer us is often more productive than looking for new sources.

photo credit: Nicola Corboy on Flickr

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6 Ways to Strengthen Professional Relationships with CRM

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Friday, March 11th, 2011

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are not just for big companies with large sales forces or customer service departments. A CRM system can be a great tool for helping retain your existing customers as well as acquiring new ones. Here are 6 ways professional service firms can use a CRM system to improve strengthen their professional relationships:

  1. Track Your Ideal Customer Profile – there is often a gap between belief and reality when it comes to the profile characteristics of our ideal customers. Using a CRM system to capture demographic, psychographic, and behavioral (what they refer, do they refer, etc.) can help gain a better understanding of our ideal customers and prospects. Reviewing this data can alert us to changes in our business that need to be addressed.
  2. Provide a personal touch – Sometimes the little things can make all the difference. Use your CRM system to “remember” things like food and beverage preferences, important dates, preferred method of communication (phone, email, etc.), favorite activities and causes, etc.
  3. Automate a process – Marketing is all about setting expectations and it is important to make sure those expectations are met when a prospect or customer interacts with your business. One way to make expectations are met is to have processes that are consistently followed by everyone in your company. Most CRM systems allow you create action item sequences that can be assigned to the relevant person at the appropriate time. Take advantage of this feature to create a consistent, high quality experience for everyone who interacts with your business.
  4. Be a better referral source – Having a searchable database that allows to quickly identify members of your network by expertise and other traits will help you be a more valuable resource to your customers and your referral network.
  5. Stay in touch with referral partners – Speaking of referrals, one of the keys to nurturing a strong referral partner network is to keep in touch with them on a regular basis. Combine the items listed above to stay in touch and build a vibrant referral network.
  6. Make your email campaigns more relevant – Email marketing is alive and well.  These days, however, sending out a monthly, generic blast may not be very effective. Use the information you capture in your CRM system to create segments that allow you to send more targeted and relevant messages.
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International Networking Week 2011

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

Quick Disclosure – BNI and Duct Tape Marketing (I’m a DTM Consultant) are Strategic Alliance Partners

We are halfway through the 2011 International Networking Week, so I thought I would share this video from Dr. Ivan Misner. I think is comments about the Networking Disconnect are right on the money and will help you create a proper mindset for networking – whether that networking is in person or online.

I’ve been lucky to meet a lot of great people in my business, so if you are looking for a particular resource or connection to help grow your business, drop me a note and I will be happy to refer you to someone in my network if I think they can help you out.

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Your Plan for Turning Away Business

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

As a provider of professional services, you spend time trying to generate referrals from customers and strategic partners. You may even have a referral plan. But do you have a plan in place for turning away business?

Sounds crazy, I know, But we are all guilty of taking on customers who probably weren’t a good fit for our business. Business we probably should have turned away. More often than not, we do a disservice to both ourselves and the customer when we take on this kind of work. In order to build the kind of practice you want AND help those prospects get their problems solved we need to be able to 1) identify who does not meet our ideal customer profile and 2) have a plan to refer them to someone that is better suited to helping them.

You probably have an idea of what your ideal client looks like. You have shared it with your referral partners and at your networking meetings. But how often have you used it to screen out prospects once they contact you? This is a difficult to do as the idea of turning away business goes against our instincts. However, if we want to be known as the “go to” resource in a particular area, we need to take care of our customer list.

One way to resist the temptation of taking on customers you shouldn’t is to have a plan in place to refer your non-ideal prospects to other providers who can serve them. If you do a good job of selecting and staying in touch with your referral partners, this should turn into a “win-win” for everyone involved. You will have helped the prospect solve their problem and you will have taken another step to demonstrating that you are a trusted advisor.

So what do you think? Will you create a plan for turning away business?

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Categories : Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Referral Marketing
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The Habit of Talking about Referrals

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (1)
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Continuing on the theme of things you can do to finish the year strong and start working on your marketing plan for 2011, today I want to talk about referrals. Similar to building the habit of using a marketing calendar, I believe developing good habits around asking for and following up with referrals is one of the areas where you can start to quickly see results from your efforts.

I’ve written a lot about referral marketing on this blog, but today I want to focus on building the habit of talking about referrals. I think one of the reasons that many professional service providers don’t get referrals as consistently as they should is they wait for the “perfect time” to ask for referrals. It’s hard to know when the perfect time is, so we often don’t ask. Looking back, I’m sure we can all spot times when we should have asked for a referral but didn’t. I believe that is we regularly talk about referrals, we can reduce the number of opportunities that we miss.

I find it helpful to think about creating a habit of talking about referrals rather than asking for referrals. For some it may seem like a semantic difference, but I find it there is less mental resistance to discussing topics related to referrals rather just asking all of the time. For many professional service providers, hesitation around asking for something is probably the biggest obstacle to getting referrals.

When I think of working on the habit of talking about referrals, I think about these three broad areas:

  1. Setting the expectation for referrals
  2. Asking who I can refer to them (give to get)
  3. Asking for specific referrals

Asking vs. Setting the Expectation for Referrals

I hear lots of arguments for and against asking for referrals at the beginning of a relationship. In my opinion, accountants, lawyers, and other professionals have more success (and feel more comfortable) setting the expectation of referrals in the first meeting, rather than asking for referrals at that time.

Asking for referrals early in the relationship puts you both on the spot. This can make both parties uncomfortable and hesitant. If you do ask for a referral and it makes your customer uncomfortable, how likely are you to ask again in the next meeting?

On the other hand, if you set the expectations properly, both parties understand their roles and willingly carry out the responsibilities they agreed to.

Asking sounds something like this – “Bob, do you know anyone else who could use my service?” or the pushier “Bob, write down 5 names of people you think may be able to use my service.”

Setting the expectation sounds something like this – “Bob, as you may know, the primary way that I market my business is through referrals. I am confident that you are going to be thrilled with the services we have agreed to today. As part of our agreement, I am going to ask that in addition to paying the fee we agreed upon today, that you also provide, assuming you are thrilled with the work we do for you, that you will also provide three qualified referrals within 90 days of of beginning to work together. Don’t worry, I’ll show you how to spot a qualified referral and how to refer them to us. Is that something that you feel like you will be able to do?”

Asking First

If you are uncomfortable asking for referrals you can build the habit of talking about them by always asking who in your network people would like to meet. Essentially, you are asking “how can I help your business?”. You will find that most people appreciate the help and will try to return the favor by referring others to you.

Be Specific

When someone does ask how they can help you, be prepared! The more specific you can be, the easier it is for the other person to know if and how they can help you. Rather than asking “do you know anyone who needs accounting services?”, ask for a specific introduction – “do you know Bob Jones?”, “Do you know anyone at Gigantic Corp?”, “Do you know anyone on this list?” People are willing to help, but they are also busy running their business, so make it as easy as possible for them to help you.

What other things do you do to regularly talk about referrals?

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Categories : Marketing Plan, Referral Marketing
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Giving Referrals

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (3)
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Continuing on the theme of marketing for the newly promoted, today I want to talk about giving referrals.

When we talk about referral marketing (newly promoted or not) most of the focus tends to be how to get referrals. I think we should put more focus on giving them. And not just reciting platitudes like ”givers get”, “give first”,etc., – but actually setting and tracking goals related to how many referrals you will give each month. 

When you focus on giving referrals it helps develop a powerful mindset that will help you in several aspects of your career. First, you learn to listen to the needs of customers and colleagues. I talked a little bit about this in the post about cross-selling. Listening and identifying the real needs of your customers is an important business building skill.

Many of us are reluctant to ask for referrals. We spend our days having the answers and giving advice - asking for help can feel uncomfortable. Sometimes, asking or starting a conversation about referrals can be our biggest obstacle to getting them. By focusing on helping by giving referrals, we feel more comfortable starting those conversations. When you help people, they will want to reciprocate. When they ask how they can help you in return, make sure you have an answer. People want to feel good about being able to help you too, so do your best to make it easy for them to do so.

This approach also works well in social media. There is always a lot of discussion around how to use social media for business. One of the best ways for professional service providers to get started in social media is to listen to the conversations that are going on and then connect people with the resources or other people they need to meet to help solve their problems. Again, you don’t have to solve their problems, but be the person that helped them get their problem solved.

Networking is another cousing of referrals and you can become a better networker using this same approach. The next time you go to a networking event “forget” you business cards in the car and play this game. Anytime you take someone else’s business card you must come up with a reason to follow up with this person the next day. You can send them an article, someone’s contact info, the link to a website of another networking event, anything, so long as they expressed in interest in it to you during your conversation. And of course, give them your contact info since your “forgot” your cards.

Start your new habit by setting small goals for yourself related to giving referrals. Can you give one referral this week?

And if you’re smart, you’ll form this habit well before your are in a position where you are expected to bring in business.

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Referral Engine Power Groups – bring a friend and save big bucks

By Bill · Comments (0)
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Today I scheduled two new sessions of The Referral Engine Power Groups to begin at the end of July and early August. Thanks to some feedback from you, I will be offering an evening session this time around for those who have trouble getting away during the day.

I am also offering a special discount to reader's of this blog that will allow you to Bring-A-Friend and you both get in for half price. This blog is the only place I will be promoting this 2 for 1 deal for these upcoming sessions. This is my way of thanking you for reading my blog and also a way for me to put my money where my mouth is related to referrals.

Even though social media gets the lion's share of the press, referral marketing is still one of the strongest tactics you can use to grow your practice.  Join us to create a step-by-step, documented referral marketing system based on your very specific target market. 

You can learn more about program and save your seat here – http://ReferralEngine.eventbrite.com

If you would like to take advantage of the Bring-A-Friend program, drop me a line or give me a call at 913.962.9261 and I will send you a special code for your discount.

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Referral Partner Groups or Networking Events – Which do you prefer?

By Bill · Comments (2)
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that I was spending more time listening to the conversations around me. Another theme that seems to be repeating itself is the idea of shifting from attending general networking events to referral groups.

In these conversations, networking events are comprised of chamber of commerce and association events, various luncheon get-togethers, and after hours events. In the Kansas City area, we seem to have an embarassment of wealth when it comes to these type of networking opportunities. It would be very easy to consume a 40 hour work week just attending the various networking opportunities in our city.

Referral meetings tend to be much smaller and are typically comprised of business owners who serve similar target markets but don't compete with one another. 

Some other ways referral groups tend to differ from networking meetings include:

  1. Expectations – there is more of an expectation that people who attend referral groups are looking for introductions. This expectations goes both ways, if you want me to provide you with an introduction, you must be clear about who (or what company) you would like to meet.
  2. Introductions vs. Referrals – even though I refer to them as referral groups, I find that people in these groups are looking for introductions. They realize they may not be able to connect directly to the ultimate decision maker in one step. Rather, they are looking for a path to lead them to the decision maker.
  3. Speaking of decision makers, many of these groups seem to form out of a shared frustration over the inability to connect with decision makers at the typical networking event. If you are not having any luck meeting the decision makers of your target customers at these events, you may want to explore forming your own referral group.
  4. Because expectations are more clearly defined, these groups often feel more productive. They feel more like a business meeting rather than a social. This feeling of being productive often makes the experience more valuable to the participants, so attendance and participation tends to be stronger.

Those are some of the things I have been noticing. How about you? Do you have a preference between networking and referral partner groups?

Interested in starting a referral partner group but not sure how? Drop me a line or leave a comment, I'll be happy to help.

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Categories : Referral Marketing, Small Business Marketing
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