Getting Referral Business - A Proven System
Referrals are an amazing and effective way to grow your business and add to your income. The trouble is that most of the tips and articles give you bad advice on how to get referrals. Here, I’m revealing to you my tested way of when and how to secure more referral business.
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.
The problem with waiting until you have proven yourself with a customer lies in the human brain. Through evolution, the brain adapted to pay attention to what’s immediate, and to ignore things that are finished.
This results in examples like waitresses, who while serving you can remember lots of detail about who was sitting where and everything you just ordered. Studies have shown that the moment she delivers the check, she struggles to remember anything about serving you. She’s on to the next table.
There is an area in your brain labeled the reticular activated system (RAS). It’s been called the attention center of the brain. One of it’s numerous jobs is to selectively direct attention to things that are significant to you right now.
You can fall asleep watching TV and not pay attention to those sounds but immediately snap awake when your dog starts barking or someone opens the door. Or if you want to find someone in a crowd and they call your cell phone to let you know they have a red hat on, suddenly all the red hats appear. The RAS developed to instinctively choose what you notice.
Some people advocate that the time to bring up referrals is after a product or service has been delivered and the customer is happy with the outcome. However, if you do it this way, your customers RAS will not automatically work with you. Your customer has gotten their result and their mind is on to the next thing - you are automatically forgotten.
You prime the pump by talking about referrals right away.
Example of a Referral Request
The first meeting is the prime time to let customers that referrals are how you do business. Here’s a way to ask for a referral on the first meeting.
One of the big reasons I do that is because I get more of my business by referral.
So, if we do business together, there will be a time when you are thrilled with who we are and what we do. We actively set it up that way.
When this happens you will probably want to talk about us to your friends, colleagues and associates. This is a good thing. As I mentioned, our business grows by word of mouth, so it is important to us that you are happy enough with our services to pay us for our work. We also want you to be so thrilled that you become one of our biggest allies and fans.
So It’s really important to my business to do a good job. I’m relying on impressing you enough that you are happy to be an ally and do some promotion of my business. I don’t give rewards or trips for business referrals. I make sure that my prices have no hidden charges and that they offer a great value.
Part of the value that I provide is that I offer very good pricing on my services. So I don’t offer cash or prizes in return for referrals, just a firm commtment that I’ll provide you with the best service at a great price.
I make sure that you get a ton of value so that you want to send friends and associates to get the same results.
I only have one request: If we work together, may I periodically check with you to see if you are thrilled yet?”
When you prime the pump like this, your customer’s RAS gets a chance to start looking for ideal candidates for your service, while you are important to your customer. Doing it this way, your referrals will be much more effective.
Give it a try!
Tags: Entrepreneurs