Tried Techniques For Getting More Sales Referrals Easily

No matter what industry you belong to, referrals are the key to dominating your competition.
Why?
This is because there is simply no better approach for finding qualified prospects to fill your sales pipeline in your easy to use CRM software.

According to Nielsen Holdings Inc., 92% of consumers in the US market trusts referrals from the people they know.
Moreover, in a report published by MarketShare, it has been stated that word-of-mouth can improve the effectiveness in marketing by as much as 54%, and by using referrals as a part of regular marketing strategy businesses can see their conversion rates growing up by 70%, along with 69% faster deal close time.

Therefore as the numbers show, consumers trust referrals. Since hearing positive things has a significant impact on the decision making of the consumers about an offering .

Hence, here are few proven and time tested strategies to step up your referral game and drive business growth in organizations of all kind and size.

Commit to Asking For One Referral Every Week

According to statistics published by Nielsen Holdings Inc., it showed that more than 91% of customers want to provide sales referrals, but unfortunately even less than 11% of sales reps ask for it.

Therefore, if you are already prospecting as a sales rep asking for just one referral every week should not be an overwhelming task.

Create a follow-up sales strategy to bring in referrals by creating reminders in your easy to use CRM software .

Try to snag one new customer every week, although which contacts you must reach out to all depends on timing.

Time Your Ask Right and Create A Follow Up Schedule

Just like sales, referrals are required to be timed and primed correctly. It has been observed that salespersons who actively seek out referrals bring in 4 to 5 times more business than those who do not explore this market.

Here is how a typical referral asking timeline should go:

• Make the first contact with your customer when your customer is most happy with your offering, which can be right after the sale or even after a new product or service promotion of your brand.
• Send a ‘thank you’ message to your customers and ask for your first referral from your customers no more than three days after you find your customer satisfied with the means you resolved their problems.
• Check in one week later to see how everything is going with your product or service, and again ask for your referral if have not received one or thank them for the one they did send over.

Keep communicating with your customers using an easy to use CRM software and reach out personally at least once every other month to stay on top of their mind.

Get Specific About What You Want

Referrals come in several different forms. However, all referrals must contain just one vital information: To personally recommend and vouch for your ability to solve a problem as promised to the customer.

Here are types of referrals that you can ask for:

• Reference or introduction to one in your customer’s network who may require your offerings
• Testimonial or online review to show people in your customer’s network that you can be trusted to deliver what you say
• Social media post for sharing info about your work with a wider audience in social media networking websites

For any types of referrals give your customers all the details that you need in their referrals so that it becomes easy for them to fill in the blanks instead of getting too overwhelmed by the task.

Take Advantage Of Email Templates

Do not waste your precious selling time on sending these repetitive ‘requests for referral’ emails. Instead, create templates for each stage of your referral follow up program in your easy to use CRM software just like you would have done with your normal sales cadence after selecting the contacts from your CRM database.

Set up an automatic drip email campaign using SFA (Sales Force Automation) in your easy to use CRM to trigger a series of messages for the customers you are seeking your referrals from.

You can also always try asking a few questions in your referral follow up program’s emails as asking one to three questions have more than 50% greater chances of being replied to than those without.

Here is a list of few questions that you may want to close your emails with:

• Are you happy that you choose our products/services?
• Do you have any questions or suggestions regarding our products/services?
• Who else do you know may benefit from our products/services or our solutions?
• Which among your networking connections could be in a position to use our assistance?

Of course, it must be remembered that none of this is achievable without a robust and easy to use CRM in place, which can perform this works for you seamlessly.

Show Your Appreciation

Finally, although customers refer more out of wanting to help both you and their contacts, nevertheless do not forget to offer a small token of appreciation for their efforts (especially when their referral turns into a sale).

You can also create a referral incentive program for your customers that may offer them a chance to enter a contest for a discounted subscription/fee for your services, or a free product or even larger gift cards like a ticket for a vacation or an event.

Wrap Up

Creating referral programs using your easy to use CRM software for customers in your CRM database is a secret to growing your brand awareness without spending much resources or money to do so.

Remember, you can never lose a sale for asking for a referral, but you can surely lose revenue and business and leave money on the table if you do not ask for one.