3 Tips To Get Tons More Referrals for Your Small Business

I want to share with you 3 great ways to double - even triple the amount of referrals you get from your customers this month.

The reason I know it works is that everyone who uses them get not only regular referrals - but second generation referrals (one customer who refers another, who refers another...). Sometimes you don't need the most creative lead tactics to generate referrals! The basic stuff will work well also!

1. Just ask...

There is a statistic that says that 20% of your customers will always refer - 20% will never refer, and the remaining 60% will refer - if someone were to ask them.

This means that if you ask your customers for referrals - 80% of them will give you referrals!

What could you do with 80% more referrals?

I know that asking is out of our comfort zone, but if we do not ask we are missing out on a lot more paying customers - and a whole lot of profit for our business.

Tip 1: Ask your customers every month for referrals - and follow up on the referrals that they give you.

You can say, "Mr. Customer, could you think of one or two people who you think can really benefit from the services/products that I provide?"

Or if you send out a greeting card or email - at the bottom you can say, "Would you do me a favor and share this with someone you think will greatly benefit from using this information, right now?"

2. Plant referral seeds...

Sometimes our customers can be so busy - it may not have crossed their mind that we would like referrals. Why not just share it in passing, and plant the seed in their mind?

You can say something like, "If you come across anyone who can benefit from our services/products, would you let me know? Thanks."

Now that the seed is planted - they will be more likely to think about someone who could use your product or service. The power of suggestion is very effective.

Tip 2 - Plant referral seeds by putting it in your customer's mind that you in the market for referrals.

3. Be referrable...

Though we all know this, because it is the greatest driver of referrals - I want to give you a few ideas how to be even greater at it.

Especially in today's economy, we need to provide such outstanding customer satisfaction - that our customers can't help but talk about us.

In other words, its not enough to meet our customers expectations - we need to exceed them every time. It's not enough to meet our customers needs, we need to find out their desires and meet those too.

And my favorite...its not enough to take care of our customers when they ask, but we need to anticipate their needs even before they ask! A principle made famous by the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Tip 3: Make it a goal to exceed your customers expectation - and deliver world-class customer satisfaction...every time.

There is a lot of opportunity within our businesses to obtain double, triple even quadruple the amount of referrals we are getting... And if you do, imagine the money you will make.

But in order to do so, you need to influence your customers to do what they love doing most - helping their friends and neighbors by referring them to great people like you.