Last week I threw down the gauntlet and challenged you to write down five reasons why you like to work with referrals. At the end I threw out a personal challenge for me to come up with 20 reasons why I like working with referrals. I had no idea exactly how many I actually had, but figured I could come up with 20 – and I did!

Some of the reasons I like working with referrals are similar to others, but there is a unique component to each. So, in no particular order, and without further adieu, here is my personal Fav 20!

1.  Easy to Obtain – Provide your customers with greater value than your competition, along with a great product and excellent service, and you’ve positioned yourself to generate referrals.

2.  Confirmation – Receiving a referral means that you are doing a good job. It is the highest compliment a customer or someone that knows how you do business can give you.

3.  Warm Lead – A referral is the exact opposite from a cold call where people have no idea who you are or what you do. Referrals know exactly who you are and what you provide!

4.  Low Cost – Unlike other forms of lead generation, receiving a referral does not cost you a dime. Referrals are a byproduct of your superior service and value combined with a strategic and proactive mindset to generate them.

5.  Transferred Credibility – When a referral comes through your door or calls you, they have no idea who you are. However, they do know and respect the person that referred them to you. The referring party has a high level of trust and respect for you and a certain level of that trust and respect is transferred to the referral through your customer’s recommendation.

6.  Pre-Sold Customers – When your referral first meets with you, not only do they have that transferred credibility, but your customer has already sold them on you as well. They have shared their successful experience with you and talked you up like no advertisement ever could!

7.  Immediate Need – When a referral walks through your door, they aren’t there to browse around; they are there with a purpose – to make a purchase.

8.  Increased Conversions – Studies have shown that, on average, 90% of referrals turn into customers. I kind of like those odds!

9.  Spend More – Referrals will spend more with you than someone off the street. The referral is doing business with you for the quality product and superior service you provide and because their friend told them they can trust you. As a result, they are not there to kick the tires and shop you on price. They also will be more open to additional products and services you provide.

10.  Motivation – The more referrals you receive, the more they are on your mind to go generate. They also provide motivation as a sign of you doing something great and valuable.

11.  Larger Net(work) – On average, everyone knows at least 250 people. When you gain a new customer through a referral, you also gain exposure to at least another 250 people in your potential referral network.

12.  Leverage – With each referral’s personal network of at least 250 people, and with the proper actions, you can leverage your latest positive customer experience into additional referral introductions.

13.  Grow Your Army – As you wrap up a positive experience with each new referral customer, remind them how they came to know you and “train” them to go out and do the same. You’ll be surprised at how willing and motivated they can be to duplicate the experience.

14.  Existing Follow-up – Working your business through referral generation gives you another opportunity to make contact with your existing customers. A quick, simple call to check in, say hi, and ask if they happen to know anyone at that time that may also need your product or service not only may generate a referral or two, but keeps you in the front of their minds the next time they need your product or service.

15.  Marketing Focus – When you begin to see the impact referrals can have on your sales and profits, you begin to re-focus your marketing attention to activities that generate more referrals rather than tire kickers that may try to beat you up on price.

16.  Giving Referrals – The flip side of getting referrals is looking for opportunities to give referrals to others. Sometimes giving a referral that turns out great feels just as good, if not better than the referrals you receive. As such, you will also begin to develop that side of the referral mindset as well.

17.  Connecting – Altruistically, referring someone you know or even bump into to a person you trust and respect feels great as you know that referral is going to have a great experience.

18.  Arrow in Your Quiver – As a referral generator, you need to have a good network of business owners, employees, sales reps, etc. to be able to refer people to. Some referrals you receive may turn out to be good people that you can add to that “database.”

19.  Being a Resource – The more and more your give and receive referrals, the more people will approach you for referrals. “Hey, who do you know that does a great job on ______?” If people can rely on you to refer them to someone to do business with, how much more confident will they be to do or continue to do business with you? Exponentially!

20.  Opportunities to Give – More than making a sale, or the specific acts of designing a website, writing an article or leading a training event, I really enjoy giving and helping others. Working with referrals, both on the receiving and giving ends, provides the opportunity to do just that. I guess I left my best reason for last!

So there you have them, 20 things that I really like about working with referrals. Some of them may not relate to you. However, some of them may turn on a light and provide an “A-ha Moment” for you as well. Hopefully there will be a few that you can run with to increase your sales and enrich your life and the lives of others.

Now Go Get ‘Em!!

Thomas Edison once said that “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

Jonas Salk once said “The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.”

Those are two of my all-time favorite quotes for together they embody our entrepreneurial spirit whether we are small business owners, sales reps, consultants, inventors, innovators or a combination of any of these. I have a third one that I will sprinkle in later that will wrap things up with a very exciting opportunity.

For the sake of this article, let’s define “hard work” as doing more than what is expected. Conversely, there are basic work expectations that are placed on us. These basic expectations can come from a boss, a written job description, or a colleague that depends on us so they can do their work. Basic work expectations can also be placed on us by our customers. Successfully meet these basic expectations and your customers will be satisfied.

But satisfied customers are not what we want, right? (Stay with me for a sec!) Let’s use ourselves for an example here. We all have countless products and services that we consume and use every day. And for the most part we are pretty satisfied with these products and services as well as the people we buy them from.

For each product or service we buy, we have several choices from whom to purchase them. And for many of them, it really doesn’t matter where we go to get them, as long as we get them. With these products or services, we are “satisfied customers.”

But for a handful of things, you just couldn’t imagine going anywhere else but that one special place to buy it. With these products or services, we are LOYAL customers. Why? Because someone saw and took advantage of an opportunity to provide additional value to their product or service. It may even just be the experience of getting it from that particular place or from that particular person. Whatever the reason, it brings you back without consideration of shopping elsewhere.

It is this distinction that I believe is one aspect of what Edison and Salk refer to. It is the opportunity to give the extra effort to go above and beyond that brings the reward to do it again and again for all of our loyal customers.

The third quote I mentioned earlier comes from Steve Pavlina, a leading expert on personal development. Steve writes that “When you discipline yourself to do what is hard, you gain access to a realm of results that are denied everyone else.” When reading that, I envision the doors to opportunity slamming open for those that put in the hard work rather than slamming shut on those that deliver basic expectations.

Here is the exciting piece to these three quotes – Opportunity does not discriminate! It is there for all of us to grab. And opportunity doesn’t always have to lie somewhere else. We all have hidden opportunities in what we currently do to slam the door open and turn our satisfied customers into loyal customers. Discover and commit to what you are going to do today to slam open your doors to opportunity!

Now, Go Get ‘Em!