Spread a Referral Virus and Grow Your Sales

By Robert Gerrish

As most marketing consultants will tell you, the most cost effective way to grow your business is through word-of-mouth referral. Referrals are the delightful consequence of others doing your promoting and selling for you.

So why do referrals happen and what can you do to generate more?

Here, Robert Gerrish shares his secrets for unleashing the power of your referral engine.

Isn't it wonderful when the phone rings or a potential new client walks through the door and you find yourself talking to someone who already knows what you offer; what your costs are and is all set to sign on the dotted line. Oh what a feeling!

Every good business can enjoy a steady flow of referrals and yet very few do anything very proactive about generating them - most opt instead to sit quietly by the phone, waiting and hoping.

In research we’ve undertaken with our Flying Solo community upwards of 97% of small businesses behave like this and it’s crazy!

To build a powerful referral engine you have to understand who refers for you, why they refer and what you can do to help spread a referral virus.

Who refers?

The simple answer is Raving Fans - people who think you’re great and rave on about you to others.

Easy really. Well not quite.

Raving fans are people who truly believe in what you do. They look to spread the good word to prospects you don’t even know, moving your practice forward and helping others to improve how they feel.

What nice people indeed!

Ponder for a moment: Can you think of people around your practice right now who are are raving fans? People who clearly love what you do and who open doors to opportunities for you.

How many of them are actively referring for you though and what are you doing to support their efforts?

More on that in a moment after we’ve looked at:

Why people refer

This may come as a surprise, but the main reason people refer for you is not because you’ll give them a bottle of plonk or a diary with your logo on it, it’s because of two simple things:

1. They admire the work you do
2. By referring they are doing something genuine helpful to others

Fancy that. People admiring what you do and being motivated by a strong sense of do-goodedness.

I’m not saying they’re not helped along occasionally by promotions and incentives, but I can tell you that without genuine belief and admiration no amount of freebies will swing the deal.

So what can you do to generate more referrals?

To answer this I need to take us back a bit in the referral virus relationship as there’s an important sequence to look at that explains how people get to become raving fans.

As I said a moment ago, raving fans have made it to that position themselves and have done so as the consequence of either personal experience or having witnessed the transformation of someone they know.

There’s nothing more likely to get people talking than the sight of someone whose physical wellbeing has had an extreme makeover, particularly where that person is a close friend or family member.

The thing is, this kind of transformation is going on all the time in your business your challenge is to bring it to the fore and to do so in a context that befits the stage of the relationship.

Let me explain:

Below I have devised a short series of steps that relationships go through on the path to raving fans:

• Strangers – This is where every relationship starts. Strangers are the contacts you've yet to make. So let’s not spend any time more time on them.
• Nodders – These are the people with whom you have had minor contact. They may be people outside of your direct working environment. They do not know much about you, or you them.
• Smilers – these are 'business friends', people with whom you have some warmth. They’re easy to talk to. Bump into them in town and you’ll probably stop for a quick chat.
• Huggers – These are fans, though not quite raving fans. They need a helping hand.
  Raving fans – This is where we want people to be.
  

Understanding this sequence and recognising where people are around you - in which category - is the key to unleashing the real power of business referrals.

Too often what a business will do is lump everyone together (whether into a database or an invite list) and give the same message or proposition to all. What you need to be doing is respecting where the relationship is at and planning messages and activities that are relevant.

Let’s look at a few examples:

An evening event where the success stories of others are shared and celebrated can be ideal for smilers and huggers, but too pushy for nodders.

The nodder category needs something a little less overt as they’re still getting to know you. Activities for this group should centre more on growing knowledge for what you do, concentrating on building trust and respect for your expertise.

Once you get into the idea of following the sequence it’s easier to recognise the characteristics of each and plan accordingly. The most important step of course is…

Turning huggers into raving fans

If I’m talking about referral marketing to a group of business owners I’ll invite suggestions as to how we tip huggers into raving fans. I get a mass of responses, but the answer is rarely generated…because it’s so simple.

How you turn a hugger into a raving fan is to invite them. Yes, it’s that simple. If you have respected the sequence and are sure your contact is a hugger the most powerful thing you can do is say something like:

“Thank you for the support you show to my practice, if you know anyone who is looking to really get a grip on their health and mobility, please direct them personally to me and I’ll be delighted to give them some complimentary advice and tips.”

Well something like that, hey it’s your business!

My point is you can be upfront with people when the relationship is this strong and you should be as specific as possible in your request.

When I have vacancies in my coaching business I reach out to my huggers and raving fans and tell them precisely who am I looking for. In twelve years the strategy has never failed.

Try it, you’ll be glad you did.

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