Plan to help you prepare for receiving referrals

You need a plan to help you prepare for receiving referrals. Accepting referrals is like an art. You must shape your request into a benefit, not a plea for help. You provide products and services to enhance relationships and solve problems. Ask for a referral when your customer praises your product, provides a testimonial, hears about your partner, or when you finish a project.

Make sure your employees notice these green light signals and are fully prepared to let referrals happen naturally and easily. If you want to recommend videos for future use, make sure the camera is ready to operate at the moment of notification. If you want people to mention you on social media, have a computer ready for them to use while the idea is still there. Let them take action easily while they are still excited.

Offering something valuable to the referral source is an important part of a well-prepared reception plan. Show your appreciation publicly and then think of a way to say thank you. In addition, continue to follow up and tell them about the progress after the referral. Show that the organization values referrals by doing it publicly. The higher the reward, the more public the expression of gratitude, the more willing they are to accept.

You must track and take care of the referrals you receive — in a consistent professional manner. Referrals differ from potential customer lists developed through advertising or direct marketing. Customers who come from referrals may not buy immediately. You must first let them get to know you better and then hope they like and trust you. They may not appreciate your professional knowledge at first and may not understand the true value of the products and services you offer.

You must make them aware of the value of products and services by giving them special care and attention. Offer a referral when a customer praises your product or a project is successful.

Strategic Partners

You should have a plan to work with strategic partners and other suppliers who share the same ideal customer profile as you to create referrals. Your existing customer base is the most natural source of referrals, but it should not be the only source. There are other companies that have the same ideal customer profile as you, but sell non-competitive products and services. Let's add these companies to your network and share customer leads for mutual benefit.

Make a list of competing companies and choose the ones you trust to refer your best customers to. It's possible for you to suggest a final list of companies you wish to work with. You can also ask customers, employees, vendors, and strategic partners for suggestions on which companies to work with. You can even work with competitors to sell products to their old customers.

After finding and reaching out to the companies you want to network with, both sides must agree on the best way to work together.  

You can co-author any white paper, e-book or jointly written report and distribute it to both parties' customers. Perhaps a special discount scheme can be used to achieve the goal.

You can invite your partner to present at a seminar hosted by you - or vice versa. Or invite your partner's customers to attend the seminar to create value.

You can work together to create new audio or video materials tailored specifically for your partner's customer base.

You can hold some joint marketing events. Exchange marketing materials with your partner to reach more customers.

You may include high-value samples or trial products from network partners when providing core products. Combine moving product and service combinations.

You can hold public promotions for all network partners. Set up a website and blog with content provided by each partner. Make this place a central hub for attracting ideal customers.

You can integrate a referral toolset and distribute it to partners. Teach partners how to bring more referrals for themselves and for you.

Perhaps designate one day a week for each member of the network to try to provide referrals for other members on that day. Promote your special referral day in your e-newsletter, blog, etc.

Network Plan

Always look at your business from the customer's point of view. Deliver products and services that exceed expectations, so customers are eager to tell others about you. You should measure how many customers will refer you to their friends, family, and related businesses. Make it easy and fun for existing customers to refer you by listing everything you do. Discuss referrals before someone becomes a customer and creates high expectations. The lifetime value of a customer can be infinite when considering how many new customers referrals can bring. Give customers something unexpected for free. Try to contact each customer every 30 days. Ask customers to share their methods of using your products and services and capture these stories in writing, audio, and video formats for future use. Offer training on how to use your products and services effectively. Show appreciation to your referral supports. Invite them to product development teams, keynote speeches, exclusive gatherings, and solicit their opinions. Give them movie tickets, flowers, candy, or other rewards. Provide employees with referral cards, vouchers, trial products, and other items. Allow individuals, not institutions, to refer customers. People mostly do not provide referrals for rewards, but want the opportunity to be a reliable source of information for friends. Allow this to happen by giving feedback on each referral and providing them with the latest information. Record results in writing so that providing referrals becomes an important part of the feedback mechanism. The community will mix content and communication data together to form a powerful means of building a business. To establish a vibrant and powerful community, hold closed video seminars; let people gather for lunch; let customers talk naturally; exchange prospect lists with non-competing businesses; provide one-on-one education and training courses.

Converge

You need to ensure that, as a business, all the tools you use and everything you use converge to deliver a consistent message. Your website should have history, products, customers, shopping carts, contact info, white papers, blogs and FAQs. You must continuously change and update this website to maintain its maximum utility. However, it still cannot fully realize its potential through the entire network alone.

Think of your website as the central hub that brings everything together. As a business owner, your challenge is to create spokes. Each spoke opens a path for potential customers to get to know you. Use online and offline tools such as websites, blogs, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, articles, and press releases. Take action in advance to achieve the best search engine rankings.

Set up a Twitter account with content that attracts customers. Plan your route and take part frequently and uninterrupted in any community sites set up for specific industries according to that route. - make sure you fully use all available information.

Write monthly newsletters on topics you know well with both brief summaries and detailed information. Host webinars featuring industry guests and provide operational knowledge.

Add lots of audios and video content to your website with customer success stories. Establishing visibility through event attendance and exchanging contacts. Today's networking is much more personalized and automated. You make information public by building web pages and online resumes and then attracting reader responses.

The key to success remembers that online methods can be linked with face-to-face non-online networking activities. To stand out, you need equally well-developed online and physical networks.

In most cases, the best way to bring everything together is to run an active blog. Undeniably, writing a blog is not a panacea for all marketing problems. But you still have to generate enough interest for readers to want to read your blog, which is why the blog is just one piece of the puzzle.

But the blog is definitely one tool you should use. Upload customer stories to podcast channels.

In fact, if you're smart enough, you'll use audio files as a customer service tool. Record voice messages according to customer service inquiries. Customers will love it.

Capture moving video content and provide viewing opportunities. Host online contests where customers post videos of themselves using your products or pay for videos to deepen your database.

Have online lunches with customers and other - organize webinars and similar events. There are plenty of services available for video chat and gatherings.

Listen to what people are saying - then respond in problem-solving ways on public forums. Use online tools to join relevant topic conversations. There are several paid services available as well as many free tools.

Bringing everything together takes time and can be overwhelming at first. So the key is to break everything down into manageable systems.

No matter how you initially set up the system, but with experience accumulation, you will do better. Taking care of social networking operations is an excellent way to create referrals.

Journalists

Content is the most trusted form of advertising. Generate positive press for your company. Building relationships with industry journalists is the best way to get third-party endorsement. Positive media coverage can increase visibility and build customer confidence. Your partners and suppliers will benefit from positive publicity. Compile a list of journalists who will reach your target audience.