Referrals or referral marketing is an effective sales technique that allows you grow a network of potential customers through one of your happy clients. Though making referrals is highly recommended and should be practiced by every telesales professional, only a few make it part of their sales strategy.
One of the reasons that keep sales people from asking for a referral is that they do not want to be thought of as pushy. Oftentimes, people just could not provide any recommendation so telesales professionals simply dismiss any effort to ask for potential customers as a waste of time. But happy customers should be more than glad to recommend their friends to you and do business with you. Perhaps you’re not asking for referrals the proper way.
How do you phrase your question when you ask for a referral? Do you simply say “Do you know anyone who might be interested in my product/service?” The person being asked with such a question might have a hard time trying to come up with a name to suggest to you because ‘anyone’ will conjure up a long list of names.
The trick is to be more specific. The questions you should ask should let people think of a particular person or group of persons.
You can try asking the following questions.
“Do you have a friend you could help by letting them know about our products?”
“Could you come up with a name who would be interested to buy my product/service?”
“Can you think of one person in your group who can benefit from my product/service?”
You can devise your own questions that are direct and assist people to give you referrals easily.
Remember, referral marketing is not just about getting names. You also have to get people’s telephone numbers. Bring it a step further by asking your customers if they would like to call those people first to recommend your products or you call them first and mention your name as the one who recommended them.
Referral is about building relationships. It doesn’t happen overnight so you would do well to take all measures to sustain that relationship. The following suggestions will help you.
o Consider each of your customers as a possible source of a multitude of referrals that will help you get more business.
o Give referrals to your customers so they will return the favor.
o Do not forget to thank the person who gave you referrals. Let them know if there is any positive outcome from their recommendations.
Now before you go on asking for referrals, make sure that your customer is delighted to buy from you.
