21 Useful Ideas to Make Referrals an Every Day Marketing Habit

The other night I was moderating a training teleseminar called, Referral Magic: The Deceptively Simple System for Generating a Lifetime Supply of Referrals! with my friend and business partner Tony Rubleski. At about the midpoint of his training, Tony suggested we make referrals a habit in your everyday sales and marketing process.

While I was listening in, I wondered how one would actually implement such a habit into their marketing mix. I decided to write down as many ideas as I could think of so I could create a plan for my own business.

As you can see, writing scripts is at the top of the list. As you might already know, creating a habit takes about 21 days, but first you need to know which behaviors to implement. Here are…

21 Useful Ideas to Make Referrals an Every Day Marketing Habit

1. Create referral scripts
   • create a script for new meeting
   • create a script for new sale
   • create a script repeat sale
   • create a script when you get a compliment
   • create a script for productivity review
   • create a script for when you save the day
   • create a script for when you make a mistake
2. Write down your scripts
3. Teach scripts to your sales people
4. Ask for referrals
5. Reward referral partners
6. Do productivity reviews and ask for referrals
7. Ask clients why they bought from you to help write your script
8. Focus on vertical markets
9. Follow up with referral
10. Collect testimonials
11. Create a one sheet based on vertical markets, include testimonials
12. Use the word introduction instead of referral
13. Don’t wing it, write it out
14. Practice asking
15. Do your homework and research who else you want to have an introduction for
16. Keep your referral partner updated in the process
17. Put your clients on a regular communications program, eletter, newsletter, blog, etc.
18. Set expectation you will be asking for introductions “up-front”
19. Get letters of reference
20. Track your leads and reward behavior “how did you hear about us?
21. Implement a thank you program for your best customers and referral partners

Interested in putting referral marketing to work in your business?

Here are three ways to put these ideas to work right away.

1. Create a script for the most common interaction you have with a client, the initial sale. Tip: use the word introduction and get your top people to help craft the language. This will help in the next step.
2. Train your employees how to use this script and rehearse it with them. If they help develop the script they are more likely to help implement it (see step one)
3. Track the leads you receive from your new program, reward referral partners and your employees for their increased sales!
4. BONUS TIP: Rinse and Repeat – create a script for the remaining client interactions and implement them.

Now that you finally have a formal referral program in place, review the ideas above and get to work on rounding out the program. I’d love to hear from you about your business challenges. Leave a comment about your challenges and successes in implementing change in your business!