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More Clients
- the Online Marketing Newsletter
for Independent Professionals
from Action Plan Marketing
and Robert Middleton

In This Week's Issue: Having a problem generating more referrals? It's no wonder given the many mistakes you're likely making.

 

The Mystery of Referrals

Next week I'm going to be hosting a TeleSeminar on "How to Create a Referral Flood of New Business" (see below), and so I thought it would be appropriate to explore a few of the mysteries of referrals in this issue.

You go into business and work hard and do the best job you possibly can. All indications are that your clients are happy with your work. But still you don't get enough referrals and you wonder what you're doing wrong.

From my twenty years in business and my experience with hundreds of clients, here are some of the mistakes I've seen that can greatly hinder the flow of referrals.

You don't have a referral system

You see referrals as a random kind of happening, not something around which you can create a repeatable system. You might start some referral activities but you don't continue because you have no track to run on.

You don't acknowledge referrals

When you get a referral you don't send a note or email letting them know you received the referral and that you greatly appreciated it. Why would they send another referral if they don't feel you value them?

What you are offering is unclear

That is, your clients don't really know how to talk about what you do, even though you provide them a service. You have failed to educate them sufficiently to become active promoters of your service.

Your web site is inadequate (or worse, nonexistent)

A client refers you and the referral looks at your web site. But because the information is not very clear, doesn't have enough depth or is poorly designed, they are turned off and don't call you.

You don't tell clients exactly what will happen

When they give you a referral they may be worried that the people they send to you will be hounded by you and given the hard sell. You haven't done anything to change that perception.

You don't ask for referrals

You just hope they will come, but you never actually ask for them. You don't have a well-designed system or script for that is comfortable for you, so you just avoid asking (or as one of my client's says, he 'wimps out').

You don't have a reward system for referrals

What's in it for your clients if they send you referrals? Usually nothing. Look, referrals are valuable, they're gold, so neglecting to create an appropriate award system will greatly reduce your flow of referrals.

You don't stay in touch

Perhaps clients have sent you referrals but you have moved on and referrals have stopped. Nothing personal, but they have forgotten you. You have not kept yourself, your name, your ideas and information in front of them.

You don't leverage your clients' goodwill

Clients are actually happy to refer people to you. But you have never leveraged that goodwill by tapping into their network of contacts by offering that network something of value (tape, CD, report class) that will make them want to know more.

You haven't researched or studied

There are actually dozens of techniques, strategies and approaches that work very well to generate a large volume of referrals, but you haven't done much research to learn what these strategies might be and how you could apply them.

That's ten. And finally, just one more...

You are not committed to creating referrals

It all starts with a commitment to learn what referral strategies will work, determine the best ones for you, create a plan, and then follow through with unwavering persistence.

If you are willing to correct these mistakes and make generating referrals a big part of your overall marketing strategy, I guarantee you'll be swimming in a flood of referrals in a very short time.

More on "The Mystery of Referrals" in Marketing Flashes below.

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How to Create a Referral Flood of New Business

Now that you are more aware of some of the mistakes you may be making in creating referrals, I invite you to attend a 75 minute TeleSeminar (or order the CD) on exactly what you need to do to generate more referrals, more consistently with a whole lot less time and effort than you ever thought.

I'm co-leading this TeleSeminar with John Jantsch, a long time subscriber to More Clients and an expert on referral marketing. John has created a program called "Referral Flood" and I thought it would be both fun and valuable offering a TeleSeminar with him to my More Clients subscribers.

Date: Tuesday, August 31
Time: 10 am Pacific time
Fee: $25

For complete details and to reserve your space or order a CD of the program, just click below.

http://www.actionplan.com/referrals.html

Frustrated that you aren't building your email list fast enough?

Two weeks ago I conducted the TeleSeminar "Inside

Secrets to Quickly Growing a Massive, Responsive Email List." This TeleSeminar has had a tremendous response and it's for anyone who wants to get their email newsletter out to more people. It's now available on CD with a Resource Guide.

I recommend you order your copy today. Tomorrow the price will go up by $10 (original price is good for only two weeks).

http://www.actionplan.com/elist.html

Upcoming TeleSeminar on Selling to Big Companies

Are you mystified about how to get into big companies to sell your services? On Tuesday, September 26th I'll be conducting a TeleSeminar with Jill Konrath on "How to Sell to Big Companies (Without Cold Calling). I'm really excited about this one. Mark your calendars now. I'll announce it officially in mid September.

Marketing information, ideas and inspiration when you need it.

Have you ever been working on your marketing and wanted...

a) a marketing strategy that will work for your situation...

b) to see examples of this marketing strategy at work...

c) to get questions answered about the finer points of that strategy...

d) to find resources that would help you with that strategy or...

e) all of the above?

Well you can look this stuff up in books, listen to marketing tapes, search all over Google, call up your friends and take a whole lot of time that you don't have or...

Consult the InfoGuru Marketing Manual.

The manual itself has detailed information on virtually every important marketing strategy an Independent Professional can use to attract new clients with how-to action plans.

It contains over eleven hours of recorded teleclasses that go into the finer points of many of the most often used of these marketing strategies, such how to get attention for your business every time someone asks what you do.

It also Includes a very active, very responsive discussion group called the InfoGuru Support Forum. We've had over 1,000 posts in August alone! If you have a question, want some feedback or are looking for a marketing resource, you'll get it from the Forum.

In short, if you want it, we've got it in the InfoGuru Marketing Manual + Audio Programs + Support Forum. If you haven't got it yet, you just might be missing the answer to that key question that will put your marketing back on track.

For a price so low that I'm embarrassed to print it here. But you can check it out here:

http://www.actionplan.com/infoguru.html

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Marketing Flashes on "The Mystery of Referrals"

Try to look at referrals from your clients' point of view:

* If you worked with an Independent Professional, how would you prefer they asked you for referrals? What would you like them to say that would make you happy to send people their way?

* What would you like to know about that Independent Professional's business that would make you more comfortable sending them referrals? What questions would you like answered that are currently unclear to you?

* How would you like to be rewarded for giving an Independent Professional referrals? What would make you feel good? What would you be comfortable with? What would make you immediately pull out your list of contacts?

* What information would you like to receive from an Independent Professional that would make you feel you were in touch with them? Stories of client successes, industry information, tips and techniques, ideas and resources?

* What kinds of behavior from an Independent Professional might turn you off from giving them referrals, even if you were satisfied with their work? What did they do that bugged you or what was some little thing that they failed to do?

Until next week, all the best,

Robert Middleton

ACTION PLAN MARKETING
Helping Independent Professionals Attract More Clients

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www.actionplan.com

210 Riverside Drive
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
831-338-7790

Contact by email

© 2004 Robert Middleton, All rights reserved. You are free to use material from the More Clients eZine in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read:

"By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert's web site at http://www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses."

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