"Just a quick note to thank you for helping me get a job. last month I downloaded your free "8 simple steps to close more sales". The day before I had presented an estimate to a customer for a project I was really hoping to get. since I had already met with them I decided to follow step 6.... I just found out today that they have hired us to do the project. I know they spoke with other contractors and I'm certain that I was not the low bid but I still got it."
-K. Howell
Marketing’s New RulesTM means that some of what is old is new again and some things have been changed forever by technology.
Rule #3 – The Spider Effect of Referrals
We always ask our clients this question: “Do you have a systematic way to generate referrals?”
The typical answer is “Well we usually ask for them.”
Translation – they don’t have a system and they probably ask for referrals sporadically.
This seems so simple but it takes discipline to do it consistently.
You need to have a system that will make it easy and at the bottom of this newsletter you can download a very cool tool that will do this for you as long as you use it.
So why ask for referrals consistently?
Your closing rate will be much higher 70 or 80% or more
Less haggling about price and more focus on quality
Little or no dollars to do this
But here is the real big one – there is a spider effect of referrals.
Referrals spread out in all directions and multiply and that means your ROI on the initial lead can be 2 or 3 or 10 times higher.
Think about that for a minute. Say you spend $1,000 on lead generation and you get $10,000 worth of business and $1,500 profit. Not a bad return.
Now let’s say you ask for referrals and get just one more deal worth another $1,500 in profit. Now you generated a $3,000 profit from the $1,000 you spent, just by asking.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Here is a personal story from last week.
On Thursday, my client recommended me to a web designer who was looking for marketing help for her client. The web designer called me and after a 15 minute getting-to-know you call referred me to her client. I called immediately and my call was routed right through to the owner. We met on Monday and I submitted a proposal on Tuesday.
I also called the web designer right after the meeting to let her know how it went. I now have a new referral source and she will likely refer me out in a lot of directions because I made her look good to her client.
