“In Business” by Roland Millward

One of the best sources of business has to be when you get referrals from your customers. Now often we wait until a customer recommends our service to someone and such recommendations are greatly appreciated. However that is leaving things to chance. Is there a way of increasing those recommendations?

The answer is ‘yes’.

You can ask your customers for referrals! How? Well simply put you could say, “so John which one of your work colleagues has been showing an interest in getting xxx..” You may well find that John has been talking about his future purchase and others too said they would like one. There is your referral.

For customers on your mailing list you could ask them to write down the names and address of 2 or 3 people that they feel would like to know about your product or service. You can then follow those people up with a letter saying that ‘John has said you would be interested in xxx and you are pleased to tell them that you can help’.

There are many ways you can get referrals so don’t delay and don’t leave it to chance. Build into your sales pitch and follow ups a referral system. Remember too that referrals are more likely to buy from you than people that respond to an advertisement.

Businesses spend millions of pounds on advertsing every year. It is true to say that most of the money spent is wasted. How can businesses market products and services economically?

Every business needs customers and when they get those customers they need to treat and serve them well. Hopefully that is what you are doing already but what happens next? Do you keep a record of all your customers? These customers are your lifeblood and in many businesses it is very easy to have a name and contact details as customers have to give this to buy your product and service.

If you have a business that does not record details perhaps a grocery store for example you could set up a website and encourage people to register their details to receive special offers or give them a form when they visit to register for mailings or to keep costs down preferrably emails. You may perhaps encourage this by putting new names into a prize draw.

Once you have started your customer database you can begin to mail or email your customers with special offers, newsletters and importantly ways of recommending you to their friends. (Please see my post on using business cards).

When you use emails I would recommend an opt in system and emailer such as Aweber. This system allows you to send emails at predetermained dates to your lists and you can have many lists. It automatically adds people to your list from your website and deletes those that no longer want to receive emails.

Your client bank is the life blood of your business and if used wisely will bring in volumes of good quality business. Never drown your customers in a sea of mailouts and emails. Be selective about what you send them and make the content worthwhile. Then watch the business roll in!

Be successful!