It’s no secret that word-of-mouth referrals are the best possible leads you can receive for your business.
Of course, the higher the quality of the lead, the harder it is to get them in the first case and make them a recurring event.
Thankfully, there are still a few ways to generate new referrals for your business in a pinch in 2024. We’ve compiled the most effective methods that we’ve observed over the last few decades of helping business owners. It’ll just take a little effort and ingenuity on your part.
First Of All: Why Referrals Are So Important, Anyway?
Recurring referrals are crucial for the long-term success of your business. They are one of the best things that can happen to your business because ninety percent of the job in winning them as clients is already done.
First, let’s put things into perspective. To win a brand new client, you usually need three things:
- A tremendous amount of trust on the part of the potential client, usually paid for by many meetings and correspondence from you
- Ongoing education from you in your marketing efforts to explain how you can help them
- And of course, a fair amount of luck in finding them in the first place!
Referrals, on the other hand, already trust you; they know exactly how you can help them because of their acquaintance’s recommendation. Likewise, you don’t have to pay a cent to have them discover you!
Now, how exactly do you get more referrals?
Ensure You perform An Outstanding Job For Every Client
First things first: you need to treat every single new client as if they were worth a dozen clients to you.
Why? Because they could be! Every client has the potential to know dozens of other future leads for you in their network.
The number one reason people refer their friends, family and colleagues to a business is because they truly believe that business can help their referral.
This is primarily achieved by doing an outstanding job for them and leaving a positive, lasting impression.
Remember: If You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Get
Some business owners can make the mistake of thinking that just doing a good job is enough to get referrals. Although this would be the case in an ideal world, some clients don’t always react this way.
Sometimes clients forget to refer you because they’re busy with life in general. Other times, they don’t realise friends and colleagues could use your services in the first place.
The golden rule is: if you dont ask, you don’t get!
So make sure to politely and respectfully ask your clients – ideally after doing an outstanding job for them – to refer you to anyone they might know who could use your services.
Some business owners can become uncomfortable at the thought of asking. But the truth is, by not asking, you could be missing out on dozens of new clients!
Consider Incentivising Clients To Refer You
If you want to really get the most amount of referrals as you can out of your existing clients, it’s a good idea to incentivise them.
This could be as simple as offering to enter them into a draw to win a gift card or gift basket at the end of the month if they refer a new client to you.
The bigger the reward, the more likely people are to refer you. This is a great way to remind the folks that are too busy to refer friends to you by making it worth their while.
Just don’t try to do this too often, as it can be annoying to receive promotional emails too frequently. Once or twice a year is a good amount.
Keep Your Business Front Of Mind
Sometimes clients don’t refer their friends to you because they simply don’t know someone that needs your business.
This is where the concept of “Brand Awareness” comes into play. The idea that when they have someone in the future who needs your services, they are easily reminded of your business.
This could be in the form of a quirky fridge magnet, a monthly email, or a friendly check-in from your team.
This maximises the chance of a lightbulb moment where your client realises: hold on a second, I have a friend who just needed your services!
Let Us Refer Your Finances To Success & Growth
Like the advice you found here? Our accounting and bookkeeping team has over one hundred and fifty years combined experience helping business owners stay financially secure.
Call us today to learn about our brand-new business growth strategies!