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Referral Marketing Is Target Marketing At Its Best
Copyright 2005 John Jantsch
Most small business owners miss the boat when it comes to
getting a constant flow of referrals because they start off
looking in all the wrong places.
If they seek referrals at all, most small business owners
think only of their clients. Now, your existing clients can
be a good source of referrals. And when you think about it,
who better to sing your praises than someone who has
actually experienced your rare abilities.
The problem though is that your existing clients don't have
much motivation. They may be in a position to send you
referrals but they wont think of you day in and day out,
and thats what your referral marketing effort really needs.
When it comes to figuring out a referral marketing system,
the number one question you need to answer is this. Who is,
or can be convinced to be, highly motivated to refer
business to me.
When you look at it from that point of view you begin to
realize that no matter who you approach you better be able
to propose a motivation that has something in it for them.
In most cases, the best referral sources, those that can be
motivated, are businesses like yours that sell to the same
target market. These non-competing businesses should be
looked at courted like one of your primary target market
sectors.
You marketing efforts should include very specific plans to
attract, educate and motivate this target market. . .just
as it would for the end user of your product or service.
The payoff with this kind of thinking is two-fold. I
believe that almost any prospect that comes your way by way
of a referral will generally be more qualified and likely a
better fit. In addition, a highly targeted marketing effort
pointed at referral sources can be one of the best ways to
leverage your limited time and marketing dollars.
Properly marketed to, a good referral marketing partner
could potentially send you handfuls of clients for about
the same effort most businesses expend to land one
self-generated client.
There can be many ways to motivate this type of referral
lead source. You likely have something they want or can at
least propose a way for them to get more of what they want.
I'm afraid it's hard to say the same for your clients.
One of the best way to put this thinking on steroids is to
think in terms of building your very own strategic referral
partnership network. Try to fill every need your clients
have by plugging in and referring members of your private
network. If you do this, you will never need to search for
business again.
This approach to referral marketing and the tools and
tactics to put it into motion are fully detailed in
Referral Flood How to Create a Flood of New Business
Without Spending One Dime On Advertising. If you want to
uncover the insiders roadmap to generating referrals, this
is the place.
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John Jantsch is a marketing coach and author of Referral
Flood - How to create a flood of new business without
spending one dime on advertsing. Find out more at
http://www.ReferralFlood.com
More articles by John Jantsch - http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/John-Jantsch-89/
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