Most small businesses or organizations motivated to “fill seats” (like private schools) often assume that the random referral is the only kind of referral. We celebrate the times a customer recommends a friend or a client shares their experience with our future customers. But the reality is that those random referrals are so rare that no business counts on them. How can you? They are just random, right?
In Duct Tape Marketing, we look at referrals in a more intentional light – referrals that are solicited, generated and achieved because you earned them! John Jantsch, author of The Referral Engine and Duct Tape Marketing, recently wrote on article about referrals for allbusiness.com.
6 principles that Jantsch talks about:
- Know thyself – have a very clear understanding of what and who actually makes an ideal referral
- Educate – teach your best referral sources how to talk about your business in ways that spark interest and spell out the value of doing business with you
- Motivate creatively – find out what motivates referrals
- Reward champions – these are your super ambassadors, so treat them with high esteem and you’ll get a great ROI
- Attract partners – the greatest overlooked referral opportunity lies in the development of a strategic referral network
- Ignite your network – create opportunities for engagement
Read John’s full article entitled, “Does Your Business Rely on the Accidental Referral?”
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