Referral Authority E-Zine4 Great Gut-Check Questions to Help You Get More Referrals.Author: Matt Anderson, The Referral Authority
Date: 05/12/2008
Here are four questions from Andy Sernovitz’ Word of Mouth Marketing to print off and ask yourself on a weekly basis.
1. When she walks out the door, what have I given her to talk about? 2. How will he remember to tell his friends? 3. Could I have made it easier for her to talk to more people about me? 4. Was anything about his experience remarkable? If you’ve been reading my ezines lately, you’ll have noticed that I’ve been focusing a lot more on earning the referral. Let’s stop fooling ourselves: earning referrals is not that easy! If it was, almost everyone would get heaps and YOU would be giving them out left and right. Also, we’re not very objective about our own performance and do not look in the mirror much to ask if what we’re doing is truly better than most of our competitors. The above questions are designed to get you thinking. They are the first factor in getting referrals. The point I want to make this week is to encourage you to use these questions to help you be more memorable and make it easier for others to refer you. 1. When she walks out the door, what have I given her to talk about? One place to start is to ask yourself: what do people expect from a meeting with me? This matters because people generally do NOT talk about a business that only meets expectations. When was the last time you told a friend about the visit to your bank where the teller deposited your checks and gave you a receipt and wished you a nice day? Never, right?! Then ask yourself: Am I really doing anything beyond this? Was there truly anything that your client would describe as ‘above and beyond’? Interesting? Different (in a good way)? Did you add value to that person in a way beyond what they expected? There are many ways to add value. Ask the question how. The sad fact is most of us are hard pressed to think of examples of an experience like this. Here’s the tough part: even though we believe our service and personality set us apart, most people would not agree. As humans we over-rate our customer service and we over-rate our uniqueness. Don’t take my word for it. Read Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert. The exciting part is that this means that the few of you who do stop to figure out some answers to this will get ahead. 2. How will he remember to tell his friends? 3. Could I have made it easier for her to talk to more people about me? These go together. Since people think about themselves 95% of the time AND because most people do NOT know how to talk about you, our job is to make it easy for them. VERY FEW PEOPLE DO AN ADEQUATE JOB OF COACHING OTHERS HOW TO TALK ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS. The obvious proof is in the number of referrals you get from people who know, like and trust you. The general message is coaching others to say: “Michelle does a great job. She’s well worth having a quick conversation with. Do you want me to have her give you a call?” This wording is best put in a follow-up email (possibly in a thank you card). You might have something you can physically hand to others to pass on such as a newsletter, giveaway, complimentary meeting, coupon, or gift card. I am not sold on brochures. The best way to get something from you passed around is to give someone either ideas or a product that really adds value to them – usually on a non-business level and certainly about their business (not yours). 4. Was anything about his experience remarkable? Do you have some measurable results that your client is clearly happy about? Did you hear your client exclaiming things like: “Really? I didn’t know that!” or “Ooh, that’s a really good idea!” or “great stuff!” or “I’m really pleased with my progress.” Sometimes it might be something personal that makes the experience remarkable– that you had to overcome a clear obstacle to still be there, ex. you kept the appointment with a client even though you are still on crutches after a surgery or that you had to drive a long distance to be there. One advantage to having a truly specific target market/niche is that you can position yourself as one-of-a-kind in a way that differentiates you from others who have the same job title. It’s like a contracting company who only remodels lake front properties, an advertising agency that only works in the agricultural industry or a financial advisor who only works with pharmacists. These are all easier to talk about as specialists. The primary goal is to ask this question: How can I increase the level of my clients’ enthusiasm for me and my business and make it easier for them to talk about me?
This is something to let sit for a while, keep returning to, brainstorm answers to and take action on. That’s a question you can easily tell others about that will help make their business more remarkable! So don’t forget to spread the word!
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