Do you want my plan for how to increase the number of “word of mouth” referrals you get?

I love referrals.

They are often the easiest deals to close because…

1. There’s usually a high degree of trust

2. A strong referral isn’t usually shopping around

Everyone wants more of these leads.  So the big question is…

Why are referrals so inconsistent (or rare) for some agencies? 

Think about it…

People are lazy.  In order for a referral to happen, one of your clients or referral partners must go out of their way to make the referral. 

It might only happen because it just so happened that your referral partner stumbled upon the right opportunity AND became inspired enough to remember that YOU could help.  It almost seems like an accident, right?

Think what would be possible if getting referrals stopped being an accident and instead became intentional.

Here are my 3 tips for getting more word of mouth referrals

Tip #1. Identify referral partners who serve the same type of clients.

Your word-of-mouth referrals don’t have to be from just anyone. 

Be specific and intentional about where your referrals come from. 

The best way to identify referral partners (or strategic alliances) is to find businesses that might serve the same clients like you and don’t offer competing services.

Here are a few examples of this…

IT Company, Business Coaches, Business Attorneys, Accountants, etc.  

These are companies that might serve the same types of clients that you want but don’t offer web or digital marketing services.  After you build your list of the types of referral partners, find people that you know that can fill these roles for you.

Tip #2. Make sure those referral partners know what you do.

If you want to build a referral army, you need to train them.  If your referral partners don’t understand what you do, who you serve, and what makes a good lead then it will be unlikely they’ll be able to identify a good opportunity even if it’s sitting in their lap.

The best way to do this is to actually take your referral partner through your sales process. 

Be upfront about it. 

Tell them you’d like to give them a proposal for web or digital marketing services NOT because you want to sell them (ok, maybe a little bit), but because you want them to experience what someone will experience when they make the referral.

This is the #1 way to train a strategic alliance short of actually delivering services to them.  (Now, a nice little side benefit of doing this is that your strategic alliance/referral partner might decide to hire you anyway!)

Tip #3. Make it easy for your referral partners to refer you.

As we’ve already covered, if it isn’t easy for your referral partners to make the referral, then it’s just not likely to happen.  

There are two ways to make it easy.

First, tell them who you want to be introduced to.  This isn’t always a possibility, but when it is, it takes all the guesswork out of it.  Maybe you know who they work with because of reviews that exist on their Google listing or who is listed on their website. 

Sometimes, the referral partner would be willing to share a few ideas about who they know.  If you know who you’d like to work with, ask them to make the intro.

Second, give them an exact email script to use for the introduction.  Lots of times, referrals don’t happen simply because your referral partner doesn’t know how to do it.  They are unsure what to say.  So, MAKE IT EASY FOR THEM. 

Just give them an email template introduction where they can drop in the referral’s name and hit send on the email.

This is how you make word-of-mouth referrals more consistent. 

If you want a copy of some email templates that I give my referral partners to make it super easy for them to refer business to me, DM me on Facebook or Instagram and mention “referral templates” and I’ll get it to you.