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Duct Tape Marketing
leads from both your existing clients and a targeted referral net-
work. Often, you will find that the right strategic referral network
partners have the ability to generate significantly more referrals than
your customers.
While your existing clients can appreciate your work, they may
not be as motivated as a strategic partner. In other words, a business
that serves your same market and has several hundred existing clients
may be highly motivated to refer their entire client base in order to
help their clients get the great service you can provide.
Deserve Referrals
I suppose it goes without saying, but if your current clients are
not satisfied with the level of service they receive, then you can bet
they will not refer many new clients. Sometimes you must fix your
internal business in order to wow clients and turn them into referral
machines. Start by asking yourself this simple question: “What could
we do that would make our clients so happy they would look for ways
to refer new clients?”
Target Your Referral Sources
Just as you must define and target your best customer prospect,
you must also have a very specific profile of the best referral sources.
In many cases, this is simply the profile of your best customer. The
idea is that if your top customers could help you land one or two just
like themselves, then your business would exponentially explode.
As I stated previously, in addition to a target list from your client
base, you must also develop a target prospect list made up of other
professional contacts who have already earned the trust of members of
your target market.
Attorneys are often great referral sources for accountants or finan-
cial planners, and vice versa. Many painting contractors work with
roofers and gutter specialists. The point is that you must target these
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