Ultimate Home Journal believes in agents growing their business on repeat business and referrals. A good method for referral generating can save you large amounts of money that would otherwise be spent on advertising. So here are some ideas on ways you can build relationships and keep yourself in the mind of your current and past clients.
Remember to help - A large part of success is just being sincere and honest, being yourself. Focus on helping your clients, give them meaningful information, assist them by making their needs the priority.
Keep past clients in the loop - You should look at your client relationships as lifetime partnerships. Keep in touch, know what are they doing at the present moment and keep them informed with your own undertakings as well. Make sure you always have a reason for contacting them, such as an advice or a recently acquired contact that they can benefit from. This way you'll keep yourself in the picture and pave the way for getting a constant stream of referrals from many sources.
Ask the referrer to contact your prospect first - You're much more likely to succeed if your prospect knows that you'll be calling. This is not easy to achieve, as it involves active participation on the client's side. A good way get past that hurdle is to ask them to send a short e-mail or text message instead – to most people this seems like much less effort than a phone call.
Give meaningful, helpful gifts to be remembered - combine your promotion efforts with a referral generating strategy - give out personalized gifts to your clients which will keep your name in front of them daily. Go one step further and personalize them. A warm and sincere congratulation enclosed with one of these small gifts can do wonders to the relationship, and it's a smart way to keep you on their minds. And don’t forget about birthdays, anniversaries, special events in your client’s life – this shows them they’re more than just a business transaction to you.
Tell success stories - Your clients need to know that their help is going to be meaningful and will lead to a win-win situation for everyone involved. Voice your latest efforts and how they helped others. A subtle way of getting these messages through is via a newsletter or a recent client related success story on your website.
Remind them of the benefits - How does your client benefit from doing business with you? Make sure your clients will be able to easily answer this question for themselves and be able to tell others about them. Remind them about all the positives of your business relationship.
Set up alliances with other professionals - Strive to become a one stop shop for your clients and have contact information ready for introducing other professionals. You'll see that many of your clients will be looking for lawyers, mortgage specialists, inspectors or other business owners whose work is largely based on referrals. Set up these alliances early and you'll gain a huge stream of new contacts on a regular, day-to-day basis.
Hold Client Appreciation Events - It's a good way to introduce your clients to each other and possibly create new business opportunities for them. Your best shot is to make the event pleasant, fun and informative in character. If you can, bring a top-name speaker who will be addressing a memorable and useful topic. At the gathering, be the life of the party and give all your attention to your guests.
Hopefully these tips will help you think of some different ways to start building your referral-based business.
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