Pre-emptive Referral Marketing

July 23 2012

21:44,

Hey readers, fans and groupies [you know who you are :)]. You probably know that this is the #1 marketing website in South Africa. Nobody disputes that. Heck it even says so on the homepage of this website. Okay. Enough of that. Let’s get down to business.

More importantly YOUR business. Are you getting enough clients? Could you close more? Could you sell more? Are you pounding the phones like a maniac? Are you meeting people? Are you hustling enough? You say you are raking it in like a kid in candy store? Good. Good. Good.

No wait, what’s that? Oh you want to do better. You want to get the fastest growth for your business in the shortest amount of time possible, with absolute zero investment?

Sheesh, you sure want it all don’t you. You greedy little cave goblin you. Well fine. Raymond the Rainmaker is going to give you what you want. More business!

This translates to:

Getting a constant stream of customers

Look. Clients are your business. End of discussion. Without a repeat stream of them (and lots & lots of them) it’s nigh impossible to build an empire. And here is how to do it. My latest creation:

Raymond’s pre-emptive referral marketing

Just a fancy way of saying: create conditions in your business where referrals become automatic. Don’t wait for customers to give you a referral. Ask for it! But ask for it before the job complete. Roughly 2/3^rd    

of the way through the job.

This gives the client enough time to evaluate your service (get more sold on you, your company and your product) plus that golden window where referrals happen.

Okay you’ve opened the door. If the client gives you a referral you don’t dare stop there. (who says you have to stop there?). Ask for the endorsement/cross promotion. Here’s how it can go:

“Say Joe, thanks for the referral, I’ll be sure to render a proper and just service to the client you referred. I’ll even give you an update as we move things along.”

10.5 Referral/Cross Promotion Mechanisms

·         “Now Joe, I see you have a 1000 facebook fans, could you recommend me to them as well?”

·         “Now Joe, I see you have a company profile on your website with you and all of your staff, could I write up something about myself so I can put it on your website too? As your legal/marketing/advertising/financial [or whatever you sell] department?

·         “Joe could you mention me to your twitters fans?”

·         “Joey my boy could you give me a shout on your google places page?”

·         “Joe, could you give me a linkedin recommendation?”

·         “Joe could you send a couple of emails to your contact list? Ja the emails are all here, I just need you to approve them and click send. No wait you won’t even have to do THAT. I’ll copy and paste them, you give me a nod and I’ll hit the send button. After all, hitting that send button is just waay to much work for a lazy bum like you (Never talk to your clients like that … unless you can go all the way through.)

·         “Joe could you mention me on a facebook status update?”

·         “Joe could I leave my business card/marketing information on your desk in your store for a few days?”

·         “Joe could you make a little youtube video for me on your youtube channel?” [Scratch this one – you do all the marketing for the client and put it on his channel. Clients don’t want to do any ‘work’.]

·         “Joe what if I made a small insert into your monthly direct mail newsletter?”

·         “Joe could I write a guest post on your blog?”

These are just some ideas to get the ball rolling for you. But remember these are only mechanisms. A channel to get the referral. You still have to warn your client in advance that you will be asking for one. You still have to educate your client on why it’s in his best interest to refer you. Basically you still have to do referral marketing 101 and choose the right channel for the right client in getting the referral.

Okay my brain is fried right now, so this is it. Hope you work those referrals and I’ll see you next time!

Raymond H. Smit

"South Africa's Marketing Guru"

P.S. There is nifty little function in Facebook where you can tag people. If you’re a company doing a tradeshow/event for example you can meet a lot of people, take pictures with them, and then tag them later on Facebook. They may just give you a like on Facebook … hint, hint.