Is Your Business Process Keeping You From Getting Referrals?
 Scenario: You have a supplier that has a great product for a great price but their customer service is lousy. You continue to use them for reasons
of your own, but would you refer them to someone else? Of course not.
Why not? Because you know that it would not be a 100% positive experience
for the person to whom you would refer them and it would not reflect
positively on you.
People give referrals for the entire process of doing business with
you. Do you know if all of your processes are in good working order?
Here are some tips on how you can find out and to increase referrals
from "happy" clients of your own.
1. Ask for the Referral
The best time to ask for a referral is when value has been added for
the customer. For example, when they say "Thanks for such a quick
response to my question", or "This process went so smoothly,
you really listened to our needs."
2. What to Say When You Ask
Simply say "I'm glad you see the value in this. Please don't keep
me a secret. Do you know of some people that should know more about this?"
3. What to Say When They Hesitate
If they say that they don't give referrals because of a negative experience
that they had, then say, "Tell me more about it" to explore
the nature of the objection.
This way you can work to make changes and
build trust in this area for the future.
Several of these tips came from an Internet radio program on "selling" that
I listen to frequently. I heartily recommend this site. To find out more,
go to http://WebSiteHelper.com/learn-sales-techniques-internet-radio.htm
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This is a great story. The first online gift basket sale for a gift
basket shopping cart site that I built (see next section 