“Six Strategic Things To Remember When Requesting Referrals, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
“Six Strategic Things To Remember When Requesting Referrals, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
By: J. Glenn Ebersole, Jr., Chief Executive of J. G. Ebersole Associates and The Renaissance Group ™
Referrals are important to most if not all businesses today. In a professional services business, such as business coaching, referrals are a major source of new clients. One of the strategic advantages of referrals is that they tend to be good quality prospects. And another strategic advantage is that they also tend to be relatively easy to convert into clients.
Okay, so referrals are a major strategic method of gaining new clients. But, guess what? Only a small percentage of business people adopt referrals as a strategic approach to gaining new clients and those that do adopt the strategy will often neglect the needed commitment of time to generate referrals. It is imperative that you pay attention to the generation of referrals and the best way to do that is to ask for referrals at least two or three times a year from existing clients and professional and personal contacts.
There are a few strategic things to remember when requesting referrals from any of the above-mentioned sources. And your strategic thinking business coach offers the following to remember.
1. The existing client that you are going to approach must be very happy with the services you are providing to him or her. Review your client list and select those “A” list clients that are your most satisfied clients.
2. The former clients that you might ask must still be pleased about their experience with you and your company and very satisfied with your past work. It would be very prudent to review your list of former clients that you have not done work for within the last year or two and select the most satisfied from that list.
3. You must get reaffirmation of why your client is doing business with you and why they selected your company in the first place. Knowing this bit of strategic information will be very valuable in approaching the referrals given to you.
4. Ask for referrals in a positive and proactive manner. For example, you may ask, “Who do you know that is in business that would be interested in knowing about what we do and that could benefit, as you did, by using our services?”
5. Select a frequency of asking for referrals throughout the year and develop a system to do that. Experience indicates that asking for referrals 2 or 3 times per year would not be offensive and would be very productive for you.
6. Always show appreciation to and thank the people who provide referrals.
If you would like to learn more about using a strategic thinking approach to develop referrals for your business, and how a strategic thinking business coach can serve as your guide and facilitator to accomplish what you want to achieve, please contact Glenn Ebersole today through his website at www.businesscoach4u.com or by email at jgecoach@aol.com
Six Strategic Things To Remember When Requesting Referrals According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach - To learn more about this author, visit Glenn Ebersole's Website.
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“Six Strategic Things To Remember When Requesting Referrals, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
By: J. Glenn Ebersole, Jr., Chief Executive of J. G. Ebersole Associates and The Renaissance Group ™
Referrals are important to most if not all businesses today. In a professional services business, such as business coaching, referrals are a major source of new clients. One of the strategic advantages of referrals is that they tend to be good quality prospects. And another strategic advantage is that they also tend to be relatively easy to convert into clients.
Okay, so referrals are a major strategic method of gaining new clients. But, guess what? Only a small percentage of business people adopt referrals as a strategic approach to gaining new clients and those that do adopt the strategy will often neglect the needed commitment of time to generate referrals. It is imperative that you pay attention to the generation of referrals and the best way to do that is to ask for referrals at least two or three times a year from existing clients and professional and personal contacts.
There are a few strategic things to remember when requesting referrals from any of the above-mentioned sources. And your strategic thinking business coach offers the following to remember.
1. The existing client that you are going to approach must be very happy with the services you are providing to him or her. Review your client list and select those “A” list clients that are your most satisfied clients.
2. The former clients that you might ask must still be pleased about their experience with you and your company and very satisfied with your past work. It would be very prudent to review your list of former clients that you have not done work for within the last year or two and select the most satisfied from that list.
3. You must get reaffirmation of why your client is doing business with you and why they selected your company in the first place. Knowing this bit of strategic information will be very valuable in approaching the referrals given to you.
4. Ask for referrals in a positive and proactive manner. For example, you may ask, “Who do you know that is in business that would be interested in knowing about what we do and that could benefit, as you did, by using our services?”
5. Select a frequency of asking for referrals throughout the year and develop a system to do that. Experience indicates that asking for referrals 2 or 3 times per year would not be offensive and would be very productive for you.
6. Always show appreciation to and thank the people who provide referrals.
If you would like to learn more about using a strategic thinking approach to develop referrals for your business, and how a strategic thinking business coach can serve as your guide and facilitator to accomplish what you want to achieve, please contact Glenn Ebersole today through his website at www.businesscoach4u.com or by email at jgecoach@aol.com
Six Strategic Things To Remember When Requesting Referrals According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach - To learn more about this author, visit Glenn Ebersole's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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