Tweet

Ten Major Reasons Why You Are Not Getting Referrals According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach

Written by: Glenn Ebersole

Article Overview: Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach strongly recommends that all business owners (especially small business owners) develop a strategic referral plan. The power of word of mouth is very strong. Prospects re relying upon the personal referral and testimonials of people they know and trust to help them make their decisions. Positive word of mouth can come in the form of a referral, a testimonial, or both. To distinguish between them, Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach defines referrals as specific names of people you receive or personal introductions made on your behalf. Testimonials are written or verbal communications that convey the confidence people have in you. If you are not getting referrals, Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach offers ten major reasons why that may be true.

Ten Major Reasons Why You Are Not Getting Referrals According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach

Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach strongly recommends that all business owners (especially small business owners) develop a strategic referral plan. Te power of word of mouth has probably never been stronger. Prospects re relying upon the personal referral and testimonials of people they know and trust to help them make their decisions.

Positive word of mouth can come in the form of a referral, a testimonial, or both. To distinguish between them, Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach defines referrals as specific names of people you receive or personal introductions made on your behalf. Testimonials are written or verbal communications that convey the confidence people have in you. Of these two, a written testimonial is preferred because it can be used repeatedly.

Using referrals and written testimonials in a strategic combination produce a powerful tool because the more you can reinforce the referral, the greater the likelihood of favorable access to whom you are referred. Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach urges you to look at the following reasons why you may not be getting the referrals you need.

Reason #1: You have not committed to using referrals and testimonials as a strategic marketing tool to grow your business.

Reason #2: You had a negative experience when asking for a referral and so you stopped asking.

Reason #3: You have not committed to forming the habit of asking for referrals.

Reason #4: You are not comfortable with the words you use to ask for referrals.

Reason #5: You are not sure when it is the right time to ask for referrals.

Reason #6: You forget to ask for a referral because you are too “caught up” in the actual event of “making the sale.”

Reason #7: You are not comfortable asking for a referral when delivering the final product or service to the client or customer because you feel uneasy about asking for “something else.”

Reason #8: You make an assumption, without ever asking them, that your client or customer really does not want to “push you” onto their friends.

Reason #9: You have become apathetic and complacent about asking for referrals because it worked very well and you got “busy.”

Reason #10: You make an assumption, without ever asking them, that your client or customer is not that pleased with you and your work and you don’t think you would get a good referral or testimonial.

Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach encourages you to develop a strategic referral program to grow your business. If you would like to learn more about how a strategic thinking business coach can facilitate and guide you in that endeavor, please contact Glenn Ebersole today through his website at www.businesscoach4u.com or by email at jgecoach@aol.com

Related Articles
  “Six Strategic Things To Remember When Requesting Referrals, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  How Professional Service Providers Can Break Through Resistance to Requesting Referrals, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  10 Most Compelling Reasons To Hire A Coach, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  Seven Strategic Tips On Dealing With Referrals From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  Business Coaching As A Valuable Asset For You and Your Business

Article Tags: business coach, Business Coach, Business Coach, Business Coach, Business Coach, business owners, personal referral, referral plan, referral program, small business, Strategic Thinking, Strategic Thinking, strategic thinking, Strategic Thinking, Strategic Thinking, testimonial, testimonial, testimonial, word of mouth, word of mouth



Related Forum Posts
Re: Essential Leadership skills - Vision Values Mission Strategic Thinking Decision Making Communication Team Bonding People Development Coaching / Mentoring / Guiding / Grooming Presentation Thanks Robert
Re: Business Coaching Resources - You're fortunate when you can find a Business Coach who has experience beyond where you've been and even where you are going. When your budget is slim and even after, it's good to have a mentor. Several of various backgrounds are very useful. They can be teachers, professors, pastors, business people, family members, bosses and former bosses. You have to be clear on what you want and what you desire to achieve, be able to convey it as simply as possible. Stop and listen and don't over tax their time. You should always expect results whether from a Business Coach or Mentors. If you're not gtting results, you're either not focused or you need to upgrade the quality of your mentors/coaches. Always surround yourself by people smarter than you.
Re: Fashion - Nana, At you choice you may choose to research the fashion industry a bit more. There is obviously a Business side to it as well as a creative side to it. Find out all the types of roles that exist in the industry. Some that come to mind merchandiser, Window dresser, floor plan organizer (someone needs to determine the layout of a retail store to best sell the goods), fashion consultant (Yorkdale mall has fashion consultants that take you around and tell you what looks great on you - you also get a cut from the sales). This is what I've observed from the business side, you may know more. All these roles I've written about will help you grow as a business person and make the contacts in the industry...possible stepping stones. But further more you'll also notice that you need to develop some business acumen possibly tailored to the fashion industry. When I was at Ryerson I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur someday too. I knew I needed some basic business courses to get a foundation to build from. I was in a Tech/Business Major (I'm sure Fashion has something similar - Fashion/Business Major) and then started to create my own minor. Here are some of the courses I took: Marketing, Law, Entrepreneurial, Management, consulting.. and a few more . Also, I'm sure that within the Fashion Major there are also courses you have to take where you can use your creative side and create designs. Typically within a Major there are focuses you can choose - ask the program coordinator. Your next step is to do some research. 1. Visit Commercial retail outlets like H&M, Banana Republic, or jacob. Tell the Manager your doing some research for University and would like to know what types of Corporate roles exist aside from the roles on the retail floor (like sales associates). If she asks you to elaborate then you can use some of the roles I mentioned above. 2. With this information in hand you can visit the Ryerson Fashion department and inquire with the Program Coordinator on what focus within the Fashion Degree would help you the most. In my program there were 5 different focuses within the Tech/Business program. Just a quick aside. A good friend of mine too has a dream of fashion. he want to create a niche fashion line tailored to skinny men (I can't mention the style). He's in Business school but not in the Fashion program... He's in International Business but all his Minor courses are tailored to running a successful business ... similar to the ones I mentioned above for myself. I have no doubt in my mind he'll make it 'cos his vision is that strong.
Re: Business Women Peer Mentoring Spotlight - Hi Tami, Have you reviewed other comparable sites and coaches? I think that you will find that they have positioned themselves a bit more 'out there', and they dont focus on cheap pricing as the key benefit. I think your copy needs to be much tighter with a focus on the key features and BENEFITS that group coaching provides. Look at The Strategic Coach model etc. Your bio needs to be stronger if you are going to be pitching business development and leadership development. Also, have you put together a strategy for list building and promotions? how many subscribers do you have currently. Local networking as well as grouping some of your existing clients into the first BETA group might help. People dont like 'NEW" services because it comes off that they will be the guinea pigs. Those are my initial thoughts for now. Hope it helps. I'll try and spend some more time reviewing over the weekend and get back to you! Jude
Business Innovation - Hi Simon If you can finish off the Business Plan and think about your strategic direction or how you are going to use your product to convince people it's a great idea, it will set the foundation for your programming project. You see, when you are looking for funding you will need a Business Plan and Strategic Plan that will convince companies to invest into your new idea. Has anyone achieved this idea before using another industry besides health and fitness that you know of? You should also design some mockups as a "preview" for your programming project. This will also help reduce your programming costs as everyone will know exactly what you want if you have detailed mockups already completed including any functionality you require. Starting mockups for websites and software applications on paper is the best way if you're not a guru in graphic editing software.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Are You Fulfilled

Starting A Set of Books

The State of the Sustainable Furniture Industry

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.