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Guest post by: Peter Lawless Become an Author

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Create a Referral Strategy
The strategy that I am referring to is a referral strategy. Most importantly, ask them for a referral! For those of you married or with partners, think back to when you met them. Were you with someone you know, was there a connection to someone you know – or were they complete strangers that you just walked up to?

Most businesses will tell you that they do really well due to word of mouth. How well do they do? Most can't quantify it. In addition very few have implemented any formal process or strategy to ensure a referral system is in place.

A Referral Strategy in Practice
Let me share with you a simple strategy, which was put in place by a service garage. You should strongly consider a variant of this strategy for your own business. The garage owner created a simple card, which outlined in 5 short bullets, why they were a great place to get your car service done.

They gave this form to all people who had just had their car serviced. There were two blank spaces on the form. The first one entitled the person whose name was filled in to a 10% discount on their next car service. The second space was for the person who had just had a service.

If the card was used, that person then got a 10% discount as well. In other words there was an incentive to pass on the referral. In addition, there was also a strong subliminal message to the person being referred. They were being told that not only had the referrer had their car serviced and that they were happy with it, they also were prepared to go back again to get their 10% discount.

Create a Referral Strategy Today:
* List all of your existing customers and categorize them by niche.
* Ask yourself, what incentive you can give them to send you leads.
* Set yourself a target of how many referrals you are looking for from each customer.
* Do it, and measure it.
* Once you know what works, and what doesn't – modify your system accordingly.


An opportunity lost, could be an opportunity gained

There is one other great place to get referrals. And that is from the prospects that don't become customers. Let's assume you lose the sale, for whatever reason. You must remember that there is actually good in all people! When they tell you have lost, be nice and understanding, you may do business again at a later stage. Most importantly, ask them for a referral. The chances are, human nature, will kick in and they can absolve their conscience by giving you a referral.

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