Tweet

Getting Recommended By Others Will Increase Your Profits

Guest post by: Bob Janet

Article Overview: Over the past 30 days you have purchased many items and services. If you are like most of us you are completely satisfied with the products and services you purchased. But how many of the sellers have you recommended to your friends, family and colleagues? If you are completely satisfied why haven’t you recommended the sellers to other? I know you are busy; it is not at the top of your mind. Not a priority. You have come to expect satisfaction from the sellers you buy from. You just have not thought about it.

Getting Recommended By Others Will Increase Your Profits

Well, the same thing is happening to you. You are losing many, many profitable customers every day, because your satisfied buyers are not recommending you to their friends, family and colleagues. Plus, you are spending far more money advertising and promoting than you need to, thus robbing your bottom line. And it is your entire fault! You can do something about it NOW!!

USA TODAY Snapshot (top of page) shows us that what influences people the most when they make a buying decision is word of mouth from others.

How to gain a referral from a satisfied customer:

After you have made a sale to a satisfied customer all you have to do is ask 3 questions.
Have the 3 questions typed and the paper in front of the satisfied customers when you ask the questions.

1.Have I provided you with the product / service that will solve your sales problem?
When they reply YES, write YES at the end of the question.

“Have I provided the sales training you need to increase your sales?” YES
2. Are you totally satisfied with the service I have given you? YES
3. Will you recommend me to your friends, family and colleagues? YES

Now, all you have to do is ASK for some names. Yes, it is that simple. Satisfied customers will help you grow your business if you are aggressive enough to simply ASK them to help you.

Not all of your satisfied customers will give you referrals, but enough will to make a major difference in your bottom line if you ask, ask, ask and ask for referrals. You may have to ask more than once. They are busy people, and, like you, giving referrals is not their top priority.

Here are some easy ways to ask for referrals after you have asked the 3 questions.
1.Would it be more convenient for you to give me three or four names of your colleagues that I can also help increase sales for, now, or shall I telephone you tomorrow?

2.Which would you prefer, I telephone you tomorrow or stop by for a list of your business colleagues I can also help increase sales?

3.Shall I contact you later this week or Mary (office manager) for three or four people you feel I can help like I have helped you?

You get the idea. Giving them a choice gives them the feeling of control, and people will more readily do what you want them to do when they feel they are in control.

The top sales producers go one step further.
The top sales producers are more aggressive and ask the satisfied client to telephone or write a letter to the referral. As before, if you have provided the customer with a product / service that has solved their problem all you have to do is ASK them to make the call or write the letter. You may have to ask them more than once, but you have the right to ask them if you have delivered what you promised and they (using the 3 questions) told you they would refer you to their friends, family and colleagues.

Again, all you have to do is give them a choice:
“Bill, which would you prefer, to recommend me to 3 or 4 of your colleagues this week by telephoning them or by writing them a short note that I will mail for you to save you time?”

Increase your sales and profits by simply asking for referrals. After all, referrals influence what people buy more than anything else.

Related Articles
  Some write about 3 ways to increase profit
  How Greed Can Cost You The Sale
  Bad Business Profits Are Not the Way To Increase Sales
  Small business success
  Targeted Web Traffic Explosion From Back Linking Strategies

Article Tags: bottom line, colleagues, friends family, money, profitable customers, referral, referrals, satisfied customers, top priority, usa today, usa today snapshot, word of mouth



Related Forum Posts
Increase Productivity and Profits on the Web - A Web site is a great way to better service and market to current customers, but often a difficult way to attract new ones." Increase Productivity and Profits on the Web New! Don’t let the savings and productivity enhancements described in the following pages make you rush out and spend thousands of dollars overnight to have someone set you up with your own Web server, hosted Web site, or intranet.
Re: Joomla Now Has A GetResponse Module - Hi Kevin, Interesting that you tried Joomla and then gave up on it. So did I! There is a lot to be said for Joomla. It can make your site look very professional, you can completely change design in just a few clicks of your mouse, and if you add anything to a panel you can display it throughout your site... Also, Joomla does seem to suck in traffic. My traffic stats improved with Joomla, probably because of the interactive features it offers, such as the article directory feature and so on. However, I also experienced various frustrations with Joomla. HTML is simpler and you have complete control over your site, but you do have to recode every page when you make design changes... (unless you are prepared to learn CSS and then deal with all the browser problems...) Also, I market the Plug-In Profits Site and came to the conclusion that it would be better business practice to show my potential customers what can be done with a Plug-In Profits site by using one myself and modifying it to suit my purposes. After all, there is no better advertisement for a product than the fact that the seller also uses it! On the other hand, I know a lot of Internet marketers who love Joomla, so I think it is just a matter of choosing what works best for you. ... And if you like Joomla and use the GetResponse autoresponder service, life just got easier for you! David H
Recommended Books? - Hi Kevin Just a thought, have you ever thought about placing a section on your homepage called "Recommended Books"? It's often a known fact that people will be interested in what an expert recommends and could possibly increase the popularity of particular book reviews that you might like to promote more than others. Let me know if you've thought of this before or not and if it worked. Kind regards TheAnonymousMan
2007 Goals - My yearly goals for December 2007: 1. Add 10-15 new "ideal" clients to our client roster 2. Increase revenues by $500,000 3. Average at least 1 paid speaking engagement per month.
Happy Worker as of Dec 31 2007 - Here's mine... I'm now off to make an offering to the business planning gods for their help in getting to these goals & beyond. To the combined success of Prophets 2 Profits! ----------------------------------------- 1) Corporate a) Retail - Sales reps covering all major markets (1M or more) - Retail product launch plan - 1 more retail release (TBD) b) The Toy Agency - Systems for: o Creative process o Pricing o Manufacturing o Logistics - Marketing agency strategy in place - 1 new customer every 2nd month (5 new customers); 1 of which will be rev of >= 500K/year c) Business - Creative talent pool management strategy & process - Outsourced and/or weekly bookkeeping - Monthly budgeting & forecasting - Better banking organization (Line of Credit, CCs, automate billing for appropriate vendors) - Team total of 5 - Larger office d) Web site - Daily updates - Start of separation of Blog/TTA/Retail 2) Personal - Most weekends “off”! - Entirely separate personal finances; basic personal financing plan - Family….?


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

What Aweber Can Do For Your Online Business

Executives and Elevators Perfecting That Pitch

Leading with Discernment

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.