Sales: How to Get More Referrals

One of the most cost-effective marketing strategies to acquire more clients is through referrals. Getting a referral means a current customer has recommended your services to one of their friends or family members. This is as powerful as it gets, because people will only recommend you if you can provide a valuable service. They won’t recommend you if you are overpriced and not great at what you do.

Getting referrals should be second nature to any salesperson, and here are some tips to remember:

1. Request or ask for referrals at the point of sale. People are more open to referring you to friends once they have initially bought from you, but usually we fail to ask the question. If needed give them time to think who you could help. Leave them to fill in the feedback form and referral sheet for a few minutes and don’t rush them.

2. Reward a customer who refers a friend to you that joins. This can be as simple as a free personal training session or a club t-shirt. It’s basically a “thank you” for their help. Be sure to ask them again if they know of anyone else, to please send them your way.

3. Remind them about referrals. Don’t overdo this, but every now and again give a gentle reminder of what you have to offer in return for a referral. This could be in your newsletter, at the bottom of a text or during a conversation.

4. Reveal a referral program so that your customers know that the more people they refer, the better the reward. It could be a t-shirt for one person, a gift bag for the second person and so on. Have a grand prize draw each month — get a really good prize and tell anyone who refers a client to you that they get put in the prize draw for a chance to win the star prize. This could be anything from a pamper session at the spa, a meal for two or a mountain bike.