Referral Leads: Honing Your Follow through Process for More Sales

Referrals are important to any kind of business; they are especially relevant to the B2B world, though. Marketing in the B2B world cannot be reduced to a few catchy advertisements the way it can in the consumer world. Referrals are one of the most effective ways of coming by new business.

According to marketing leader NowBlitz.com, not only do people in charge of purchase decisions at businesses respond more positively to referrals than to marketing messages from any other channel, they tend to stay with the businesses that they are referred to for longer, and to bring higher levels of business, as well. The question is, how does one set up one’s marketing to be take advantage of this channel?

It’s important to work out a referral-specific approach

Most businesses tend to treat referral leads no differently from leads obtained through other sources — marketers speak to such leads, attempt to nurture those relationships, and aim for conversions. Adopting the standard approach with referrals, though, misses an opportunity. Such leads can be so much more effectively harnessed when dealt with in specialized ways.

Start by researching the referrer

Since the person making the referral is probably a current or former customer or vendor, you are likely to have information on them to investigate. Researching the customer, you may be able to find key pieces of information that could you could fit in to advantage when you speak to the prospect. The more you are able to harness relevant ideas from the referrer’s experience working with your business, the more persuasive you can be.

Don’t just make it about you and the prospect

Referral leads are ideally dealt with as three-way conversations among the business, the referred prospect, and the referrer. It doesn’t take much effort — all email conversations only need to be copied to them. This is a good idea because usually, the referrer will tend to take great interest in sharing personal experience anecdotes with the referee, making the conversion process that much smoother.

It does take considerable referral cultivation to achieve good results

In most businesses, customers and other relationships turn referrer no more than 5% of the time. Yet, businesses that properly cultivate referrals usually find that they account for 25% of all sales. It’s important to develop the best practices possible for this marketing channel.

Find the best referrers: Your referrers could be good clients, service providers, friends or vendors. You need to study each one of them for their potential as referrers by looking at the size of their business, the personality of the individual that you are in touch with and so on. When you have a positively inclined referrer who appears to have influence in his sphere and represents a good, well-respected business, you should begin working with them.

You need to equip them for success: Talk to your best potential referrers to make sure that they are comfortable referring your business. You should also make sure that they understand why it’s likely to be a good idea to recommend your company to their contacts. You can ask them what kind of tools they need — guides and reports, for instance — for help referring your business to others.

Make it easy on LinkedIn: Your LinkedIn company page and profile are important referral resources. Linking these pages to your referrers can be an excellent way to allow them to make virtual recommendations and connections.

Show appreciation for your referrers: Referrers are important to your business, and you need to show your appreciation. It could be a simple thank you note, a gift card or something more substantial. Appreciation certainly is deserved, though.

Measure

It’s important to know how much time, you end up investing in effort and expense your investing name your referral program, and how much you’re actually getting out of it. Customizing your CRM software to make sure that seals the people in charge of sales record the source of every conversion can be immensely helpful.

Phillip Olden has worked in marketing for many years and enjoys the opportunity to share his sales techniques and insights with an online audience. He writes for several B2B websites on a regular basis.