Should You “Pay” For Referrals?  

You certainly should pay for referrals, though not necessarily in the sense that the headline might suggest.

Without a doubt, you should recognize anyone referring you business or potential business.  You want any referral sources to know that you are aware of their confidence in you and your business and that you appreciate their telling others about you and recommending you.  We human beings want and need acknowledgement of our efforts.  While that acknowledgement doesn’t necessarily have to be a direct payment per referral, it often is.  However, there are many other ways to offer thanks of tangible value.

You can offer coupons or bonuses for referrals.  If you have served your customers well, they will likely be very willing to refer other people including friends and family members to you, IF you give them the suggestion that they do so AND offer a small bonus to them and the people whom they refer to you.

There are several ways to get your current customers to send you referrals.  One is to send them some of your business cards, say five, with a code on them that identifies the customer from whom they have come.  When the referral brings in that card, he or she gets a special bonus or discount, AND the referring customer gets one also.  IF the bonus or discount is appealing enough, your customers will LOVE to pass out these cards.

Another form of recognition that works well is to offer a gift certificate to a popular local restaurant or for a popular store in your market area.  As you see the benefit of such a program, you will think of more variations.  In fact, the variations are even more beneficial to you than the same program all the time, year-in-year-out.

If you know the lifetime value of your customers, it is easy to understand how you can afford to be generous with both the referring customer and the new customer.

Remember, when it comes to your current customers, doesn’t it make sense to turn them into raving fans?  Imagine how nice it will be when your customers become your most effective sales force!  Nice thought, isn’t it?  But you can do exactly that with a systematized approach to developing your relationship with your customers.

Please don’t tell me it won’t work.  I’ve done it! . . . and done it more than once!

But you must take action now!  Start that program today!

To your business success!

Paul Elliott

Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog

© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.

Tags: psychology, scientific marketing, offline marketing, scientific testing, small business, , hypnotic marketing, guerilla, offline business, business