Wow, long gone are the days where you could continue sell new clients and not ask for a referral. As competition increases and the internet has broken most international boarders, the value of long term relationships and referrals are the future of any business.

What is staggering, is that many clients are happy to give referrals. There are plenty of statistics that indicate that clients will give you a lead if they are treated well. Though Sales Force their statistics show that 91% of clients would give great quality referrals, however only 11% of sales people ask for them, WHY?

The main reason in my belief why sales people do not get referrals is because the do not 100% believe in the product, serviceability of the product or service or some internal issues that they will not tell a client. When you have a sales agent that is 100% vested into the organisation and has 100% belief in the process, they have no issues in getting referrals.

Here are my 5 reasons to increase your referrals.

• Referrals increase your client retention rate.
  So many businesses spend so much money trying to get new leads through social media, advertising etc. However these clients will come and go quicker that mums cooked lunch. When you gain a referral, they are far more loyal as a client. Allocate some money on a referral program to gain a more loyal client.
• Your Average Transaction Size Increases
  As referral clients have more trust in your product and service from the start, they will be more inclined to spend more money with your organisation. The difference between your average transaction size and your referral transaction size will nearly be all profit. Referrals will make you ore money
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• Referrals give you testimonials
  Businesses are built on word of mouth advertising. The better the word of mouth the better your business. Because Referrals already have more trust in your product or service from the start they are more likely to give you testimonials if you ask for them. When you get video testimonials then they are a great source of advertising to build your business.
• Ask for them
  In many cases sales people will not ask for a referral like we saw with the statistic above. If this is your business how does it make you feel that your team are not getting the best possible prospect for your business. Make sure you incentivise your sales team to collect leads and place rewards. When you focus on the referrals watch them flow into your business.
• Start Now
  Many businesses say “we need to wait until we have the right referral program before we start collecting them” NO start collecting the referrals now. Find a way, make a way and if you need to call the lead yourself then do it. Never wait for the opportunity as we are all too busy and we will miss it. The best part of starting now is it will make you implement a great program

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