Monthly Archives: March 2013

Get Noticed…Get Referrals

Get Noticed . . . Get Referrals: Build Your Client Base and Your Business by Making a Name for Yourself, by Jill Lublin, McGraw Hill, 2008.

Lublin is a master at helping business owners like us build our businesses through the art of nurturing relationships and encouraging referrals.

She brings a wonderful energy and a wealth of experience to her workshops and books. I had the opportunity to travel to the California wine country to take one of her courses with my colleague and media extraordinaire, Judith Harlan. We both took away a huge amount of information to apply to our businesses and a bottle or two of wine tucked in the back seat.

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3 Tips to Build Referrals

It’s not hard to build a referral-base business if you are strategic about what you want for your business and how best to use your time and energy. Having your previous clients continue to buy from you and to refer to you is a very cost-effective way to grow your company.

Research shows that the average business owner spends about 30% of their time trying to engage new clients but the person working primarily from referrals spends about 5% of their time. So let’s get smarter about this so we all can enjoy the phone ringing with requests for our services. Here are three strategies I have found particularly helpful over the years. They work!

  1. Identify your most valued “referral partners”. Who is out there in your professional network that sings your praises and recommends you often? Nurture those relationships by staying in frequent contact, thanking them personally when they refer and returning the favor by passing on the good word about them and their services when appropriate.
  2. Develop a reputation “personal brand” so you are known as someone who is easy to work with, visible & available, reliable & dependable and most importantly you can be trusted to offer top quality services at a reasonable price.
  3. Ask for a LinkedIn recommendation (2-3 sentences) from clients who are wildly enthusiastic about your work. Get their permission to cut & paste the recommendation into your website using their name or initials, name of company or geographic location.
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