How valuable is a referral to your business?

If you are selling a product, a referral from an existing customer instantly removes all of the barriers to purchase. Your soon-to-be new customer isn’t questioning your claims, isn’t looking for testimonials and isn’t price shopping your competition.

The recommendation of someone they know, like and trust translates to instant credibility for your company and your products. Word of mouth trumps all.

Referrals are valuable to those of us in the service business as well. We don’t have to knock down the barriers to get to the decision-maker; the decision-maker will most often open the door, ask about our mutual acquaintance and listen openly to what we have to offer.

That’s a very different selling experience than cold-calling to get a few minutes on the calendar of someone who doesn’t have time, isn’t interested, can’t afford or just doesn’t need your services.

You would think every business, regardless of whether they are selling products or services, would have an active and thriving referral program. Unfortunately, many businesses struggle to nurture the relationships that lead to endless referrals.

There are three key ingredients to earning referrals:

Know, Like and Trust relationships are hard to build if you are looking for what you can get from the relationship. They are much easier to build if you are looking for what you can give to the relationship.

We’re returning to Anaheim next month to once again attend the Natural Products Association’s Expo West. We met many wonderful people at the show last year and have spent the past year nurturing those relationships.

We’re looking forward to continuing to build our know, like and trust relationships at this year’s show and finding those opportunities to give, give, give referrals to those we know, like and trust.

Let us know who we can refer to you and your business!