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Marketing
More importantly, what questions have you you realise why most successful people are
6. We don't have the money!
forgotten to ask about us? You can never know good at asking for referrals the better. They
Again, remind us of the cost of not acting. Offer your customers well enough, and you want to aren’t bashful or afraid to ask. And there’s no
us a discount for prepayment, and/or split the make sure you have qualified us with sufficient shame in asking for help. In fact, you might
payment terms. thoroughness so you don’t waste our time and even be pleasantly surprised that people are
Offer us a finance option or a lease option. we don’t waste yours. generally more than willing to help.
Take away some of the value you offer and
lower the price. Ask us on a scale of 1-10 how Fraser Hay is the founder of www.theresult- 9. Give and thou shalt receive - just
serious we are about wanting to solve the
sacademy.com, the business coaching club don’t take it for granted
problem, and how much we can afford to lose that offers four things to its members – knowl-
or continue to lose compared to the price you edge, contacts, opportunity and results. Some of you may have heard about the often
propose to charge. misunderstood ethos of givers’ gain. It means
Why not offer us a 100% return on our in- that you give help and referrals without expec-
vestment? tation of reciprocation. Great referral marketers
Referral Marketing get referred because they are the people you
7. Uh, we have a question...
go to whenever you need to get to know
someone else. They are the first people you
Unanswered questions prevent sales from
8. You didn’t ask!
call when you need an introduction, to see who
happening, so draw out the key answers in they know. Giving without expecting anything
advance via a list of frequently asked ques- Asking for referrals is simple but few people do back makes you highly attractive and highly
tions on your website. Pre-empt the questions it consistently or effectively. If you’re like most referrable. Givers’ gain isn’t about karma or the
by saying to us ‘you're probably wondering… people you probably wait until we offer to refer laws of universal tree hugging.
well, what we do is…’ Because, you know, we you to our contacts, because you don’t like to
were wondering that. be too pushy.
10. You’re unreferrable
Unanswered questions can be eliminated You do a good job, we like you, you deliver
by identifying the unasked questions, and an- what you promised, you go the extra mile and Selfish networkers are two-a-penny. They can’t
swering them before we prospects even think that means we ought to refer you to our wait to tell us about themselves, they force-
of them. Unanswered questions are usually the contacts, so why don’t we? feed us their business cards, they try and sell
result of a lack of product knowledge or - and Because, as your customers, excellent ser- to us constantly and they hound us to refer
this is much more potentially damaging - a lack vice is our minimum expectation. When was them. The sole purpose of our existence is to
of belief in the product or lack of sufficient the last time you bought a product or service fertilise their egos. If you’re one of these peo-
research into the nature of the market and your and you were pleased because it didn’t meet ple, change your behaviour fast. You become
customers’ needs. the expectations you were sold? The sooner unreferrable if you don’t follow up. If you don’t
40 • issue 164 Business Matters
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