Asking for referrals

‘Word of mouth’ is a very important part of building your business.  This is when people use your business because someone else has recommended it to them.  Word of mouth should really be renamed ‘Word of WhatsApp’ by now, but regardless of how someone recommends your business to someone, you should do everything you can to prompt people to tell others.  This whole course has been about making your business remarkable so that people spread your message and mission, but you should also directly ask them to do so.  Make it part of your sales process.  Right at the point where you have just given a customer a great experience, ask for a favour in return.  Explain that you are trying to build your business and ask if they know if anyone else who might be interested in using you?  If you are not looking someone in the eye when they buy from you then put it in an email or give them a call after they have bought.

Run a referral drive to your tribe, get them all on board with helping to find other people just like them.  If your company’s mission is strong enough then asking each of your customers to help spread the word won’t be an unwelcome request.  Often, companies wait until they are desperate until they ask their customers for help – don’t wait that long.  Help your tribe to get you new customers.  Give them referral cards, create an amazing graphic they can email to their friends or share on social media, put a referral page on your website with a title that reads: ‘You’ve been sent a link to this web page because your friend is a customer of mine, and together we’re helping to bring about a vegan world.  They think that you would like that too.’

If you have enough profit in what you sell then you can also offer incentives for referrals.  This could be a straight payment for every new customer that someone brings you, or a donation to a vegan charity on their behalf.  But if you have made a company that people love, then simply sharing that with other people who they think will love it too will be enough of a reason to refer you to their friends.  If you’ve made a positive impact on your customer’s life, they want the ones they care about to have the opportunity to share that same experience also.