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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] ask their members to put their initials on the cards when they give them out. They encourage clients to give out three or four at a time because people like to come with friends or family. They allow members to bring up to twenty-four guests a" year at no charge. Probably 30 percent of these guests become members, and a great many of those who don't will return as clients on a pay-as-you-go basis. A sales rep for AT&T is a member of the chamber of commerce in his area. People there know he's really helped other members, and they automatically give him referrals. He closes about 75 percent. (Organizations like Lions Clubs, Rotary clubs, and charity groups are excellent vehicles to good referrals.) A photographer photographs about three hundred high-school seniors in an eight-week period every year. When they call in to initially book, he educates them about the whole process, but he also recommends that they bring in their friends at the same time. They photograph as many as seven or eight kids at a time, and each kid gets a free eleven-by- fourteen-inch photo of the group. It takes nothing away from their individual sales, but the eleven-by-fourteens normally list for $94. They cost $6, but they develop goodwill and get many of those kids into the studio. An investment broker does business with institutional investors. How does he reach the CEO? How does he get to the top person? By going to retired senior executives, former regulators, or anyone who has had contact with the current decision makers. They get excited because the broker pays them 10 per-cent of the gross and shows them the contract - 79 - they can sign. Now he's got referral people bringing in more referral people who are friends of theirs. About 20 percent of his business comes from referrals each year. A car dealer gains referrals through helium-filled balloons. Balloon packages are delivered to clients who buy a new car. People ask about the balloons because there's no advertising on them. The client then volunteers a great buying experience, generating referrals. Within nine months, business from referred clients increased 58 percent. An orthodontist's referrals all come from general dentists. He invites them every six months to his office for a "lunch and learn." They come with their entire staff and he shows them around and gives them a nice lunch. He has always extended professional courtesy to the doctors, their families, and their staffs, but now he tells them that. During lunch he explains all that he can do for them (and their patients) in orthodontic care. The results have been incredible. A hair-transplant doctor sends a letter offering a limited number of free grafts to the client base. If a client brings a friend he'll receive thirty free grafts. From six hundred letters he got one hundred new clients, and the cost was pennies. Each new client is worth $30,000 over the long term. A large apartment complex gives people a $100 credit toward their monthly rent for each person they refer and who moves into the complex. And they'll go sequentially all the way up to $900 a month. After you reach $900, they'll give you $900 toward next month's rent for each additional person you refer to them. They expanded this concept to include a lifetime referral fee. If you live in one of their properties and then you move out-assuming they didn't evict you-they'll pay you a referral fee of $150 cash, per referral who moves in, for as long as you live. This has worked very, very well for them. On the back of their business-reply envelopes, an audiotape and CD publisher asks for referrals: "If you know of anyone else who would benefit from our products, please give us their name and address and we'll send them our catalog." They get thou-sands of referrals this way. An optometrist sends a very simple thank-you note which he handwrites to patients who have referred other patients to him. If you have "Dr." in front of your name, laypeople aren't expecting to be acknowledged by you, much less thanked. When you do, it creates a large impression on people. What the doctor discovered from handwriting the notes him-self is that he was sending them to the same people over and over again. If you were sending out a computer-generated form letter, I doubt it would have the same impact. A client from Boston told me that anytime he referred some-one to his dentist, the dentist sent him a written thank-you note and a lottery ticket. He said he'll never forget that, and he continues to refer people to his dentist. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |