Referral: an act of referring someone or something for consultation, review, or further action.
If you do any networking the word ‘referral’ is something you will hear at every meeting and you will be looking to pass business to your fellow members. But, how often do you consider working with referral partners?
It is something that we do here at ActionCOACH Black Country and that we talk to our clients about too so here are five reasons why you should have referral partners in your business.
1. Referral partners increase the size of your sales team
Whether you are a sole trader, small business or have a huge team out on the road selling for you – referral partners can act as an extension of that team. They become another person out there in the marketplace talking about you and if you get the right referral partners they will help to generate well qualified leads into your business.
2. Increased brand awareness
One way of getting people to know about your business is to get people talking about it. Word of mouth marketing is a strong tool for building your brand and this is where referral partners can be of additional benefit.
3. Clients trust referrals which leads to a better conversion rate
Trust is really important when you work with customers and referral partners. If you have built a strong rapport with your customers and they trust you then they are more likely to trust that anyone you refer them to will offer a great service and therefore the lead is more likely to convert.
4. Cost effective marketing
Marketing budgets can vary and without testing and measuring the results of your marketing you can often end up spending money on things that don’t generate any enquiries. Referral partners are a low cost (or free depending on your agreement) marketing tool so why wouldn’t you work on building these relationships to get your business growing?
5. Opens up new opportunities
Working in collaboration with partners can open doors to new opportunities that you never knew existed – this can be an exciting prospect for any business!
With the potential for increased leads and new opportunities referral partners are a great option for helping to grow your business so think about who you could work with on developing this sort of partnership.
If you think you would make a good referral partner for ActionCOACH Black Country contact Kerry at kerryhopkins@actioncoach.com
