Posts Tagged ‘referral letter’
How One Small Referral Letter Can Be Used Many Times to Generate Leads
With all referral programs, it’s important to remember that you want this to do one thing, and do it well. A referral letter is the “next best thing” to having a personal referral, without that person knowing who will be reading their letter. It can be really simple or very complex – as long as the main message that you want to get out there is clear and well defined, then having many is a good thing.
All great websites out there have referral letters on client pages, more well know as testimonial pages. Here we have people (in some cases, allegedly) who have written in to compliment the site or product – doesn’t sound like much, does it? However, over 60% of purchasers have said that they 1) read these user generated comments and 2) that their decisions have being influenced by these simple little writings. So many companies spend lots of money on customer satisfaction programs and on client follow up.
With the current economic downturn, it’s no wonder that there is a high demand for these programs. Using this strategy has become so necessary that it’s worth mentioning again, briefly.
Ensure the sales process goes smoothly and to your clients satisfaction; follow up, each and every step of the way. When you’re assured of their satisfaction, then ask for a referral – or ask for a referral letter, depending on the product or service you are offering.
Where your company’s offerings are not in a wide demand setting, that is where referral letters will shine, and help to convert future customers. Knowing what these can do for your company, it’s one of those things that should be drummed into all staff – to ask for a referral, be it direct or as a letter.
Integrating these letters into a sales presentation is not always easy or needed, but having them on hand to allow prospects to review an honest assessment by a previous client of your product or service will go a long way to showing that your company holds its responsibilities highly and backs it up. Taking into consideration the effect the referral letter has on sales is not easy and it’s incredibly hard to find metrics to back it up, but it is a known fact that our opinions do affect others, however trivial they may seem to us at the time, and that this influence has a huge impact on every sales arena.
