Enterprise Nation

The Holy Grail of Marketing is for work to come to you via word of mouth. Referrals, or personal recommendations, are the most effective type of marketing - nothing is more powerful than the recommendation of a friend or someone whose opinion you trust and respect. So says, Susi White, and she’s here to show how you can achieve the holy grail of marketing.

Some home truths

If you're in need of a plumber, you're much more likely to use someone your neighbour or friend has used and found to do a good job, than you are to simply choose someone out of the Yellow Pages, about whom you know nothing.

Not only are referrals incredibly effective, they cost you absolutely nothing in terms of time or money spent on marketing - your satisfied customers do it for you. That's why it’s the Holy Grail of Marketing – personal recommmendations are free, take you no time or effort, and are incredibly effective at marketing your business and getting you new clients.

How to go about it

So how do you go about getting your clients to recommend you to their friends, relatives and colleagues?

• The first step is to make sure that your clients are satisfied. If they don't volunteer that information (by saying "Thank you SO much, the work you've done is fantastic" or something similar) then ask for feedback. Are they satisfied? If not, ask what you can do to improve, and then do it.
• The second step is to ensure your reputation is second to none. That means not just doing a great job, but also making sure that everything that surrounds your work is flawless.
• But the most important step towards getting referrals and personal recommendations is to ASK for them!

Often we're worried about being seen as 'pushy' when asking people to recommend us, but it doesn't have to be an awkward thing to say. When my clients talk about wanting to generate more referrals they get caught up in worrying about reward schemes and incentives, promising clients £5 or 10% off a future bill if they recommend a friend. In fact, incentivising the procedure can taint it with a slight feeling of being mercenary, or at its worst, using bribery to persuade people to recommend you to their friends.

When your service or product is brilliant, and your reputation second to none, you don't need to incentivize referrals, you simply need to remind your satisfied clients to do it by asking them, and making it easy for them to do so.

It's important that you ask for referrals in a way that you're comfortable with.

Personally, if a client expresses pleasure and satisfaction with the work I've done for them, I simply say something like: "May I ask you a favour? If you know anyone else whose business could benefit from my services, would you mind giving them my card or telling them about my website?" I then give them a couple of my business cards, and thank them in advance for passing on my name. I've yet to have anyone object and it never feels awkward as the way I ask is genuine, not pushy, and makes no mention of any monetary reward.

Try it in your business - if someone tells you that you've done a great job, ask them to pass the message on to someone else who could benefit in the same way that they have. It really is that simple - you just ask.

• Susi White, The White Havens