How To Ask Your Customers for A Referral?

First thing you have to realise is, we as human beings have this hard wired into our brains to want to help and support each other. No matter where you are in the world if you ask someone for help they will comply. Believe me this is from personal experiences. I’ve been the beneficiary of many a act of benevolence from friends, family as well as strangers, who would had incentive or nothing to gain by helping me yet choose to do so anyway.

Maybe I’ve been very lucky or maybe I’ve put the right energy into the universe and the universe has resonated. My favourite explanation is the universe is actually conspiring in my favour and she has my back. Before I get any more meta let’s go back to what the purpose of this post was.

How do you ask your customers for a referral. Simple just pick up the phone or email and ask!…. what’s that? you want more? You want to more practical steps as well as examples of how I have asked our clients for referrals and won new business as a result?

Ok here you go:

1) Compile a list of your clients, people whom you know as well as contacts who you think would be willing to introduce you to someone they know

2) Create an incentive, it could be cold hard cash or it could be in form of the referrer and the referee both getting a % off their next order i.e. Dropbox or Uber style. When we have done this people have just said don’t worry about the reward, I like you guys and I’ll intro you to the right person.

3) Do something a but more creative, to not only get the attention of the person you are in touch with as well as the person they are likely to point you too. See our Nutella campaign!

To Summarise: Your customers are busy people, if they like you enough they will be referring you to anyone who mentions XYZ service or good you offer. But sometimes we need a little prompt, a nudge toward the right direction.