Referrals: it's better to give than receive

I first read about referral marketing campaigns in the book, The Designer’s Guide to Marketing and Pricing by Ilise Benun and Peleg Top of Marketing Mentor. Yesterday I listened in on an informative webinar hosted by Duct Tape Marketing called Building a Referral Engine that shared more ideas for successful referral marketing. Below find the tips I found most useful from webinar panelists John Jantsch – Creator of Duct Tape Marketing; Bob Burg – Author, “Endless Referrals”, “The Go-Giver”, “Go-Givers Sell More”; Ivan Misner –  Founder & Chairman of BNI; and Ben McConnell – Principal, Ant’s Eye View.

Referral marketing tips:

• Shift your focus from getting to giving
• it’s not about you, it’s about them – take the focus off yourself
• Add value to others – freely share your knowledge
• Teach your referral partners what to listen for (“I can’t…” or “I need…”) – make it easy for them to give you referrals
• Create visibility and credibility: tell people what you do and show them you are good at it
• Establish relationships with new connections before asking for referrals
  • KNOW -> LIKE -> TRUST
• A great networker enjoys helping others
• Send a handwritten thank you note after receiving a referral
• Make strategic referral alliances with fellow business owners who serve similar clients (wedding vendors are great at this)
• Build relationships and the referrals will follow…

Do you have other great ideas for creating or maintaining a referral marketing program? Share your comments!