Building a Referral-Friendly Business

Referrals are an important part of any successful business.Theyre a great way to keep building your customer base,
year after year, without having to go out and pay foradvertising. Instead, you use the power of your current
customers to help you continue to grow.

Referrals really are golden. For one thing, in this time-crunched age where everyones so busy, people are
more willing to depend on the advice of trusted contacts.It saves them from spending time in laborious research.

Referrals also produce a snowball effect. Happy customers tend to have a good idea of which one of their
friends would appreciate your product or service. They refer people similar to themselves... who also refer
people they know... and so on.

But one of the best things about referrals is that theyre easier to convert into customers! Its fine for YOU to
say that you provide a great product or service -- but when someone else says it, it instantly has more impact...
especially when it comes from a trusted friend or contact.Your credibility and expertise have been established by
the referrer.

However, many business owners assume that just because they do a good job, referrals will happen automatically.
This isnt true; people often need a little encouragement to send referrals your way. Its up to you to take a more
active role in making them happen.

Go ahead and tell your customers that youll do your best to make sure theyre happy. Then let them know that you
would welcome any referrals -- in other words, simply ASK for new referrals. Encourage them by offering referral
incentives.

For example, offer a referral bonus or discount. Offer free gifts, extra entries into a contest, whatever is
appropriate for your business. And ALWAYS send a thank-you note and possibly even a small gift to the referrer
... regardless of whether or not the person he referred becomes a customer. This will show that you appreciate
him thinking of you. Everyone likes to feel appreciated,and hell be more likely to continue to send referrals
your way. You never know -- someone he refers in the future might very well become a customer!

Another example of how to generate referrals is to write articles and distribute them around the Internet. Once
again, if you get published you instantly have more credibility -- you build an "expert" status, so to speak.
Many article syndication sites offer a feature that allows the reader to email the article to a friend... and articles
are often passed around from person to person through email.
In both of the above cases, your business automatically has more "clout" than, say, if a prospect were to simply
visit your website. In the case of a referral, the prospect has already been at least partially influenced
by his or her friend or contact... which makes your job of converting him to a paying customer that much easier!

A referral-friendly business is one which can continue to send you new customers day after day, year after year.
Encourage it and reward it!

About the the author.

Angela is the editor of Online Business Basics, an exclusive newsletter for eBusiness beginners. She offers
a no hype, no bull approach to building a profitable Internet business. Every issue is packed with helpful
tips and useful tools, specially selected to fit a beginners shoestring budget. Visit her online today
at http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/article.html OR businessbasics@workyourleads.com for a series
of 10 free reports on building a business on the web.

:To contact see details below.


angela@onlinebusinessbasics.com
http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/