Red Zone Marketing's Blog

Adding A Simple Referral System Into Your Business

Positive word of mouth is one of the most coveted outcomes of great products and service. It is also possibly the best thing that can happen to any business. A good reputation (that people are talking about) generates referrals -- which are often the most profitable leads that a business can receive. Clients acquired through referrals are more loyal, easier to close, more cost efficient; and in turn are often the ones to give you even more referrals.             

Consumers today trust a personal recommendation over traditional advertising, brochure, website, or other company communications. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), two-thirds of all economic activity in the United States is influenced by shared opinions about a product, brand or service. Yet according to eMarketer -- a leading website on digital marketing and media research and analysis -- only 18% of businesses have a referral program in place.

While most of us inherently understand the benefits of having our clients refer their friends, family, and colleagues, we simply fail to actively make it part of our marketing plan – and realize that earning and acquiring referrals requires a systematic approach.  Here are 3 simple ideas to add a referral system to your business:

1. Put “Referrals” on your meeting agenda so you don’t forget to address them – even just briefly in your client meetings.
2. Answer the question, “Who Cares?” When you describe your firm, make sure you’re talking in benefits, not offering a laundry list of services. Benefits affect people. Your proposed and perceived benefits will be what is remembered and passed along.
3. Schedule a referral appreciation event. This is an event only for those who have already introduced you to others during a specified period of time (Don’t Miss The Boat). It is in stark contrast to the often ineffective client appreciation events where you hope your clients will bring a friend and often don’t.

The key is focus. Anything you focus on actively in your business will certainly have more results than if you didn’t!

Guest Blog: Better Service Equals Better Referrals

Guest Blog from Bill Cates, President of Referral Coach International

Know Your Competition

When you know your competition well, it not only gives you a selling advantage early on, but also continues to help you serve and sell to your client throughout the relationship. You should always serve your clients with the knowledge that they are your competitors’ prospects.

Do you know what pressures your clients are under to move their business? Do you know what they say to all those other financial professionals who call them? If you don't, I suggest you get to know your clients better and find out. The more you know about your competition, the more you can do to make sure you are better than they are.

Your clients may not use you for all their financial needs. Do you know who else they are using and why? Do you know what they like and dislike about them? Not only will you learn from this, you may also find opportunities to increase your percentage of the business they do with you.

Get to Know Your Clients Better

Whenever possible, get to know your clients beyond what brought you together in the first place. Form business friendships with as many clients as you can. Get to know them as people. Take a genuine interest in them. Not every client wants you to do this, but most will appreciate it.

The clients who give me the best referrals and continue to give me referrals long after I've served them are those I now count as business friends. If your attitude is strictly business, you are probably missing tons of opportunities for referrals, not to mention more business from your existing clients.

Bottom line - creating business friendships increases client loyalty and enhances your referability.

Survey Your Clients – Over the Phone

You should be constantly asking your clients, "How am I doing?" "If we could do one thing better, what would it be?" And you should be asking these questions over the phone – not in writing. Here are 6 reasons to conduct your client surveys over the phone:

• You obtain more useful information – it’s easier to talk than it is to write.
• You demonstrate how much you care about serving them well.
• You obtain more honest information – it’s easier to “open up” over the phone than in person.
• Your response rate will be much higher – close to 100 percent.
• This is another personal contact with your clients.
• You can communicate feelings and intentions much better in a conversation than you can in writing.

Sometimes the Little Things Are the Big Things

- Serve them by giving referrals. If they have a need, financial or otherwise, and you’re not the right person to serve them, connect them with someone who can. Follow up to make sure your referral has “gone through.”

- Don’t just be there for them from 9 to 5. Handwrite your cell phone number on your business card as you give it to them. They’ll likely never use it unless they really need to, but it reassures them.

- Keep your word. Doing what you're supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it, is the very minimum required to provide good client service and get referrals.

- When something goes wrong and it will, apologize. When you apologize, you’re not admitting fault, you’re just sorry they are being inconvenienced. It reduces tension because it demonstrates you are there for them. (Almost no one in business ever says they're sorry.) Then, immediately after you apologize, fix the problem as quickly as possible. Even if it’s too late to fix the problem, they’ll feel better if you really listen to them.

- Set high service standards for yourself and your firm, and tell your clients about them.

- If a clients stops doing business with you, don’t burn the bridge. Go out of your way to make them feel comfortable about coming back.

- Say “thank you” every time you get the chance.

Want to learn more? Sign up for Bill Cates & Maribeth Kuzmeski's 2011 Client Acquisition Boot Camp. Register today and save $100!

Cultivating Relationships NOT Worth the Time?

Proactively cultivating relationships is often an afterthought. We are just too busy trying to get through the workload directly in front of us. And, relationships are not what we DO in our businesses, right? Most firms are not in the “relationship business.”  You are in the [INSERT your core offering] business. Simply spoken: We need sales, not more friends!

STOP RIGHT THERE!! Above is an excuse that we often create (myself included), subconsciously or consciously, for not finding the time to do one of the most important things directly affecting growth and profitability. 

Intuitively we know that relationships are important, but let’s just focus on the logical. When you look back on your sales from last year, evaluate the “why” when thinking about your best clients and your biggest sales. Quantify the value of the referrals you received, the word of mouth, and repeat business. When you add it all up, you may notice that the way others “feel” about you is critically important. They certainly would not go out of their way to do business with you or talk about you with others just because of your product or service offering.  There are probably many others who can do or provide the same offerings.

There's often a direct correlation between the quality of your relationships with prospects and clients, and the rate of sales and growth in your business. The question is, what will you do about this in 2011? How about you reach out to 1 person each day above and beyond your regular work. It may just make the tipping point difference.

Guest Blog: New Kids on the Block

Guest Blog from Lena Rizkallah of Mosaic Consulting

The results of November’s tumultuous mid-term elections are in: for the third time in four years, a significant change has taken over Congress.  The Republicans took back the majority in the House while the Democrats maintained their lead in the Senate, albeit by a slim margin.  Overwhelmingly, the shift among voters resulted from the state of the economy, job losses and an uncertain future.

One thing is clear: the election results demonstrated what is most on the minds of Americans today, and that is the state of the economy.  It’s critical then to keep this in mind when meeting with your clients and prospects (because it’s clearly on their minds too).  They may be tired of talking about the slow economic recover and may be tired of hearing about it, but that’s because they’re ready to see results.  Are your clients and prospects still looking to you to help them as the economy continues to recover, or are they too looking to shift the balance in power and seek advice elsewhere?

It is in the best interests not only of the country but also for the future of our political leaders to make economic recovery the number one priority.  Not the repeal of the health care bill.  Not the pushing forward of a cap and trade bill.  Not a prolonged dissection of the Dodd-Frank Bill. And, seriously, the US can wait on whether to legalize marijuana or not.

That’s not to say that these issues are not relevant, and they certainly should be given their fair turn in debate in Congress.  But for now, let’s focus on the real issues at hand: setting policies into place that would lead to an economic recovery and long-term economic growth; creating incentives to encourage job creation; providing small business incentives; and for Pete’s sake, let’s make some decisions on where taxes are headed already!

President Obama has a tough road ahead of him.  Now that the Republicans are back in town, along with some Tea Partiers, it will be more challenging for him to push through his agenda.  In fact, the elections will probably cause him to scale back his ambitious agenda and result in a more conciliatory approach.  In his speech last Wednesday, President Obama indicated that he welcomes collaboration and bipartisanship to take shape in the next few years.  But judging from the squabbles of the past two years, it’s unclear whether either party will actually ‘play nice.’

Hopefully, with more clarity on income, investment and estate tax rates and a focus on the economy, Americans may finally leave the land of uncertainty and return to the land of prosperity.  It is important to address these concerns directly with your clients and prospects.  Be the one they can trust to get them back on track.  Lead them out of the current turmoil and you will have a wealth of happy clients--which could result in fantastic referrals and new clients too!

Marketing Botox

 

 

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing 

Botox is not a permanent solution to aging and wrinkles. It is a superficial fix and after a few months the same old wrinkles reappear. There is often the urge for a similar approach to marketing efforts. Many businesses are looking for a quick fix to bring on new business fast. Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with a quick fix. But if you have a quick fix, you end up doing it over and over again instead of getting to the root of the issue and developing a longer term strategy-based solution.

We look at one main indicator to determine the health of the business, and ultimately it is quite simple.

The indicator: Are you getting as many qualified referrals as you believe you deserve?

When you evaluate your ability to generate referrals you are taking a look at the core of your business and the strength of your business relationships. Relationships tell so much about longevity and success. Marketing tactics may generate new business, but typically, the most powerful strategy for new business in a service-based firm is one that most don’t even consider a marketing tactic. Generating referrals is a marketing strategy and it is gives a clear look deep into a business.

If a business is lacking referrals, the first reaction may be to look outside of the client base to attract new clients by advertising, sending out direct mail, conducting workshops, etc.  The best plan of action may be to use some quick fix strategies, while at the same time looking more in depth at the business. Evaluate and improve the service, the communication, the interactions, the web presence, presentation of your benefits, and ultimately the ability to generate referrals. Marketing Botox alone will rarely get a business where they want to go – but it sure will keep you busy. Busy thinking of new quick fixes to your business challenges.

 

Thank you to the staff of Red Zone Marketing: Representing my staff of 7, on Saturday Jolene and Denise showed up at my house and completely surprised me with beautiful roses and an ice cream cake…for Bosses Day! They know the direct path to my heart! It was better than my Birthday (I didn’t have to get older to get gifts ☺), and I didn’t even know it was Bosses Day last week! Thank you, thank you! 

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Be a Viral Video Star

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

I think we’d all agree that meeting with customers face-to-face is vital to earning more referrals and winning more business. But it can often be a difficult task given busy schedules, long distances, and the sheer number of clients you serve. An innovative solution to this challenge is to deliver short messages to prospects and clients via video. There are services that allow you to quickly and easily create and deliver personalized, emotional, and relevant video content to clients—and then send it through email (check out www.AdvisorTLC.com for one example). And they will help you pass your video through compliance for approval before transmitting. Another resource is to record a video and post it on your own YouTube channel (see mine for reference: www.YouTube.com/redzonemarketing). For control, you can turn off the ability for others to comment on your videos and even keep your videos private so only those you have invited will have access.

You can use video for a number of things—to deliver market updates, provide education, give referral introductions, transmit thank you messages, announce special events, product information, and updates. But keep your video under 3 minutes – it seems to be a palatable length for busy people. Video even allows you to automate the ability to receive more highly qualified referrals. The biggest benefit to using video—beyond crafting a more personalized message—is the ability to go viral. For example, one entrepreneur videotaped himself and his staff singing a quick ‘Happy Birthday’—a video that each of his clients receive via email on their respective birthday. He has already counted fourteen referrals from clients who have passed it along to their family and friends! It works because it is a little unique – and it is you. 

Check out the new book, …And The Clients Went Wild! for more helpful tips for growing your business.

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3 Reasons Some Financial Advisory Firms Have NOT Recovered

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

I know a few financial advisors who, just 3 years ago, were extremely successful. People were lining up to work with them. Today, they are just shells of their former selves. Why haven’t they recovered like many of the other advisory firms that survived after the market downturn? Why isn’t 2010 turning into a great and profitable year for them? Why are they having trouble acquiring new clients? Why isn’t their marketing working? If you find yourself in this boat don’t give up hope yet.  A successful recovery in 2010 can still be achievable for you, but you must be willing to work. There are 3 basic reasons that explain the less than satisfactory year these advisory firms are experiencing. Here they are:

1. The leader of the organization has not changed with the changing times. And changing is not about implementing all sorts of new strategies. When times get tough, the advisors who have thrived have gone back into sales, over-serviced current clients, focused on a niche, committed to reaching out to 5 new people a day, etc. What worked before will work again.

2. Referrals from clients have ceased and referrals from other professionals have as well. If your clients are not talking about what you do – there is a reason. Clients certainly know others that are nervous about their retirement and their investments. Give your clients reasons to be great advocates again.

3. No significant value is being communicated to the public. If a firm is providing value but no one is talking about it – is it really value? Either the firm is not providing significant value or people are unaware of the value.  Clarifying what you are truly providing clients is critical today.  Let people know about your best attributes, or find some new ones!  

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