Before You Ask For The Referral: B2B Marketing Advice

 Most customers defect to a competitor due to perceived indifference on the part of their current solution provider or vendor.  I’ve heard statistics as high as over 70 percent.  Defection due to price, superior product generally occurs at a much lower rate.

Ask any business owner and they’ll tell you that referrals are the best source for generating new business.  But how does your customer feel if they haven’t heard from you in a long time and now here you are asking for a referral?

So the critical question is what are you doing to show your customers that you care?  What do you do proactively to show that you care about them and the success of their business?

That monthly eNewsletter is not enough.  Your outreach must be genuine and personal.

Print out a list and commit to calling 5 customers a week just to check in and find out if what you implemented for them is working well for them.

Once a week, take a customer out for lunch.

Prioritize your list of customers based on how profitable, delightful, reference-able they are and every other week send one person on the list a business book that you’ve found particularly helpful.

Keep a stack of postcards or logo’d note cards by your computer and drop a personalized note to a customer every day.

Not only will you cultivate a better relationship – less susceptible to defection and more conducive to referrals – you’ll probably uncover a number of projects that you can do for them.

You may also be interested in reading: 

• Customers With Morning Coffee
• Reconnecting With Your Customers:  Start With One A Day
• Using Google Alerts To Connect With Customers