 There’s a lot of money to be made in referrals. But when is the best time to ask and what strategies work to close the most deals?
CNW Market Research did a study that evaluated the impact of generating referrals from owners at five different times after the sale and with a combination of other contacts.
These included:
- At delivery
- 1 call within a week of purchase
- 2 calls a week apart after purchase
- 3 calls within the first month of purchase
- 4 calls within 3 months of purchase at least 2 weeks apart
- Combinations of the above plus 6 month or 1 year anniversary calls.
All of the strategies produced referrals and sales. The lowest impact involved asking at delivery only. The highest rates of referrals were generated by making two calls a week apart in the two weeks following delivery, PLUS a call at the 1 year anniversary of the purchase. This strategy generated more than 3 referrals that resulted in 1 sale. Now that may not seem like much to you, but consider this: If you spend an average of 5 minutes on each call and you make a total of 3 calls plus the 3 referral calls to set the appointments, that’s a grand total of 30 minutes on the phone to produce one sale! Not to mention the fact that each customer represents a 2 to 1 sales ratio. In other words, after the first year of asking for referrals from your sold customers your sales will double!
The reason most people don’t double their business is the same reason explained by the master in an ancient text of wisdom:
'You don’t have because you don’t ask!'
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