Running a business is often about building and maintaining relationships. Many businesses get long-term repeat orders from their loyal customers. A good way to build relationship is by using referrals. If you are good at managing referrals, your organization will be much more efficient. When building referrals, make sure that you do this with good intentions. If you perform referrals management haphazardly, you may fail to get the results that you want. You should be able to control the outcomes and find out what are things that you want from referrals. Customers are looking for specific products and it is often difficult for them to get what they want. Referrals help to connect your business with potential buyers.
Because referrals are one of the primary sources of sales, you should also maintain good relationships with them. First of all, you need to respect the relationship that you develop with referrals. Don’t forget to express your gratitude and appreciation to referrals, each time they are able to bring prospects to your business. The actual transaction may fail to take place, but you should still appreciate your referrals for their effort. When people feel that they are being appreciated, it is often a good enough reward, even if they are not compensated financially. There should be a system to reward referrers, if they are known to perform well. Often, these referrers become the representative of your company, because people may not know that these referrers are not your actual employees.
When dealing with referrers, you should maintain ethics and integrity. Referrers should receive commissions in a proper manner and if they are still motivated, it’s a win for you. Having disappointed referrers is a curse for your company. It is possible that qualified referrers will end up promoting your competitors instead, which will cause you to get poor sales. It is also important for you to check your ego. If referrers are able to deliver what they promise, you should also do the same thing to them. Relationships will be maintained if you help out one another. Try to always be honest with your referrers. During your relationship with referrers, mistakes may eventually occur and you should understand that errors will continue to happen. There should be a clear system to define who is responsible for these mistakes.
When working with referrers you should know who you are dealing with. You should always have good intention and see people in a good light. The real value of the relationships can happen if you interact well with referrers. As an example, you may invite referrers in any company events, especially related to the project. Referrers will be happy when real values come back to them. When maintaining relationships with referrers, you should do it in a professional fashion. Regardless of whether you are using email, telephone or other means of communication, you should always treat referrers as respected professionals. This is essential if you want to see the relationship to blossom.
