What's a Referral Worth?

In today's economy, it's tough to be a salesman. If you think about it, in any job you are trying to sell something. Whether it's your service, your product, or yourself, whether you already have the customer, you have to KEEP selling them in order to keep their business. It's a tough market out there with a lot of competition. People are not afraid to do their research to go and find the best deal, whatever that may be.

You speak to any person who knows about sales or marketing and they will tell you that the best form of advertising is word of mouth, or referrals. What will increase that word of mouth traffic? Probably a reward or two for the person that sent business your way. The truth is that if your face is on TV or you have commercials everywhere, the odds that someone is going to use your product or service may be high. But if Tina's friend Wanda tells her that your service is the bomb.com, Tina is going to trust Wanda. And you should thank Wanda, because Tina is probably not the only one who listens to her. A tiny act of thanking someone in a big or little way could go miles for your business.

Think about growing your business and solidifying your customer base with a gift for those who give you the greatest compliment of all- a referral. Big gift or small gift, they will appreciate the fact that you took the time to thank them, even when they weren't expecting anything from the mention of how great a job you do. So ask yourself next time you get a referral- what is it worth?