referrals Archives - Cathy Stucker

What would it be worth to you to receive a steady stream of new customers with little or no effort on your part? Would you be willing to pay 10% of the revenue they generate? 20%? 50%? Or do you believe that you can’t afford to pay anything?

During a recent discussion, I was surprised that people said they could not afford to ‘give up’ 20% in commissions to reach new customers. If you have more work than you can handle, that might make sense. However, most of the people who take this position do so because they think it is ‘not fair’ that someone else would get a percentage of the money they believe is theirs. My question is: Would you rather have 100% of nothing, or a smaller percentage of something? [Read more…]

I recently got this comment on my article about borrowing customers:

I sell an event planning service in upstate NY. I’m not sure any event planner I know would let me borrow some customers. Suggestions?

Although my original idea about borrowing customers was not to get your competitors to send you business, it is certainly possible to get business from your competition. Many businesses and professionals refer clients to their competitors on occasion.

Why would someone send business to you instead of working with the customer themselves? They may have more work than they can handle. Or the client may not be a good fit for them. The client may need services they do not offer, be in an industry your competitor does not specialize in, not have the budget for their services, or not fit their client profile in some other way. Instead of simply turning the customer away, they want to be able to refer them to someone capable. That could be you.

Here are a few suggestions on how to make it happen. [Read more…]

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