Why referral marketing works for the energy drinks business

Posted on November 05th, 2007 in Coaching, Marketing Tips

Over the weekend I attended a networking business opportunity meeting (BOM) for the first time in many, many years. I generally avoid attending these kinds of corporate sponsored events because I find the “hard sell” techniques the corporate encourages to be outdated, ineffective and pushes the average home-based business person like you and me away.

Actually, I was curious to see if the corporate pitch had moved with the times since I put in my last appearance with this particular program. Alas, like night follows day, some things never change!! Perhaps someday savvy corporate executives will catch on that there really are more powerful ways to snag customers than cold calling and trying to sell to one in 100. One of these superb business methods is called referral marketing.

So, what is referral marketing?

Referral marketing is one of the most cost effective ways I know to leverage your business building and achieve excellent results reasonably quickly – I say reasonably quickly because in referral marketing you are actually selling for someone else before you are picking up your own sales. It depends on the industry you are in how quick things happen.

But referral marketing is not selling, what is does deliver is the beginning of a solid relationship by sharing referrals, information, ideas and customer service. Referral marketing is about creating trust and establishing rapport. It’s about getting your referral sources excited about the joint financial benefits of your partnership.

Many networkers have built their entire businesses using this simple, but powerful strategy. People always prefer to do business with other people they know, like and trust, and by creating referrals you can automatically borrow upon someone else’s trust too.

The benefits with this kind of creative thinking are two fold. I believe that almost any customer or prospect that arrives by way of referral will be more qualified and a better fit for your products or opportunity. In addition, a highly targeted marketing campaign aimed at your referral sources can be one of the best ways to leverage your time and marketing budget.

When you build your referral system in a way that lets people feel good about referring you, your referral partners could potentially send you dozens of clients for a lower cost per customer (CPC) than most businesses spend to snag one self-generated customer.

So, what are the best ways to go about referral marketing?

Well, I could write a long lesson here, but there are others on the blogosphere who are better qualified, and I’d be doing you (and them!) a much better service by pointing a link …this post is about referral marketing after all.