I Love It When This Happens

Posted on July 27, 2009

For quite a while, I’ve been preaching about staying in touch with your clients and keeping those relationships alive. This week Sam, a client of mine, really benefitted from doing that.

A few months ago, Sam acknowledged that he needed to create a system or process for keeping in touch with his clients. He made a list of the folks he’d done business with for the past 5 years and started calling them to check in.

One of his calls uncovered information about a project that will kick off within 6 months. A month later, Sam checked back in with Bob, the client, to see how things were going.

Bob updated him and promised to use Sam’s firm on the job. That was nice news.

But it gets better.

An hour later, Bob called Sam. As it turns out, Bob has a new project in town kicking off now. Bob called the architect on the job and told him to call Bob and have Bob do the work.

How cool is that?

Because Sam had taken care of the relationship with Bob, Sam got work. Just like that.

I love it when that happens.

business development, client relationships | Comments (0)

In Search of Referrals

Posted on July 1, 2009

I’m working on a project about why to get referrals, how to get referrals, and how to give them. In my research I came across these numbers, which may be familiar to some of you. They were new to me.

These are from an article by Matt Anderson, The Referral Authority, who cites the Sandler Sales Institute as a source.

5%–at best, the amount of business you will get from cold calls (justification for not making them?)

15%–how much business you’ll get when you call prospect Sally and say “Billy Jones gave me your name” and Sally didn’t know that Billy Jones had told you to call

50%–how much business you’ll get when Sally does expect your call. Billy called or emailed her to let her know you would be calling

80%–how much business you’ll get when Billy personally introduces you to Sally

So how are these numbers going to change what you’re doing today to get referrals?

business development, client relationships, communications, expectations | Comments (0)