Receiving referrals from your current customers is a great way to get new business for your B2B company. In fact, B2B businesses get 65% of their business leads from customer referrals. But how do you increase the number of referrals that you receive?
There are steps to take to encourage more people to refer you and help your business grow. This blog post will cover five ways to get more referral leads for your B2B company so let’s begin!
Do Referral Programmes Work for B2B?
Yes, most definitely!
One of the best ways to encourage referrals is through a referral programme. A referral programme is simply rewarding those who refer business to you with incentives. There are different types of rewards and programmes that you can use, but it’s important to remember one fundamental rule:
The reward for referrals should be more valuable than what they’ll receive from doing business with your direct competitors.
How Can I Improve My Business Referrals?
If you’ve started a referral programme but no one’s asking to join, here are a few easy ways you can improve your numbers.
1. Multi-Channel Communications
Make sure to communicate to your existing clients about your new referral programme!
Send emails, reminder emails and post about it on social media (especially LinkedIn!). You want to keep the awareness about your programme alive so that people remember they can earn rewards for referral leads.
2. Make It Personable
You want your referral programme to feel like a game, not an obligation.
You can structure your incentives in a fun way so that people can see exactly how much they’ll earn for their referrals.
You want to keep the momentum going, so it’s important not to forget this step!
3. Start with Your Happy Customers
Satisfied customers are your best advocates.
Happy customers are usually willing to support your business because they feel you could meet their needs, so try reaching out to them first with the referral programme.
Pro-Tip: Don’t forget to ask your most loyal customers why they love your product or services. Their answers make great case studies or powerful testimonials to display on your website!
4. Make Referrals Easy
The fewer hoops your referrers and prospects have to jump through, the better.
If your referral programme is too complicated, people won’t want to bother.
Make sure your referral programme is easy to understand. Here are some simple ways you can make it easier for people to be advocates of your business:
- Assign a unique tracking code to those in your programme.
- If new customers sign up through a form, make it compulsory to write their referrer’s name if a referral is how they found you.
- Encourage referrals at every touchpoint you have with your existing customers.
- Have a dedicated landing page for your referral programme.
- If you have a referral programme, be sure to give updates on how much they have earned for referrals, special deals around their referrals and helpful hints and tips on referring more businesses.
5. Nurture the Relationships With Your Advocates
If you have a customer who has already referred people to your business, it’s important to show appreciation for their referral and let them know the outcome of that referral. This encourages them to continue referring more people.
It is important not to underestimate the power of personalisation in your rewards!
By following these five steps, all that’s left to do is wait for your referral leads to come in.
Why Are B2B Referrals Important?
According to a recent report, 65% of new B2B business leads come from referrals.
Referral leads also have a 50-70% close rate, far higher than other channels like social media or PPC.
Considering the amount of time and money you save through word-of-mouth marketing, it is worth keeping in touch with these leads to convert them into customers. By nurturing these relationships, they also will become advocates in spreading word about your brand!
Before you know it, your B2B referral leads will be pouring in!
How Do You Address Poor-Quality Referrals?
If the quality of your leads is terrible, you shouldn’t consider your referrers as the sole source of issues. In fact, you should start by reevaluating your own business first:
- Is your business’ unique value proposition clear?
- Are you conveying the right idea about who you’re targeting?
- Do you have an onboarding process for referrers in place?
- Do you provide feedback to your referrers (both positive and constructive)?
If you think the issue lies in the referrer, it’s vital that you provide actionable advice on how to increase the quality of referrals. The key is to focus on incentives for delivering quality referrals rather than what they are lacking. Don’t forget; you are dealing with humans here!
Of course, you should also set some boundaries. For example, if you consistently receive low-quality referrals from the same person, you can consider removing them from your referral programme.
In short, make your referral programme fun; keep people on their toes by understanding what motivates them to refer clients or new businesses to you. If they make more money, they will continue referring you to more qualified clients!
Bottom Line
Remember that referrals should be an easy process. The more effortless it is for your customers to refer you, the better. People will naturally want to spread the word about you when they are happy with your product or services.
And by investing in your LinkedIn profile and growing a solid network with people in your industry, you’ll always have a steady stream of referral leads coming through the door.
