Why Referral Programs
Bottom Line: If you want to sell your offerings faster and sell more of your offerings, you need to leverage referral sources – because your prospective customers believe the right referral sources have their best interest at heart.
Check out below:
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The Case for Leveraging Referral Sources
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The Case for Leveraging Managed Referral Programs
The Case for Leveraging Referral Sources
Business that comes in through the right referral sources is very desirable. In real terms this means:
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Sales Move Along the Funnel Faster. 69% of companies find deals move along the purchase process measurably faster when they leverage the right referral source. [Source: Heinz Marketing]
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Value of Sales is Higher. 59% of customers coming via referrals have higher lifetime value than those without referrals. [Source: Heinz Marketing]
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Closing Sales is Easier. 71% of leads coming through referral sources are more likely to close than leads coming without referrals. [Source: Heinz Marketing] and B2B business coming via referrals are 4 times more likely to make a purchase. [Source: DCR Strategies]
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Cost of Acquiring New Sales is Lower. 74% of businesses conclude that using referrals is the least expensive method of acquiring new clients. [Source: Web Profits]
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Competition is “Shut Out”. When businesses leverage referral sources well, they effectively eliminate their competitors from being considered during customers’ decision-making. [Source: Bridgemaker Referral Programs]
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Focus is on the Decision Makers. 84% of B2B decision makers start the buying process with a referral. [Source: Influitive]
The Case for Managed Referral Programs
When selling “Big Ticket” offerings, you face three harsh realities that combine to disrupt your ability to achieve sales targets:
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Customers want to minimize risk. Your prospective customers think purchasing your offering is potentially risky. As a result, their anxiety is high. At the same time, their organization’s reluctance to take risks leads to lengthy decision-making cycles involving multiple stakeholders.
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Customers want to feel confident that purchasing your offering is the best decision for them. To get assurances that purchasing your offering is the best for them, your prospective customers look to trusted referral sources – at least once somewhere during the sales process.
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Organization don’t systematically mange referral sources well. The most common approaches to leveraging referral sources have disappointing and unpredictable impacts on sales. As a result, departments within your organization responsible for generating revenues (i.e., Sales, Marketing and Product Marketing) choose to devote resources to activities that underutilize, ignore (and/or neglect) key referral sources.
The good news is you can harness referral sources in a structured, measured, and disciplined way – by following a Managed Referral Program.
