Asking your current customers and clients to recommend your business to others is one of the best ways to get more business. Here is a Q&A about this important technique.

How can I sell without all the hype that you often hear? I hate pushing my customers to buy things that they might not want.
One of the best pieces of advice that a salesperson can ever be given is to ‘just be yourself’ – this really is the recipe for success. Yet many Australians still think they have to sell with all the ‘fast one-liners’ taught by visiting sales trainers. You still have to sell your product or service, but what is more important is how you sell yourself.

So how can I lift my sales?
Here are some tips to take your sales to new heights: You’ve probably heard this saying before, but have you connected it to your product or service?

How many customers in the last week have you specifically asked for a referral? How many have been doing business with you and think you’re the best but haven’t delivered one new client to you? But then again, have you asked them for that referral? If you can harness this important skill, you’ll get more business.

This is how to grow your sales and therefore your business. You can spend all week making cold calls and not get anywhere. But if you ask an existing client if they’d call someone they know, you increase your chances of getting an appointment. Once you have that face-to-face appointment, then the rest is up to you.

How do I ask for a referral?
Sales trainer and author Paul Hanna gives some help here. He says to jot down the names of at least 10 people who’ve been doing business with you. Ask them to give you just one name and phone number of someone they think could enjoy using your product or service. Then see if they’ll phone ahead and explain to that person what you’ve done for them and what a great person you are!
Make sure you follow up if your client does contact someone on your behalf or you could lose two customers – the new person you didn’t call and your existing customer who could feel slighted that you put them to this trouble and then you didn’t phone.

How do I close a sale?
A lot of successful salespeople give away samples of products so a potential customer gets to see what the product is really like. Tim Pethick who started the Nudie fruit juice company used to give away bottle after bottle of his juices. This was part of his key marketing strategy. Nothing could compete with offering a ‘test’ sample.

Where in your business could you offer a ‘trial’ of your service or product? In the car business, the famous test drive has now been replaced by the overnight or weekend use of the car. Dealers have woken up to the fact that people aren’t going to spend big dollars on a car after just a ‘spin around the block.’

How can you make it easier for your clients to fall in love with your product or service?

By Peter Switzer, published on 7/04/2009

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