Get More Referrals- NOW!

by | Jul 12, 2022 | 0 comments

The Rule of 3 – for every customer you make, turn them into 3 customers.

Transcript
Kimberly Beer:

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Jaz:

Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a

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gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how

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to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques, and tools

Jaz:

that will take overwhelm to obedience school, and have you

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wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts, Kim Beer, and

Jaz:

Cara Taylor Swift.

Kimberly Beer:

Hey there business animals. It's Kim with

Kimberly Beer:

Be More Business

Cara Taylor Swift:

and Cara with Fast Horse Photography. Hey,

Cara Taylor Swift:

Kim, how are you today?

Kimberly Beer:

I'm doing great Cara. You know, what I'm really

Kimberly Beer:

thinking about today is I'm thinking about I want more

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customers?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Well, that seems like a normal thing as a

Cara Taylor Swift:

business owner to be thinking about?

Kimberly Beer:

Well, you know, the economy is is kind of weird

Kimberly Beer:

right now. And it's very concerning. It is weird. Yeah.

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And, and concerning all the way around. And you know, with all

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of the craziness going on in the world, people get distracted.

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And I'm over here going that I want more customers in my

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business. And I wonder if there's other people out there

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that are thinking that same thing?

Cara Taylor Swift:

I would think so especially right now, with

Cara Taylor Swift:

all the uncertainty that there's probably not a ton people out

Cara Taylor Swift:

there that are like, I've just got too many customers, if

Cara Taylor Swift:

you're one of those people, that's awesome. And I hope that

Cara Taylor Swift:

continues for you. And you find a way to manage all of those

Cara Taylor Swift:

customers. But for those people that are out there, and they're

Cara Taylor Swift:

trying to figure out how to bring in more people. We want to

Cara Taylor Swift:

talk about that today, right?

Kimberly Beer:

Well, yeah, that's why I'm thinking this is

Kimberly Beer:

a very timely topic in my life, because I like to live in my

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business by the rule of three, which says, for every customer

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that I make, I want to make three customers. So I want to

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turn them into two more customers. So I have a total of

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three new customers on my books. And I'd actually actually like

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to turn them into more. And sometimes that does happen. But

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for every new customer that I make, I definitely want to have

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three on the books by the time things are done. So that's what

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our topic is about today is how to get those three customers for

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every one that you have. And I do that by getting referrals. I

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think referrals are an incredibly impactful part of

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your business. And we've talked on this show a lot about some

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different things. We've talked about customer loyalty, we've

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talked about testimonials, we've talked about getting reviews,

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we've talked about social proof, all of those things are under

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that larger category of social proof. But we've never really

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deep dived into referrals and how to create more referrals for

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your business so that you can magically turn one customer into

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three customers on your books.

Cara Taylor Swift:

I love that I think about how as small

Cara Taylor Swift:

business owners and animal based industries, a lot of times we

Cara Taylor Swift:

get really lucky and we land that first customer because

Cara Taylor Swift:

we're putting ourselves out there or we know somebody and

Cara Taylor Swift:

it's it's through a referral process, or it's just because we

Cara Taylor Swift:

get lucky. But how do you take those early customers and

Cara Taylor Swift:

convert them into many, many, many more clients. And I think

Cara Taylor Swift:

that's probably a big challenge for people because it does

Cara Taylor Swift:

involve, you know, an Ask involves putting yourself out

Cara Taylor Swift:

there a little bit, it involves making a referral. So that's the

Cara Taylor Swift:

first one of our big three actually is to ask. And, you

Cara Taylor Swift:

know, as Kim says, it's that simple is to ask, the second of

Cara Taylor Swift:

the big three that we'll cover is to make it easy. And the

Cara Taylor Swift:

third is offer a reward. So what does all of that mean? Kim, do

Cara Taylor Swift:

you want to jump into the Ask piece of that?

Kimberly Beer:

I do, because I think this is the part where

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most business owners sort of fail at getting referrals, they

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have a customer come into their business, they work with that

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customer and then the customer leaves. And that's that now the

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customer may come back and the business may reach out and

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encourage that return customer to come back, which is just

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fantastic. You decidedly want to do that because return customers

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spend like 70% more on your business than a new customer

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will. So it's really important to have the customer loyalty and

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have them come back in. But what's true about humans that I

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know is birds of a feather flock together well, I just made

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humans birds but birds of a feather do flock together.

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That's a horrible cliche that's been overused a billion times.

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But it's really effective in this instance, because human

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beings very rarely have an interest in a vacuum. In other

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words, if they're interested in something they know other people

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that have that same interest. So and particularly in an animal

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based business, all animal lovers have a kindred spirit

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with each other, and they know each other and they meet each

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other and they recognize each other out into the world. And

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then it gets even more specific, right? There's like dog people

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and Cat people and horse people and chicken people. So there's a

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movie by that name, by the way, which I highly recommend chicken

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people go watch it, it's worth it, chicken people is worth it.

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Okay, so you have that. And then it gets even more specific.

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There's people who love Jack Russell terriers, or Labradors

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or Maine Coon cats, or quarter horses, or whatever it happens

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to be, or Polish chickens. So you know, that's me, I love the

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polish.

Cara Taylor Swift:

I was gonna say, speaking from experience,

Cara Taylor Swift:

they're

Kimberly Beer:

speaking from experience, God, God love those

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little chickens with their little radical hairdos, I just

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adore it. But anyway, everybody kind of has this sort of kindred

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spirit and thread that flows between them. So the customer

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that you just served, they probably know way more than two

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more people they can bring into your business probably know a

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lot more their network is big, too. And if you do not ask for

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the referral, it's not because they don't want to give you one

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or they don't want your business to be successful. It's because

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they don't think about it, we're not always in a state of mind to

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think about everyone else, right? A lot of our culture

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centers on, you know, understanding ourselves and what

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we need. And we may give a referral if asked out in the

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world, but when a business owners asks you to, you know,

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hey, do you know other people that are like you that

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appreciate the same things you appreciate or have the same

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problem that you have been, we're asking those people to

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help their friends. And that puts them in a really good

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position, it brings business into your business. So asking,

Kimberly Beer:

it really is that simple, just ask.

Cara Taylor Swift:

And there definitely are times when your

Cara Taylor Swift:

clients are going to go out into the world and sing your praises,

Cara Taylor Swift:

and they're gonna tell all their friends, that definitely

Cara Taylor Swift:

happens. But it's so much more rare, because like Kim said,

Cara Taylor Swift:

when folks are busy, they're in their lives, they're doing their

Cara Taylor Swift:

own thing. And it's not that they don't have good intentions,

Cara Taylor Swift:

it's just that they don't think about it. So as a business

Cara Taylor Swift:

owner, you have to take that extra step and make the

Cara Taylor Swift:

connection for them so that they then are triggered or inspired

Cara Taylor Swift:

to make the connection. So one of the things you can do is you

Cara Taylor Swift:

can actually ask them to give you contact information for

Cara Taylor Swift:

potential new clients, but I actually prefer to have them

Cara Taylor Swift:

directly connect me to someone. So like, make an introduction,

Cara Taylor Swift:

for example, to someone who might be interested in the

Cara Taylor Swift:

services that I provide. For me, this has looked like an email

Cara Taylor Swift:

referral, I've definitely had clients shoot an email to a

Cara Taylor Swift:

friend and then copy me on it and make the connection that

Cara Taylor Swift:

way. I've had them set up a brief group chat and connect me

Cara Taylor Swift:

that way, introducing me to their friend, or I've had them

Cara Taylor Swift:

do social media tags and shares to new potential clients or

Cara Taylor Swift:

clients. So keep in mind, there are options there. And you

Cara Taylor Swift:

should choose something that you and your client both feel

Cara Taylor Swift:

comfortable with. The other thing that I would add is, it's

Cara Taylor Swift:

really a common, I think, practice for a lot of animal

Cara Taylor Swift:

based business owners to wait until the end of the client

Cara Taylor Swift:

experience to ask for that referral. So maybe you send the

Cara Taylor Swift:

invoice or your final thank you note, and then you ask for the

Cara Taylor Swift:

referral. I would challenge folks to not do that. Because

Cara Taylor Swift:

when you're sending an invoice, whether you like it or not,

Cara Taylor Swift:

there's kind of a well, you're dealing with money. It's like a

Cara Taylor Swift:

weird thing. That's probably the hardest part in your sales

Cara Taylor Swift:

transaction in your process with your client is that asking for

Cara Taylor Swift:

money piece. So what I would say is don't ask for the referral at

Cara Taylor Swift:

that point, if you can keep from it. Instead, ask for the

Cara Taylor Swift:

referral. When you're in, you know, like, look for

Cara Taylor Swift:

opportunities in your client process where your client is the

Cara Taylor Swift:

happiest, where you're making them really happy, where they're

Cara Taylor Swift:

feeling really positive about their experience with you. So

Cara Taylor Swift:

think about where that might be in your process. And that's the

Cara Taylor Swift:

perfect time to ask for your referral. And you know, Kim and

Cara Taylor Swift:

I were talking about this, and she said that she recommends

Cara Taylor Swift:

doing this in person, if possible. Kim, did you want to

Cara Taylor Swift:

speak to that real quick? Because I would have a tendency

Cara Taylor Swift:

to shoot a text or an email or something like that. But you're

Cara Taylor Swift:

so right.

Kimberly Beer:

Yeah. So this is the thing that electronic

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communication has done to us as a culture. It has allowed us to

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hide behind our screens, and it's much more comfortable to do

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it that way. And part of that's like you got to get into

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introvert extrovert trauma. I mean, there's a boatload of

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psychological impactful reasons why we do that. But the bottom

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line is, is it's not as effective. I mean, it just isn't

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because that's the way it Everybody does it right. And it

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isn't as effective as when you're standing there with

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someone, it's also super easy to ignore. Because an email is

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really easy to delete a text message is really easy to skip

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right on by a social media request is easy to skip on by.

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So the truth is, your ask for the referral is so diluted when

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you do it, what I would consider most people think the easy way,

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not that I'm saying that you shouldn't use email, you

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shouldn't use these other ways to ask for these things. But

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it's much more effective when you do it in person. Because

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you're having a conversation, you have a connection with that

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individual, the person on the other end of it has a connection

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to you. And it's just more powerful if you ask in person.

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Now if it's uncomfortable for you, I get it, I completely

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understand. But here's the thing, the more you do it, the

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more comfortable you will get with it. So it's difficult

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sometimes for us to sit in uncomfortable or to live in

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uncomfortable, but it's really just as simple as making a clear

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ask, you know, hey, do you know two friends that might be

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interested in what I do? Here are a couple of business cards,

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would you please hand those to those people or I have some

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language we're going to get to here in a moment that I think

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will help you when it when it's getting you to really make that

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ask especially after somebody gives you a compliment of some

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kind, but in person does make a difference. They get part of

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your service process that as you're in the sale or you're

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closing the sale or you're delivering whatever it is, or

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after the delivery when you're getting ready to leave wherever

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it feels comfortable for you in there to just simply ask for

Kimberly Beer:

those referrals.

Cara Taylor Swift:

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Cara Taylor Swift:

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Cara Taylor Swift:

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Cara Taylor Swift:

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Cara Taylor Swift:

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Cara Taylor Swift:

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Cara Taylor Swift:

values and highlight the benefits your product offers.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Ultimately, proving your business is a voice your

Cara Taylor Swift:

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Cara Taylor Swift:

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Cara Taylor Swift:

That's fasthorsephotography.com.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Absolutely. And then along those same lines, you should be asking

Cara Taylor Swift:

for testimonials as well, Kim and I in Episode 28, the art of

Cara Taylor Swift:

getting better customer testimonials, we go into detail

Cara Taylor Swift:

about all of this, how to do it well and give a bunch of

Cara Taylor Swift:

different ideas. You want to make sure your clients okay with

Cara Taylor Swift:

sharing the testimonial. And then I would say as a business

Cara Taylor Swift:

owner, get to work putting that information out into the world

Cara Taylor Swift:

and take it one step further. And ask your client to share

Cara Taylor Swift:

what you create with their testimonial to their audience.

Cara Taylor Swift:

92% of customers trust referrals from people they know and word

Cara Taylor Swift:

of mouth referrals can really improve your marketing

Cara Taylor Swift:

effectiveness by more than 50% We know this already. We've

Cara Taylor Swift:

talked about this in our other episodes and think about it

Cara Taylor Swift:

within yourself, you know, as a potential client, you're going

Cara Taylor Swift:

to trust the referral from someone you know more than you

Cara Taylor Swift:

will any other kind of marketing that a business is putting out

Cara Taylor Swift:

there. You're gonna believe the word of mouth from the people

Cara Taylor Swift:

around you that you know, and you're gonna believe when they

Cara Taylor Swift:

talk about their awesome experience with you. So ask your

Cara Taylor Swift:

client to share that information. I would say, you

Cara Taylor Swift:

know, Kim, you wanted to mention something about get your ask

Cara Taylor Swift:

after a compliment language now, and I freaking love this. It's

Cara Taylor Swift:

something I speak to all the time around getting your words

Cara Taylor Swift:

together and practice them coming out of your mouth. Can

Cara Taylor Swift:

you speak to that a little bit? I really love it.

Kimberly Beer:

Absolutely, absolutely. Most of the time

Kimberly Beer:

when a customer is really ready to give you a good referral or a

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testimonial. It's pretty clear. They say things like thank you

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this was a really good experience or I really enjoyed

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this product or service or whatever it happens to be. And a

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lot of business owners I watch and they'll say thank you and

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they get be me and then that's it. They don't do it any

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further. And I'm going to challenge every person listening

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to this to create their own statement that they are going to

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say every time a customer pays them a compliment. So my

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statement that I would use is I'm so glad you feel that way.

Kimberly Beer:

I'm really working on building my business right now. And I

Kimberly Beer:

would love to serve more people. Do you know of a couple of

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people who might be interested in whatever it happens to be

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that you're doing? So I find this really really comes in to

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be important, especially after I do a gestalt session with

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somebody, because oftentimes at the end of it, people like feel

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like they need to give some type of a small review of some kind

Kimberly Beer:

of their experience, especially if they're extroverted. But even

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the introverts will give something like, that really

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wasn't what I expected it to be, or thank you for this, because

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that was very deep and interesting, or Thank you, I got

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a lot of insights out of today that I think I'm going to be

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processing for a long time. I mean, those are actual things

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people have told me, and I could leave it at that, that would be

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very easy for me to say, you know, thank you, I appreciate

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that. I'm so glad you got something out of this day that

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you came and spent all these hours with me. But at that

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moment is the best moment for you to take a look about

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appreciating what they've told you, and then taking a look for

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them to look around their world. And you know, maybe spread the

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love or spread the joy. Well, humans are naturally social

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creatures, we want to give our experiences to other people. But

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oftentimes, we don't have the availability to do that. So I'm

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going to repeat this statement that I gave, because I think you

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can can modify it for any business out there. And then I'm

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going to tell you a little secret after I say it again, and

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I probably will say it a third time for those of you who are

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looking for your piece of paper to write it down. So I'm so glad

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you feel that way. I'm really working on building my business

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right now. And I would love to help or serve more people do you

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know, have a couple of friends who might be interested in or

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associates or whatever it happens to be and then say the

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experience. Now here's the key at that point, stop and let them

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think because they're going to come up with the people right

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there in that moment that they're going to want to refer,

Kimberly Beer:

they may say it out loud, they may say, you know, my friend

Kimberly Beer:

Karen could really benefit from this, she's kind of crabby, and

Kimberly Beer:

it would be nice for her to get a gestalt session down. You

Kimberly Beer:

know, I mean, she needs to come chill out with the horses. So,

Kimberly Beer:

you know, okay, so they may say something about it right there.

Kimberly Beer:

Or they may not, they may just process internally and think of

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one or two people. Now, let them go ahead and do that. And then

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after you see that process, or after they talk, say I want to

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make it super easy. If you would like to, you know, refer Karen

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here and give them cards, give them business cards, business

Kimberly Beer:

cards have not died, people there are still out there in the

Kimberly Beer:

world. And it's still the easiest way for you to hand

Kimberly Beer:

information from yourself to someone else for contact

Kimberly Beer:

information. Business cards are cheap, business cards are easy

Kimberly Beer:

to get ahold of you should never ever, ever be without business

Kimberly Beer:

cards in your back pocket, in your wallet, in your purse, in

Kimberly Beer:

your camera bag in your massage bag. Whatever it is that you

Kimberly Beer:

carry around with you, when you do your work, you need to have

Kimberly Beer:

business cards in there and never give out a single business

Kimberly Beer:

card always give out more than one, I never hand out a single

Kimberly Beer:

business card I always want to hand out to because people lose

Kimberly Beer:

them. Or they may want to hand one off to their friends. So

Kimberly Beer:

wait for that moment and hand it off one more time for the

Kimberly Beer:

statement. I am so glad you feel that way. I'm really working on

Kimberly Beer:

building my business right now. And I would love to help or

Kimberly Beer:

serve more people. Do you know of a couple of your friends who

Kimberly Beer:

might be interested in and then give the experience you just had

Kimberly Beer:

Stop, wait for them to answer and then hand out cards.

Cara Taylor Swift:

So powerful, so easy, and you just got to

Cara Taylor Swift:

practice it. And I tell people to practice those words coming

Cara Taylor Swift:

out of your mouth so that you're comfortable staying it when the

Cara Taylor Swift:

time comes. And it rolls off your tongue and it feels right.

Cara Taylor Swift:

And absolutely, I would say also take some steps to further

Cara Taylor Swift:

harness your existing clients connections. For example, are

Cara Taylor Swift:

they boarding at a barn that you've always wanted to work in?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Do they use a particular animal business like a groomer on a

Cara Taylor Swift:

regular basis that they have a good rapport with? Do they maybe

Cara Taylor Swift:

help organize a local horse show planning committee that you want

Cara Taylor Swift:

to get some services in? Or maybe you want to be a sponsor?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Or you have some way to contribute? Are they a member of

Cara Taylor Swift:

an organization where a lot of your potential clients might be

Cara Taylor Swift:

hanging out? Is there a way for you to be a speaker there? So

Cara Taylor Swift:

start thinking about ways that your clients could potentially

Cara Taylor Swift:

work with you to put you in front of a bigger audience in

Cara Taylor Swift:

front of people that they know that might be great connections

Cara Taylor Swift:

for you. Like Kim said at the top of the segment, they know

Cara Taylor Swift:

other people and they're often not in their own little bubble

Cara Taylor Swift:

with the need for this service. Oftentimes, they they know other

Cara Taylor Swift:

people, they're talking about it already with other people and it

Cara Taylor Swift:

could be something as simple as saying, Hey, I'm getting

Cara Taylor Swift:

pictures of my horse made soon and then people are all I've

Cara Taylor Swift:

always wanted to do that, like people are having these

Cara Taylor Swift:

conversations. So if they have your card if they know someone

Cara Taylor Swift:

already, people like to also be in positions where they're

Cara Taylor Swift:

helping someone else out there making a referral, they like to

Cara Taylor Swift:

be authority and to know connections. So it's not a bad

Cara Taylor Swift:

thing to kind of try to harness some of that.

Kimberly Beer:

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Kimberly Beer:

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Cara Taylor Swift:

Kim, I know you wanted to talk about that

Cara Taylor Swift:

referrals don't always have to come from clients.

Kimberly Beer:

No, they don't. So that's another thing I think

Kimberly Beer:

we get stuck in in our head is that our referrals have to come

Kimberly Beer:

from people we serve. And that's not necessarily true. We all

Kimberly Beer:

have friends, family, networking acquaintances, social

Kimberly Beer:

acquaintances connections that we've made networking

Kimberly Beer:

connections that we've made, these people are really good

Kimberly Beer:

referral engines for you as well. I belong to ally you know

Kimberly Beer:

me, I love to network and I'm feel so fantastic. I was sharing

Kimberly Beer:

with Kara when we got on this morning to do our prep for this

Kimberly Beer:

episode that I've been getting to go to in person networking

Kimberly Beer:

events over the last couple of weeks, you know, my health is

Kimberly Beer:

now cleared up COVID Is restrictions are lifted, people

Kimberly Beer:

are starting to do in person stuff again, and I am back in my

Kimberly Beer:

element, I absolutely love a good in person networking event.

Kimberly Beer:

And when I go to an in person networking event, it never

Kimberly Beer:

fails, that there is usually one or two people in the room that

Kimberly Beer:

are the connectors, right. They're the people that when

Kimberly Beer:

they meet you, they ask you what it is that you do and

Kimberly Beer:

immediately will introduce you to the other people in the room

Kimberly Beer:

that might be interested in whatever it is that you're up

Kimberly Beer:

to. And the truth is, is that those people exist a lot out in

Kimberly Beer:

the world. And if you run into them, they may not need your

Kimberly Beer:

service, maybe they don't have a have a horse, but they have

Kimberly Beer:

three friends that have horses that they would like to refer

Kimberly Beer:

you to or a dog or a cat or whatever it happens to be. So

Kimberly Beer:

make sure that you get in the habit of talking about your

Kimberly Beer:

business. And then even if it's the person on the other side of

Kimberly Beer:

it that isn't able to actually purchase what it is that you

Kimberly Beer:

have still hand them a business card, because if they know

Kimberly Beer:

people or if they mentioned, you know, I have this friend named

Kimberly Beer:

Sally, who has a worse that might benefit from this, then we

Kimberly Beer:

can do that we can harness Sally to come into our business

Kimberly Beer:

through somebody who was never a client of ours. I learned this

Kimberly Beer:

really, really well at what I consider my definition of hell

Kimberly Beer:

one year. So one year I got stuck doing this is gonna be a

Kimberly Beer:

cute story. Hopefully people will enjoy it. So I got stuck

Kimberly Beer:

doing a Multi Product booth at the National Western Stock Show

Kimberly Beer:

in Denver. And so if you don't know, the National Western Stock

Kimberly Beer:

Show, it's a wonderful event. By the way, even though I'm going

Kimberly Beer:

to talk a little poorly about it because of my own personal

Kimberly Beer:

experience. It's a wonderful event they have in January, in

Kimberly Beer:

Denver in January in Denver. Let me say that again in January in

Kimberly Beer:

Denver, and the hours for the show are ridiculously long. It

Kimberly Beer:

is cold and snowy and it's miserable. And that year there

Kimberly Beer:

was extra snow. And there's not a lot of parking at that venue

Kimberly Beer:

and the vendors have to ride a bus to be able to get there you

Kimberly Beer:

like park somewhere else and then you ride this bus to get to

Kimberly Beer:

your booth. And it the bus is not really heated well, and it's

Kimberly Beer:

just a it's let me just say it's a miserable experience. And the

Kimberly Beer:

situation I was in there wasn't a lot of money in the

Kimberly Beer:

conglomerate that came together. So I was staying in a really

Kimberly Beer:

crappy hotel. And then I had this booth where I was selling

Kimberly Beer:

all these equine products. And I was put in the place where all

Kimberly Beer:

the cattle show people are. So every person that came to my

Kimberly Beer:

booth owned cattle, not horses. And so they would wander around

Kimberly Beer:

in my booth and ask questions about the stuff that I had for

Kimberly Beer:

sale which I would gladly answer for them. And then they would go

Kimberly Beer:

you know if I ever bought a horse, I would do that. So I got

Kimberly Beer:

really smart really quick and started asking them Do you have

Kimberly Beer:

horses when they walked up? Or what kind of horses do you have

Kimberly Beer:

when they walked up to the booth? And if they said they

Kimberly Beer:

didn't have horses then I would hands them a couple of business

Kimberly Beer:

cards from the organization and say, if you have friends with

Kimberly Beer:

horses, please send them by the booth. And here's a couple of

Kimberly Beer:

cards where they might want to check out our stuff. Because the

Kimberly Beer:

people that were coming up, they didn't have any interest or need

Kimberly Beer:

for what I was selling, but they did know people that do have

Kimberly Beer:

that need. And it was super beneficial to be able to hand

Kimberly Beer:

them the cards. And honestly, what happened in the end was

Kimberly Beer:

that they would go back to their horsey friends at the show. And

Kimberly Beer:

they'd send them back to the booth to say, Hey, there's this

Kimberly Beer:

really cool booth with some great products in it. And

Kimberly Beer:

they're kind of out of the way from the horse crowd. So go over

Kimberly Beer:

and check them out. So that's my long story. And back to my

Kimberly Beer:

definition of hell, that is definitely if I were in hell

Kimberly Beer:

that would be my definition of it would be to have to go to

Kimberly Beer:

that booth every day.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Okay, I think we're ready to move on to number

Cara Taylor Swift:

two, we have spent a ton of time on number one, because it's so

Cara Taylor Swift:

important. And I think we're ready to move on to number two

Cara Taylor Swift:

and Kim, I have to say that that does not sound like a very fun

Cara Taylor Swift:

event having to drag your vendor stuff on a bus to the booth. But

Cara Taylor Swift:

let's talk about number two, which is make it easy. Make it

Cara Taylor Swift:

easy. Why is this important? It is

Kimberly Beer:

important because you have to make it easy for

Kimberly Beer:

people because otherwise they won't do it. Right. Right. So

Kimberly Beer:

you have to give them the tools to be able to give you the

Kimberly Beer:

referral. I don't know about you, cara. But I don't remember

Kimberly Beer:

anybody's phone number anymore, or their email address for that

Kimberly Beer:

matter, or even their website?

Cara Taylor Swift:

No, there's times I don't remember my own

Cara Taylor Swift:

phone number. Yeah,

Kimberly Beer:

I mean, we don't do that anymore. I used to have

Kimberly Beer:

everybody's phone number memorized, I don't any longer, I

Kimberly Beer:

gotta have something to send it off to somebody else. That's why

Kimberly Beer:

you know, having some type of a physical thing that you can hand

Kimberly Beer:

to people is really important. Following that physical thing up

Kimberly Beer:

with the email that you wanted to send to begin with, or the

Kimberly Beer:

text message or whatever is also helpful, make it so absolutely

Kimberly Beer:

stupid, easy for people to send you a referral. You know, like I

Kimberly Beer:

said, always give out more than one business card, make it easy.

Kimberly Beer:

What other ideas do you have to make it super easy for people

Kimberly Beer:

care?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Well, you've mentioned the business card

Cara Taylor Swift:

already. But you can also create a referral card, something that

Cara Taylor Swift:

just has all that information on there. Or what I also like to do

Cara Taylor Swift:

is I use an app called Blinq, it's blinq. And it's basically

Cara Taylor Swift:

in a virtual business card that has a QR code. And you can have

Cara Taylor Swift:

someone just scan all your information to their phone and

Cara Taylor Swift:

save it right into their phone. And it has stuff like your name,

Cara Taylor Swift:

your phone number, your email address, your website, your

Cara Taylor Swift:

social media links, and then they can take that, and they can

Cara Taylor Swift:

just text it right to their friends. So it's another easy

Cara Taylor Swift:

way to share your information. I also like the option of doing

Cara Taylor Swift:

basically like a pre done email from them. So you if you have if

Cara Taylor Swift:

they know they want to give some information about you to one of

Cara Taylor Swift:

their friends, having some kind of pre done, you know, the

Cara Taylor Swift:

services that you provide some bullet points around that, that

Cara Taylor Swift:

they can drop into an email with your contact information and how

Cara Taylor Swift:

they can reach you a direct link, some of those kinds of

Cara Taylor Swift:

things is awesome. And it makes it so much easier for your

Cara Taylor Swift:

client. And then the last thing in that same kind of little

Cara Taylor Swift:

category is if you have some kind of already pre done

Cara Taylor Swift:

infographics that talk about the work that you do, that are easy

Cara Taylor Swift:

to share, just anything that you can put together, that your

Cara Taylor Swift:

clients don't have to do any work. They can take that

Cara Taylor Swift:

information, give it to a friend and share your information,

Cara Taylor Swift:

something outside of a business card, you know, that's creative

Cara Taylor Swift:

and informative is awesome to consider.

Kimberly Beer:

Absolutely. And I think it bears saying in this

Kimberly Beer:

particular instance, that part of making it easy for the people

Kimberly Beer:

that refer you, you also need to make it easy for yourself to

Kimberly Beer:

follow up with the people they send to you. Because this is

Kimberly Beer:

something I hear a lot people like to complain to me. I don't

Kimberly Beer:

know, do it. But do I have a face that people are like she

Kimberly Beer:

will listen to me complain? I feel like I can share all of my

Kimberly Beer:

dissatisfaction in the world with with Kim. But I hear this a

Kimberly Beer:

lot. I hear people say, Well, you know, you referred me so

Kimberly Beer:

this is what happens because I refer people to other

Kimberly Beer:

businesses, you referred me to this business. And I reached out

Kimberly Beer:

to them. I've never heard anything from them. And then as

Kimberly Beer:

the referring person, I'm like, well, that's not good because I

Kimberly Beer:

really enjoyed my experience with that business. They really

Kimberly Beer:

seemed on the ball. They did the thing where they asked me

Kimberly Beer:

because they want to build their business and now here it is. My

Kimberly Beer:

friend reached out and wanted to work with them and now can't or

Kimberly Beer:

now won't because they didn't follow up. So I'm not going to

Kimberly Beer:

refer that business as readily the next time. Please make sure

Kimberly Beer:

that when you start making referrals A big focus in your

Kimberly Beer:

business that you are able to follow up with people. So you're

Kimberly Beer:

not the person who drops the ball, when that referral comes

Kimberly Beer:

into your own business and networks in with you. So it's

Kimberly Beer:

really important I realized, as a small business owner, there's

Kimberly Beer:

a lot of times balls get dropped, Hey, I've done it,

Kimberly Beer:

Cara's done it, we've all missed out on a follow up at some

Kimberly Beer:

point. But if you can make it drop dead easy for you to do it,

Kimberly Beer:

like write up a nice little confirmation that, you know, I'm

Kimberly Beer:

so glad so and so referred you and I really want to set up an

Kimberly Beer:

appointment or whatever it is that you do just sort of figure

Kimberly Beer:

out that plan ahead of time and start to really think about the

Kimberly Beer:

sales flow through your business, like how do customers

Kimberly Beer:

move through your business? And how can you facilitate that,

Kimberly Beer:

especially when they come from a referral, so that you're not

Kimberly Beer:

letting that person down, that you asked to give you a referral

Kimberly Beer:

when they do and they're their friend or their their person

Kimberly Beer:

comes around. And I don't know if they'll go back and complain

Kimberly Beer:

to that person, but I don't know, it seems like to a person,

Kimberly Beer:

they'll come back and complain to me. So I'll hear your complaint.

Cara Taylor Swift:

When I get a referral from someone, or when

Cara Taylor Swift:

I'm reaching out to someone that was referred to me, I almost

Cara Taylor Swift:

always, if appropriate, will let the person who gave me the

Cara Taylor Swift:

referral know, hey, I just wanted to let you know, I had a

Cara Taylor Swift:

great conversation with so and so today, thank you so much for

Cara Taylor Swift:

the referral, or I just reached out to so and so. And I really

Cara Taylor Swift:

appreciate the referral. And a lot of times I'm doing that for

Cara Taylor Swift:

two reasons. One, because I want to thank them for making the

Cara Taylor Swift:

referral and let them know that on my end, I have reached out

Cara Taylor Swift:

but also, if they come in contact with that person in a

Cara Taylor Swift:

few days, or a couple of weeks, they can say to them, oh, hey, I

Cara Taylor Swift:

heard Cara reached out to you for that service or for

Cara Taylor Swift:

photography, you know, how did that go? Do you have a shoot

Cara Taylor Swift:

setup, and that is another trigger point or another place

Cara Taylor Swift:

where a referral, it's like another part of that referral.

Cara Taylor Swift:

So it's like reinforcing it. So if they didn't contact you back

Cara Taylor Swift:

or reach back out to you, or you didn't make a connection, the

Cara Taylor Swift:

first time you reached out or you attempted the connection,

Cara Taylor Swift:

this isn't like a reminder place that can really encourage them

Cara Taylor Swift:

and reinforce that they should be connecting with you. I love

Cara Taylor Swift:

doing that. And I have found it to be super successful. And then

Cara Taylor Swift:

coming back to the part of just kind of being ready that Kim

Cara Taylor Swift:

brought up, you know, you're going to be asking for these

Cara Taylor Swift:

referrals, but you have to be ready for those new clients when

Cara Taylor Swift:

the referral happens. So start defining your client processes,

Cara Taylor Swift:

get comfortable with them, get your ducks in a row, so that

Cara Taylor Swift:

when those referrals start coming in that you handle them

Cara Taylor Swift:

professionally, quickly, and that you're ready to roll with

Cara Taylor Swift:

it. And that includes getting comfortable with your pricing.

Cara Taylor Swift:

You know, a lot of times when you're starting out, you're just

Cara Taylor Swift:

trying to get things done, and you're working through each

Cara Taylor Swift:

stage. But you need to be ready and comfortable when they ask

Cara Taylor Swift:

you okay, how do I work with you? What does it cost to work

Cara Taylor Swift:

with you? How does this process work? How quickly can I get on

Cara Taylor Swift:

your schedule? You need to be ready to answer those questions

Cara Taylor Swift:

quickly as well.

Kimberly Beer:

Absolutely. I think that brings us really

Kimberly Beer:

nicely into our last point here, Kara. And that because that

Kimberly Beer:

follow up, it's good to go back to the person that referred to

Kimberly Beer:

the individual to you and offer them a reward for that it. We

Kimberly Beer:

are all animal behaviorists, if you are live around animals,

Kimberly Beer:

you're a behaviorist around animals. And you understand that

Kimberly Beer:

sometimes it's much easier to do things with a waterboard. And so

Kimberly Beer:

I don't encourage you to like I don't know, give like treats to

Kimberly Beer:

your customers. But I do encourage you to offer them some

Kimberly Beer:

type of a meaningful reward for your business hopefully

Kimberly Beer:

associated in getting them back into your business. So for

Kimberly Beer:

example, a nice way that I would think about it is I would offer

Kimberly Beer:

somebody saying, Oh, if you send someone to me for a referral,

Kimberly Beer:

then as long as I know that referral came from you, and I

Kimberly Beer:

would give you a 10% off and your your person you referred

Kimberly Beer:

10% off or some such thing, a discount of some variety. And

Kimberly Beer:

that way it encourages the person who did the referring to

Kimberly Beer:

come back. So I have a return customer and I get a new

Kimberly Beer:

customer out of the person or persons that they refer. So it's

Kimberly Beer:

worth it. And people always like balk about these discounts and

Kimberly Beer:

about being able to give people who refer people in money or

Kimberly Beer:

some type of financial discount the type of a reward. But the

Kimberly Beer:

truth is, is advertising is expensive and most small

Kimberly Beer:

businesses today they don't even have an adequate advertising

Kimberly Beer:

budget as it is. So honestly, the cost of what it costs you to

Kimberly Beer:

make a new customer if you really put a pencil to it and

Kimberly Beer:

get a good understanding of it. You will see it's pretty pricey

Kimberly Beer:

for every new customer that comes into your business and

Kimberly Beer:

when someone provides a referral and brings that new Customer in

Kimberly Beer:

for you, it is far cheaper to give them a discounted whatever

Kimberly Beer:

to be able to get them in than it is to try to make that

Kimberly Beer:

customer on your own. And in the fact that the customer already

Kimberly Beer:

comes with a good attitude, they're not questioning, they're

Kimberly Beer:

coming with a little bit different tweak in how they show

Kimberly Beer:

up in your business makes it all that much easier for you to work

Kimberly Beer:

with them, serve them, sell them, whatever it happens to be.

Kimberly Beer:

So offering that reward to me is super, super important. And I

Kimberly Beer:

know Kara, we've done a couple of episodes on this, you're the

Kimberly Beer:

one who keeps track of that

Cara Taylor Swift:

we actually did two Episodes Episode 11 and

Cara Taylor Swift:

14, where we talked about creating customer loyalty

Cara Taylor Swift:

programs, we talked to our good friend, Terry Cage of Terry Cage

Cara Taylor Swift:

Photography and talks about her loyalty program. And then we

Cara Taylor Swift:

continue that conversation in on a second episode, which was

Cara Taylor Swift:

episode 14, highly recommend, if you're thinking about creating a

Cara Taylor Swift:

loyalty program, which is basically what we're talking

Cara Taylor Swift:

about here, to some degree, getting people to come back to

Cara Taylor Swift:

you refer their friends, and then having some incentive for

Cara Taylor Swift:

doing that is a really great way to increase loyalty of your

Cara Taylor Swift:

customers. So definitely check that out, I would say just kind

Cara Taylor Swift:

of as a parting note on this, that as a business as a and as

Cara Taylor Swift:

appropriate for your business, if there is a way that you can

Cara Taylor Swift:

go out and share the work that you're doing for your clients to

Cara Taylor Swift:

the world that you should do that. And I like to tell people

Cara Taylor Swift:

that, you know, when we're talking about doing these

Cara Taylor Swift:

referrals, these client referrals, you know, you can

Cara Taylor Swift:

tell their story, if they allow you include their testimonial,

Cara Taylor Swift:

if they have that, but the key is to really make your client

Cara Taylor Swift:

the hero across the board. So if that's in the story that you're

Cara Taylor Swift:

telling about them and about your experience with them, do

Cara Taylor Swift:

it. If it's thanking them for going out and bringing people

Cara Taylor Swift:

in, do it. If it's letting them be a voice of, you know,

Cara Taylor Swift:

authority and guidance about your business when they're

Cara Taylor Swift:

guiding other people to you and bringing other people to you.

Cara Taylor Swift:

That's wonderful. Do that create more opportunities for that

Cara Taylor Swift:

anywhere that you can?

Kimberly Beer:

Absolutely, absolutely, this has been a

Kimberly Beer:

really great episode to remind me of how important it is like I

Kimberly Beer:

don't think about referrals already I do quite a bit. But

Kimberly Beer:

how important this part really is to your overall business, and

Kimberly Beer:

how critical it is in building a business or executing a

Kimberly Beer:

business. And on that note, what I would like to do is to thank

Kimberly Beer:

every one of our listeners for tuning in and hanging out with

Kimberly Beer:

us this long. And I'm hoping that since you're here still and

Kimberly Beer:

listening to us, you got something out of this episode.

Kimberly Beer:

And I really appreciate that. And I would love it if you could

Kimberly Beer:

think of two friends right now that you think might get

Kimberly Beer:

something out of The Business Animal podcast. And if you

Kimberly Beer:

wouldn't mind, please let them know that we're out here and

Kimberly Beer:

refer them to us. We would be more than appreciative of that,

Kimberly Beer:

and getting some additional listeners into our atmosphere

Kimberly Beer:

here. Because we do this as a labor of love to help people out

Kimberly Beer:

there with their animal based small business and we really

Kimberly Beer:

want to see more animal based small businesses be successful,

Kimberly Beer:

so please send them on over to listen to us.

Jaz:

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business

Jaz:

Animal. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And

Jaz:

if you learned something today, leave us a review. To learn

Jaz:

more. Find us at thebusinessanimal.com We'd love

Jaz:

to hear from you. Until next time, keep your business well

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