In Part 1 and Part 2, I presented strategies for developing and nurturing referral relationships with other businesses, and how those relationships can generate $250,000 to $1 Million (or more) in annual revenue with extremely low marketing costs. Essentially the goal is to round up, nurture, grow, and profit from a herd of businesses who send you ongoing referrals. In this installment, I’ll cover more strategies for nurturing and profiting from your herd.
Affiliate Appreciation Events
Let’s say you’ve got twenty or more businesses in your herd. Here are some events you can host to nurture the relationship and position yourself as the “hub.”
Host a Drinks and Hors d’oeuvres networking event in your showroom. Send a series of emails and a printed invitation to your group. Hire a photographer to take lots of photos for your newsletter.
Throw an appreciation dinner at a nice hotel. Give out awards for the top referrers. You can defray the cost by having a couple of other business owners speak during dinner. This gives them exposure to your group and provides valuable information. Have them each pay one-third of the cost of the event.
Education Events
Every month I co-host the FCNews Marketing Mastery webinars, along with Senior Editor, Ken Ryan. Oftentimes these feature business experts speaking about topics that apply to any industry. Invite your herd of referral partners to attend at your store. Set up a large computer monitor and seating, and provide lunch or snacks and drinks. This demonstrates to your partners that you care about their overall success in business, and provides a great networking opportunity.
Affiliate Marketing
Let’s say you’re working with an interior designer. Offer to send your monthly newsletter to her list, and include her photo and business name on the front page, alongside yours. Offer to either split the cost or pay for the entire mailing. The cost is worth it because you’re now marketing to an entirely new list of customers who already know, like and trust her. The Designer is the ambassador introducing her customers to your business. A dealer in Utah did this very successfully with both a designer and a Realtor. This produced ongoing referrals to his business, including a $40,000 job from one of the Realtor’s customers.
You can take this idea further and do a host/parasite mailing. This is a bit more complicated, but I’ve made a lot of money doing it. Here’s how it worked when I did it with a designer:
I wrote a one-page letter “from” the designer to her customers. This letter had a photo of her at the top, and introduced me and my business to her list. In the letter she raved about my business, and said “enclosed is a letter from Jim with a special offer because you’re a customer of mine.”
Underneath this letter was a second letter “from” me with my photo at the top. It thanked the designer for her kind words, and had a special offer “exclusively for customers of XYZ designer.” The letters were on slightly different colored paper, and written with different fonts so it was obvious they were two separate letters.
I made it super easy for the designer and handled everything for her: writing the letters, the printing, postage and mailing. The only thing the designer had to do was supply me with address labels. I made at least a 20-1 ROI with this campaign, and repeated it several times.
By rounding up, nurturing and growing a herd of businesses who send you referrals, you can take your business to an entirely new level, add hundreds-of-thousands (or millions) in revenue, and bullet-proof yourself against market downturns.
To Tons Of Customers!
Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”
Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
See what real, live dealers are saying!
Free book! For a complimentary copy of Jim’s book, “How Floor Dealers Can Beat the Boxes and Escape the Cheap-Price Rat-Race of Doom Forever,” visit BeatTheBoxesToday.com.