Carol Verret Consulting and Training Consulting Training Seminars |
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. . The Power of Referrals � Increasing the Call to Closing Ratio . |
September 20, 2010
Seth Godin, marketing guru, wrote a book � All Marketers are Liars.
While he didn�t mean that marketers �lie�, he makes the case that our customers
don�t believe our worn out adjectives. They put more faith in listening
to �people like them�. Hence, the rise of review sites and
Fan pages that are given credibility by our customers and potential customers
that function as quasi �referral� sites.
They want to buy but don�t want to be sold. Think for a moment about how you buy anything. First of all you go to the internet and research the product or service. You may peruse reviews, scan the website, and feel comfortable with a decision to buy or pass on the opportunity. However, but consider what happens when you ask a friend that has actually used a product or service that you may be considering. If they have had a positive experience, the prospective customer is more likely to accept their friend�s recommendation than trust a third party review. The same buying process exists with individual business travelers and group and meeting clients. The most common way of choosing a property is to ask others. The individual traveler may ask their contact at the business they are going to visit where they should stay. The meeting or group planner may ask other planners their experiences with a hotel. It is simply more efficient to pursue the recommendation of others like them than conduct extensive and time consuming research. Even if they put out RFPS, they are more inclined to favor the hotel that has been recommended to them. The reliability factor is huge when budgets are limited and the planner Is under scrutiny to budget wisely and produce productive meetings. When you evaluate the contact to closing ratios of most sales people using other methods such as cold calling it is pretty low in this economy. That�s an incredible amount of time spent for diminishing returns. The call to closing ratio for a referral or testimonial is much higher. See the statistics from a company case study on the increase in sales productivity. uRefer provides an online platform that tracks and rewards referrals. These are the results from an anonymous client. Real client data for a customer that agreed to participate in a referral program (customer name protected):
This is enhanced in the uRefer system by the ability to reward the referee with a system of rewards. The reward can be as simple as a Thank You note or a donation to their favorite charity in the case of �gifts� being discouraged or banned by the referrer�s organizations. The lead referred to the hotel by a satisfied customer is more likely to have credibility more powerful than any review from a stranger on a review site. Join us for a complimentary webinar on the Power of Referrals September 30 at 1pm EDT, Noon CDT, 11am MDT and 10am PDT! Click this link to register. http://tinyurl.com/253n6tq
Carol Verret and Associates Consulting and Training offers training services and consulting in the areas of sales, revenue management and customer service primarily but not exclusively to the hospitality industry. To find out more about the company click on www.carolverret.net. To contact Carol send her an email at [email protected] or she can be reached by cell phone (303) 618-4065. Visit www.hotelsalesblog.com. |
Carol Verret 5910 S. University #C-18, PMB 374 Greenwood Village, CO 80121 Telephone: (303) 618-4065 [email protected] Web Site: http://www.carolverret.com/ Email: [email protected] |