At every Carolina Improv comedy show, Gina Trimarco’s team asks the audience for a review on Google or TripAdvisor. Every single show. And because of that we have rank #1 on TripAdvisor for NightLife Attractions since 2011. The irony to this is that we are a very small fish in the entertainment pond of Myrtle Beach, yet we sit at #1 year after year.
At Pivot10 Results, most of their business results from referrals and recommendations as well. Businesses hear about P10 from other businesses and they become warm leads. Nothing against cold calling, as sales gurus Anthony Iannarino and Jeb Blount will tell you are necessary.
Check out our Women Your Mother Warned You About podcast for interviews with Anthony Iannarino & Jeb Blount.
Relationships are king (or queen), based on trust. You can buy instant trust when clients recommend you. But if you wait around for referrals and recommendations to monetize instead of taking action, you could starve to death. If you absolutely hate cold calling, try the warm calling approach. Call current clients and ask for referrals. The reality is that people can’t always think of who to refer to you. Do the leg work for them and ask for specific contacts.
The best referral for Gina is an existing client. Often times, the first service they retain with P10 is a “starter” service – something that gives them an opportunity to experience results from us. Then we work their butts off to deliver. This quickly puts us in a trusted advisor position, which leads to other projects. Some of those projects aren’t even what we usually offer, but the client has now come to rely on us and will hire us instead someone new, even if another company has more experience.
Want someone to write a recommendation for you? Again, people often don’t know what to write. More like, they don’t have time to put it into words. Try asking them how they or their company benefited from working with you. Then ask them if it’s okay if you write something up for them as a review or recommendation and then get their approval for what you write and share.
