3 Ways to Thank Your Referral Sources (and a little client announcement) Copy
This week is Thanksgiving! In the U.S. the three f’s await us: food, 5Ks, and freedom (aka four days off work) – woohoo! As many people in the world know, the intention behind Thanksgiving is, well… thanks. This may come fairly natural while sitting around the table with family and friends on Thursday; but when it comes to business, I feel like many of us need to make this a more conscious effort. I think that feeling grateful starts with taking small, bite-sized grateful actions. A nice starting place is thank your referral sources and clients.
I’ve given this gratitude practice a lot of thought over the years. I spent an important portion of my career in sales and fancy myself quite the business developer in my work and personal life. If I find a fantastic product or service, I want to shout it from the rooftops (cue to the number of times I’ve told you about the Day Designer, haha). I want others I care about to get the same great benefits!
So, it shocks me when I refer business to others – especially small businesses, and they barely even acknowledge it. Even though recognition isn’t a big motivator for me, a minimal “thank you” and acknowledgement is an absolute must.
Here’s why: as a former sales person / current business owner, I know that customer referrals are GOLD. If you remember marketing 101 (okay, maybe 201), there’s no communication channel more effective than “earned” marketing, and that’s what referrals are. If you’re into numbers, it’s the most cost effective marketing one can do. But more importantly, it is the KPI that proves you’re offering a great service. After all, if you’ve delighted a customer so much that (s)he can’t help tell others about it, that’s the proof in the pilgrim pudding: you’re doing a great job.
This is so important for Ellevated Outcomes, that our entire client acquisition model is built around it. Our goal is to delight clients so much (by achieving their ellevated outcomes) that they’re excited to talk to friends, family, and colleagues about their success. (And I humbly and gratefully say that it’s working: 30% of our new business comes from referrals from current clients). So when someone refers Ellevated Outcomes to other people, I am grateful in a big, big way.
We have three steps to say thank you for referrals. We’ve incorporated motivation psychology, love languages, and gone through a very scientific thought process, called “How can we have fun?” 😉 to arrive at our system. Here’s how we say “thank you” when someone refers us a new client:
1. Acknowledge the referral.
This sounds like such a “duh” point; but I can’t believe the number of times I’ve sent someone a referral, and they don’t even respond to me and confirm that they contacted the person I referred.
I know how easily things slip through the crack, so for me, I want to see the follow through. I need to know that when I refer business to you, I’m enhancing my reputation. I’d say that about 70% of people acknowledge the referral. But the other 30%? They’re unlikely to ever see a referral from me again. It’s not that I’m trying to “punish” them. It’s because I don’t know if they’ve enhanced or diminished my reputation.
This isn’t meant to be anything fancy or drawn out. For example, if you’re making an email introduction, all you need is a quick email cc, saying
Hi Julie,
Thank you for thinking of us and introducing me to _________…
Dear [new prospect], Can I call / see / email you for next steps…
This says to me, your advocate: “I thank you, I acknowledge this connection that you graciously made for me, and you can trust me to take it from here.”
2. Send a personal thank you note.
This step (for Ellevated Outcomes) is when this lead has turned into a prospect, who has turned into a client. If you’ve been reading for a while, you know that I love a handwritten thank you note. Even though my friends sometimes chide me for going overboard here, I feel like you can’t go wrong with a thank you note. In this digital age, who doesn’t love a tactile, beautiful piece of mail?
So, if you’ve so graciously sent Ellevated Outcomes a client, you’ve received a note to say thank you. Additionally, I hope that two elements about it stuck out to you:
- It’s pretty. We have Ellevated Outcomes stationary, branded just for us.
- It’s personal. We don’t want to send just a generic thank you. Our business mission statement says that in all of our interactions, people feel seen and heard as individual people. That means: when we talk or write to someone, we’re addressing him/her. This part isn’t business. It’s personal.
3. Say thank you again over a meal.
According to motivational psychology, rewarding people with physical incentives and money actually has a decreasing effect on production over time. This is really a shame because I personally happen to love presents, haha. But alas, the science doesn’t lie.
We wanted to end our thank you with a flourish – something that was more than a verbal thank you; made sense scientifically (nerd alert, I know); and was aligned with our mission. Oh, and I personally happen to like food very much. So, there’s that.
We take people out to a nice, thoughtful meal to say thank you. We put care into picking the right restaurant, include the person’s significant other / family, and have fun spending time together. We’re not there to talk about business; we’re there to say thank you and have a little fun together. It’s fun to bond over food, get out of the office, and get to know someone better as a real human – not just a business person or an online presence.
As we do more business online and become more disconnected, my gosh, I just think that this piece is so important. It’s a differentiator from a business perspective, yes. But it also just feels like the right thing to do as a human – connect with people to say thank you, I-R-L!*
Lastly, new clients are (obviously) great. However, it’s a pet peeve of mine when businesses put all their focus on new client acquisition, and then their service to existing clients starts declines. Everyone’s had an experience with this; don’t you just hate it?
We want to keep ourselves in check and make sure that we’re continuing to show gratitude for our current clients, as much as our future ones.
Therefore, I’m really (really!) excited to share that we just secured the date for our first client thank you event, to be held on February 8, 2019 in Nashville, USA. If you’re a client (or about to become one), please mark your calendar. Save the date and details are forthcoming. But we want to say thank you to you. You’ve made 2018 a wonderful year, and we’re excited about the future with you ahead.
So thank you to our clients, business advocates and cheerleaders, and readers. I hope that you have a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving. And whether you celebrate the holiday or not, I hope that you make time to pause and say a little thank you at work this week. Cheers!
