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Written by: Souki Fournier
Would your clients recommend you to a friend?
This seems to be a quite easy and straight forward question. After all, any business owner can name at least one satisfied client that would be more than willing to vouch for them and recommend them to a friend. Or so they think.
You see, when it comes to managing your business, any leader knows the importance of client referrals. While implementing different marketing strategies provides you with great exposure to potential new leads, acquiring new business through referrals is one of the most effective ways to foster a highly engaged relationship with your clients.
So if that is the case, why are your business referrals not reflecting the number of satisfied clients you have?
Here are the 5 most effective ways to boost your business referrals:
1/ Identify Your Team’s Behavioral Style
The importance of identifying your team members’ behavioral styles lies in understanding their ways of interacting with your clients at a much deeper level. If leaders do not have a good understanding of behavioral differences within their teams, they will not be able to facilitate and encourage their employees to create a meaningful rapport with clients that would deem the business reference worthy.
Every time your team has an interaction with a client (whether it is an email exchange or a phone call), and no matter what the nature of the exchange is, you should always be able to answer the question: Would your clients recommend your business to a friend?
On an even much deeper level, you need to ask yourself as a leader if you have provided your team with all the tools they need to provide tailored and satisfactory services to your clients. The way you lead your team makes all the difference, and would instantly reflect on your business referrals. The outgoing, engaging, and conversationalist type of employee will more likely reach out to you with any concerns or recommendations they have regarding the services provided and will offer input and advice on how to serve your clients better and generate more referrals. On the other hand, a more reserved and quiet team member may not actively speak up and address any concerns they might have unless prompted to do so.
As you can see, people are different. They all have their own unique behavioral styles and understanding it is the key to bridge the gap to managing these differences and boosting your business referrals on the same occasion.
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2/ Anticipate Your team’s Needs
Now that organizations around the world are working from home, the key to managing your remote team successfully is to first understand their level of adaptability to change. Whether it is adapting to new technology or organizational structure, you should always be able to identify the members of your team who are the most adaptable and those who tend to be reticent to change. The most adaptable group of individuals has the potential to help you lead the change, innovate your process, and facilitate your team’s adaptability to new technology.
When you obtain this level of understanding of your team, you can then anticipate any needs for change they might have and proactively address it. That way, they are less concerned about the changes occurring in the organization, and more focused on your clients’ needs.
3/ Balance Traditional and Technology
You might think that empowering your organization with high tech fully remote services is a sign of evolution and growth for your business, but you would be surprised at how many of your team members might consider that introduction to technology as a negative disrupter. Getting the balance right between traditional and technology by understanding behavioral differences and managing them is where leadership success sits. Through behavioral insights, you can build a strong connection with your team and unravel those who explicitly want face-to-face interaction, and those who prefer a digital solution.
Knowing how to manage these differences is the key to your success.
Remember, when you increase your team’s engagement, it results in increasing their engagement with the clients, which will highly impact your referrals.
4/ Build a Behaviorally Smart Retention Strategy
If your goal is not only to boost your client recommendations but potentially build a client referral-based business, you need to first and foremost look into your team’s level of engagement and what your employee retention strategy looks like. As we mentioned before, a highly engaged team results in a highly engaged client, which will impact positively on your business referrals.
The key to building a behaviorally smart retention strategy is to look into your work rewards system. Beyond financial retribution, various rewards motivate your team and your responsibility as a leader is to understand their behaviors, identify those rewards, and implement them in your retention strategy. Whether it is career progression, sense of achievement, or personal growth, motivating your team through these non-financial rewards will increase their engagement and reflect on their rapport with your clients.
Team development coaching programs can be quite valuable to help you increase your team engagement. The DNA Coach Network is a powerful and private coaching program that has helped thousands of leaders develop their team’s capabilities and achieve their goals.
Schedule your first call today!
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