Now is the time to touch base with all of your past clients. As many of you have heard me say, it’s not the client’s job to remember us. It’s our job to remind the client about us.
During the spring market we want our clients to remember the experience they had working with us. We want to ask them for referrals now, when their friends and families may want and need our services.
Here are four tips for contacting your past clients:
1. Call and/or send a personalized email to as many past clients as possible. Yes, you can send an email blast to every client you’ve ever worked with. Unfortunately, the problem with this non-personal approach is that it rarely leads to a referral. It’s fine if you’re sending a reminder for something like considering refinancing a loan, but referrals are very personal, and so too should be your way of reaching out to your client.
2. Write down three things that are unique and personal to each client. Doing this before each call email, or meeting helps take your mind back to when you were working with them. This not only personalizes the conversation or email, but that personal connection makes it more natural for you to ask for a referral and your client to give it.
3. Use a pivot line from “catching up” with your client to setting up your asking for the referral.I like to use something as simple as, “The reason for my call, besides seeing how you and the family are doing, is to see if you know of anyone who is looking to….”
4. Be direct when asking for the referral. In my Get More Referrals NOW in-office Success Academy trainings, I share that over 90% of clients are willing to give referrals, but only 11% are ever asked to do so. I actually think more than 11% of the salespeople ask; they just do it so indirectly the client doesn’t even realize they’ve been asked!
Find the language that works best for you, but however you choose to say it, your client should know you want them to give your name and contact information to their friends and family when the opportunity arises.
The spring market brings plenty of opportunities, and the salesperson who contacts former clients can double or triple those opportunities. Why wouldn’t you reach out?
