New business is hard — hard to maintain, hire for, and keep up consistently. You need to invest in paid traffic and, let’s be honest, most businesses typically aren’t very keen on that idea.
There, I said. Cat is out the bag. Deal with it
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Relying on referrals as the main source of growth for your business? Dude, then you really should re-think your position. Like, yesterday.” quote=”If your business relies heavily on referrals as the main source of growth then you really should re-think your position.” theme=”style5″]
Of course, referrals mean that you’re doing a great job and that your past & current clients are more than comfortable to recommend your services to their network.
Awesome job!
But there are several major issues with relying on referrals.
If you do relies on referrals then this section might make you feel a tad uncomfortable but I promise you there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
1. A referral might not be the right type of client
I believe we’ve all had them at some point. Those clients whom after some time make you wonder how on earth you ended working together. They could be too small, limited budget, simply the wrong fit etc. You not only end up wasting valuable time, you both have a poor experience (and results to match) because you’re trying to climb the wrong mountain. It’ll inevitably go wrong somewhere.
2. You can not scale a business if most of your sales come from referrals
As your business workload experiences peaks and troughs (as we all do), relying on referrals as a main source of new business means then you probably batten down the hatches and ride out the storm.. if you have a few active clients, and rely on them for new business referrals, logic dictates that you’ll get less referrals.
So, not having a predictable and scalable lead flow filling up the top of your sales funnel with highly targeted leads, when you are busy, and not so busy, means you’re on a slippery slope indeed!
3. Your competitors are eating up more of the pie each and every day
Like it or not, your competitors are growing faster than you. They understand that of they are to survive, they need to have an active business development strategy.
So, as every day passes you by your competitors are dominating your market, which means those referrals you are passively relying on to magically appear in your office have a much higher chance of slowing, or drying up altogether.
Take solace knowing you’re not alone…
A 2016 Hubspot report found out that 90% of agency owners rely on referrals as a main source of business – 90%!
What I find even more astonishing with this graph is that just 7% said they use paid online marketing. What is this madness?!
It’s worth noting that this also means that there is a HUGE opportunity for you if you started a dedicated lead generation campaign ASAP (especially if you’re an agency of any kind).
Now we have context, let’s get straight to the point.
Paid Traffic Is Not An Expense. It’s An Investment.
When done right a paid traffic campaign should not cost you anything at all – it should generate you leads, sales & money. However, most businesses however get it wrong… they throw money into campaigns on Facebook, Google and Linkedin get poor results and determine that advertising isn’t for them.
And the reason for this common mistake is that 90% of businesses focus on traffic before they’ve got key elements of the puzzle in place. They don’t see that paid traffic is part of much bigger picture and advertising is just one part.
And this misunderstanding means that most business owners view paid traffic spend as an expense, so don’t feel bad if you do as well – there is a remedy and we can change this.
The truth is I constantly see at least 10-20x ROI for my ad campaigns.. thats every $1 I spend I get at least $10 to $20 in return, and that’s AFTER all campaign costs.
Paid traffic helps my clients get 10 to 15 new pre-qualified prospects each month on their sales calendar. You could be having the same and don’t need a huge budget for this… you just need a clear & proven strategy to get you from where you are now to where you want your business to be.
What would 10-15 pre-qualified sales call mean for your business growth?
Sales & marketing automation funnel
If you want a scalable and automated client acquisition funnel that gets you a consistent lead flow, with more-than-positive ROI on your spend, you should book a free (as in z e r o cost) discovery call with me.
Post recap
- Most businesses are not very adept at generating new business.
- Having satisfied clients, willing to refer your products & services to their network, means you’re good at what you do.
- A referral might not be the right type of client.
- You can not scale a business if most of your sales come from referrals.
- Your competition are eating up more of the pie each & every day.
- 90% of agencies rely on referrals as their main source of new business.
- Paid traffic is not and expense. It’s an investment.
- Advertising should not cost you money, it should generate leads, sales and revenue.