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Referrals are golden. And when you are a service professional, referrals can mean the difference between thriving and dog paddling.

About a year ago I went to a workshop given by David Frey on how to get more referral business. The presentation was pretty much a big sales pitch to join Send Out Cards under him, but there were some really good points he made along the way.

Make referrals an integral part of your sales process.

David recommended putting a sentence or two in your client contract that states if the client is happy with the service you provide, he or she will recommend two to three others who might also benefit from your service. This technique has two main effects:

1. It puts the idea in the client’s head to think of people to refer to you.
2. It makes it easier for you to bring it up later and ask for the referral.

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One of my favorite presenters at Market Your Way to Wealth this year as Lisa Cherney who talked about zeroing in on your “juicy” benefits and highlighting our “juicy” benefits.

Basically, if you identify who your ideal clients are — the clients you absolutely love working with — and then identify all those wonderful, unique benefits and solutions that you offer especially for them, you’ll attract more of your ideal clients into your business.

Of course, Lisa isn’t the only one talking about this. Remember Maria Marsala? I interviewed her for the Women’s Business Gallery a little over a year ago and she talked about it, too. It makes sense, if you’re going to grow a business that you love, why would you want to have clients that you don’t love as a part of it?

Anyway, here are some of the golden drops of juiciness that Lisa shared with us.
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There are four types of website:

• The Branding Site
• The Sales Letter
• A Blog
• The Squeeze Page

According to Matt Bacak, one of the speakers at Market You Way to Wealth in April, the Squeeze Page is the most important. Because this is the type of page that builds your list.

A squeeze page is a simple but powerful type of website. At it’s most basic it is just one web page tied to an autoresponder. A squeeze page’s sole purpose is to get visitors to provide you with their name and email address. An example of the squeeze page I use for the Women’s Business Gallery can be found at www.womensbusinessgallery.com.

Matt shared with us his three step process for setting up a squeeze page:
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“Success comes from taking the initiative and following up.”
~ Anthony Robbins

Although a retailer can get by without following up after a contact or sale, a service professional really can’t. Remember, it is far less expensive to keep a client and get repeat business than it is to find a new one. Also, your best source of referrals come from happy past clients.

Kim T. Gordon, the “Marketing” coach at Entrepreneur.com, says that “if you’re not communicating with your customer database at least every four to six weeks, you’re missing opportunities to grow you business.” So how do you keep in touch with your prospects and clients so that you remain top of mind the next time they or someone they know need your type of services?
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One of the meatiest parts of Arvee Robinson’s presentation at Market Your Way to Wealth in April was about the types of speeches you need to develop for your business. I’ll summarize what she talked about here.

There are three basic types of speeches you’ll need to develop to grow your business. They are the:

• Elevator Pitch
• Self-Introduction
• Front of the Room Talk

Each one of these speeches has a function and an optimal length of time. Once you’ve developed them, memorize them … especially the first two. The elevator pitch and your self-introduction should become a part of you so whenever you need them, they will flow from your lips like as gracefully as Kristi Yamaguchi on the ice.

Elevator Pitch

This should be about 10 seconds long and focus on the solution you provide your ideal clients. It used to be that this pitch was 30 seconds … but attention spans have shortened.

Self-Introduction

This needs to be quick and hook the listener into asking for more. Again, focus on the solutions and benefits you offer … not your background or job title. You’ll most likely need to use this when you are a guest speaker on a teleclass, conference call, webinar, radio show, TV show, informational meetup and other events where you’ll be asked to introduce yourself.

Front of the Room Talk

Depending on the venue, you’ll need to have different length versions of this type of presentation. The most common lengths are 15, 20, 30, 45 and 60 minutes. These are the kinds of speeches you give at Chambers of Commerce, networking groups, industry groups, trade shows, conferences, corporations, churches, schools, service clubs and more.

One way to structure this type of talk is to think of it as a “Speech Sandwich,” says Arvee.

The opening of the speech and the closing remain basically the same regardless of length. You start out your presentation with something that grabs attention and builds rapport with your audience. You close your presentation with your call to action.

In between is the “meat” of your presentation. How long your talk will be determines how many pieces of “meat” you put into your sandwich. The shorter the speech, the less “meat” will fit. A good rule of thumb is one key point (or piece of “meat”) for every 15 to 30 minutes.