7 Ways to Get More Referrals

Here are seven ways to get more referrals from every customer you serve. Except for the nightmare customers that you don't want referrals from. Skip those. But for those of you who are tired of knocking doors or relying on your company for leads, and you want to take control and ownership of your income, you want to make more money with less effort and you want easier deals to sign, because referrals are the warmest leads you could possibly get. In fact, they're pretty much flaming hot and they have the highest close rate. Well, this video is going to help you. Now, owners and managers, this is something you're going to want to pay very close attention to all the way to the end to help not only introduce this to your team by way of sharing this video, but to create the right systems in place so they start doing it. Because one of the biggest problems with referrals is that people don't ask even when they know it's the number one thing that they can be doing to generate more sales. So I want to ask you this question right now. How many referrals did you ask for this week? Yeah, if you're like the many thousands I've surveyed on stages all across America, there's a lot of shoot, you got me type of responses. There's of course, the handful of people that are proud of what they do. And if that's you, kudos to you and I'm gonna give you even more tools. So let's get started. But first, a quick welcome or welcome back. Adam Bensman here. And everything I do on my channel is designed to help you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. And I started this channel because before I got into roofing sales, I was living on $4.20 a day in groceries. I never went out to eat for any reason. I had virtually zero training. I was thrown to the streets without any sales experience. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. And back in 2011, there were no resources to turn to that were public or free. There were no Facebook groups, There were no YouTube channels. There was not people, at least that I was aware of that were willing to share things. It was a dog eat dog world. So I wanted the folks who are coming into this business like I did to have resources and tools to use this industry to change their lives because it changed mine. So if you want to support the channel and you want to learn, you want to support me, it would mean the world to me if you could click the subscribe button and the bell right now so you don't miss a thing. And then follow along on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn search, Adam Bensman, the roof strategist. You'll find it everywhere. And, yeah, glad to have you here. Let's rock and roll. All right, referrals, let's get into the foundation first. So before I lay out the seven ways for you to start getting more referrals. And by the way, I do have a bonus. So we're actually going to call it 8. 7 has a good ring to it. And this is take like 15 for me filming, and I thought of another one and I want to. I want to add it in, so stick around all the way through so you don't miss anything. But I have just a quick shout out both for the salespeople and the leadership, teams, owners and managers. The reason that people do not ask for referrals is because there's no process to do it. They're just relying on their memory, like, oh, yeah, I should ask for referrals because they're easy to get. But what we need is a system to follow to create the right sales habits. And for habits to form, we need a trigger. So something happens that says, oh, now I do this. So again, for many of us, like, I used to drink a lot, and my trigger for drinking was, work is done. And as soon as work was done, I'd pour a drink or I'd open a beer, and that was a trigger. Work done, do this. But that's an example of, like, an unhealthy trigger. But for a healthy trigger, for many who, like, work out first thing in the morning, the trigger is wake up, brush my teeth, then I go work out. So my trigger is brushing my teeth or waking up, right? It's the first thing I do in the morning. And once we start creating triggers for habits, you don't even think twice. So if you have the habit of drinking or if you have the habit of working out, you know that you don't really need to think about it. It's just part of what you do. And that's what we want to create with this referral process. So let's begin, shall we? Let's hit these seven, stick around for the eighth bonus. And I hope to start getting you more referrals, because then you can create this problem right here. Because this guy, he's following my system and he's got the problem of having too many referrals and that he cannot keep up with. And I Want that problem to happen to you. So let's begin. Number one is the obvious asking for referrals. But the less obvious part is when many people will only ask at the end of the project. And I say that you should start asking at the beginning. When you sign the deal, because you have provided value, you've identified a problem, you've proposed a solution, and the homeowner trusts you enough to write you a big old fat check for likely tens of thousands of dollars. So you can ask for referrals. One, when you sign the deal. Two, when the job is scheduled and you're notifying them. Three, on the day of install, assuming everything's going well, number four, when the job is done, and number five, when you're collecting final payment, those are five times that you can ask. Which brings me to referral tip number two. And that is what I call the referral cheat sheet. Now, what is this? It is this right here. It is a handout. It's an introduction to the referral program that we include in the welcome packet. So every time you or your team signs a sale, signs a customer, it's part of the process again, remember before I talked about triggers? This is the trigger. They sign the customer, they're going through what happens next, and then boom, that piece of paper is there to remind them to introduce the homeowner the referral process. And like that testimonial I just shared with you, that gentleman said, no way, Adam. I won't ask for referrals until after the job is done. But when he used this for, I believe, I think it was the first time he ended up leaving the house with a pocket full of referrals. And the same thing can happen to you. All right, which brings me to tip number three, and that is emails. Emails are highly under leveraged by roofing sales companies and salespeople. Why? Because attention is what we have. If they're reading the email, I'm going to provide value about what happens next and then introduce them to the referral program. In my sales system, I teach you how to do this both by asking for referrals on tip one. Number two, I give you the referral cheat sheet and show you how to use it. And then number three, I actually wrote all the emails for you because a lot of people butcher asking for referrals. They make it all about them. So we have to format it right, we have to simplify it, and we have to alleviate the customer's concerns about throwing their friend into a sales appointment or giving us their Information, and we've done a really good job in that, in the system. So whether you're using my system or your own, my tip to you is that every customer update email you send should include a referral request. All right, that brings me to number four on the list, which is text messages. This little thing right here, it beeps, it dings. And when it does, we pick it up and we look at it. And text messages, I believe, have around a 90% open rate, which means people actually see them. So just because you're asking in person and emailing doesn't mean that you couldn't also be doing it in text. But the way that pros use text is in conjunction with asking for them. So if they ask for them in person and the homeowner says, oh, you know, you can work with John, my friend John, hey, do you mind just shooting a group text to me? And John, set up an intro, and I'll take it from there. And then that's the easiest way to say, hey, meet my roofer Adam. He just did our roof. You guys should talk. Done. And now I've got their information. So there you have it. Text again. Stupid. Simple. Many people don't use it. Number five. This one comes from a gentleman named Mitch, who I interviewed. And you can watch the interview up here. I'll put a link to it here on YouTube. And Mitch is a sales rep who don't quote me on this because I don't remember the exact numbers. I'm going from memory, but he made about $177,000 of income on his sales. But then here's the cool part. From his referrals alone, he made an extra. Let me repeat, extra. $140,000, which means he nearly doubled his income by getting referrals. Now, Mitch and I didn't fully agree in that interview, and you'll see why when you watch it. The reason I say we didn't fully agree is he's using this technique that I'm teaching you, but I'm giving credit where credit is due. So, Mitch Deschas, thank you a bunch for paying it forward, is he did personalized gifts, leveraging this concept known as reciprocity. I do something nice for you, you do something nice for me. So in conversations, he'd ask, you know, like, what's your favorite restaurant? He'd just make a little note, and then at the end of the project, he would send them a gift card to the restaurant that they mentioned is a little way of saying thank you. So those. Those personalized gifts go a really long way of making people feel appreciated and special and. And cared for and have, according to Mitch's experience. And from what I've seen, too, when you give gifts to people, they have a higher likelihood of giving the gifts right back by way of referral. All right, and that leads me to number six, which is the power of a thank you letter. Now, the thank you letter again, I've written one. It's included in my system, and you can use it when you send it in the mail. It is really powerful. It's not hard to send a quick thank you text or email, but it takes time, energy, and effort, and it wows people if you send a letter in the mail thanking them for their business and again, asking for a referral. Which brings me here to our final one, which is, quite frankly, my favorite. And that's number seven, and that is getting our homeowners to introduce us to the neighbors. Now, how do we do this? First, we make it all about the homeowner and providing value. And I'm going to just jump into role play. Hey, Peggy. I'm so excited we got your roof scheduled. It's coming up next week, and I'm going to be introducing myself to all your neighbors to let them know about the install. Why? As you know, thousands of pounds of debris are coming off, coming back on if the wind kicks up or anything, and debris flies in the air yard. I don't want them mad at you because that's not neighborly. I want them mad at me, and then I'll take care of it to make you look like a hero. Would you mind just walking with me next door real quick and introducing me to your neighbors? Pretty clever, isn't it? And just like that, your homeowners will very frequently, literally walk you to the neighbor's house and knock on the door and say, hey, meet Adam, my roofer. He's got something to share with you. Take it from here. Done. Okay. Or again, if they don't want to walk you next door, you can set up the group text. Piece of cake. Now, I told you there was a bonus one at the end because I filmed this video like 15 times. And here it is. The bonus one is a modification of all of the above, and that is the use of personalized video messages. My favorite platform to use is Useloom. U S E L o o m useloom.com. no, I'm not affiliated. I just love the tool, use it in my own business with clients I serve, and I use it with My team and what I can do is make personal videos with the click of a button. And I could blend all of these up by introducing folks via personal video to the referral program. I could express to them that I popped a little personalized thank you gift in the mail and I could ask for a text introduction and share my information just to make it a piece of cake. But again, that's another way to wow people with a little personal touch of appreciation and get more referrals. So now what you have in front of you is the philosophy of creating the right triggers to get sales habits in place to ask for referrals. You have a system to follow in seven different ways to to get referrals from every customer, which means you have no reason whatsoever to not be collecting boatloads of referrals. So you can smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. Now, if you're someone who may want to take this system and run with it even deeper and you're like, dude, I want your system. So my team is following it. I want the psychology that you've used to create the right sales habits and the right triggers with the checklist and the emails and the referral cheat sheet and the closing process. If that's you, then I invite you to join me inside the Roofing and Solar Reform Alliance. That's the place exclusively now where you can get access to my sales system and have not only sales training, but join me in ongoing training sessions, get daily support in our private app and join other brilliant minds, the best of the best in the industry like Daeshaun Bryant and John Cenac and Cody Landles and Jim Alleen. It's an incredible community and it's my passion product and the most fulfilling thing I've done in my career. So I'd love to join you on that journey. And you can click the link in the description to learn more about membership to the Roofing and Solar form alliance and book your application call, see if it's a good fit. But if you're someone who's either maybe you're a sales rep or maybe you're not quite in a position to join yet, that's okay. I still want to help you and for you, I want you to jump into my free training center right now. There's no catch and there's binge worthy content, whether you're new, seasoned, an owner or a manager, that's all for this video. Stick around for more because I got a playlist to carry this referral thing even deeper. We'll see you on the next one.