Ebook by
About Talkdesk Talkdesk is easy-to-use, cloud-based call center software that helps growing businesses provide excellent customer service with phone support. Talkdesk makes it possible to have real time, personalized conversations with customers, without hardware, coding or downloads - all that is needed is a computer and an Internet connection. With Talkdesk, companies can have a call center up-and-running in minutes and have access to robust call center functionality including IVR, skills-based routing, call conferencing, comprehensive reporting, all in an intuitive web-based interface. Integrations with top business tools and CRM systems, such as Salesforce, Desk.com and Zendesk, make customer data easily accessible, so agents never have to wade through endless systems to provide superior service. For more information, visit www.talkdesk.com. TRY TALKDESK FOR FREE // 2
// How to Build a Professional Referral Program // table of contents // INTRODUCTION // 04 01 // Dedicated Manager // 05 02 // Clear Offering // 06 03 // Compensation Structure // 07 04 // Custom Widgets // 08 05 // Dedicated Landing Pages // 09 06 // Regular Communications // 11 07 // Training and Materials // 12 08 // Tags, Tracking and Reporting // 13 CONCLUSION // 15 // 3
// INTRODUCTION // The warmest, most qualified sales leads are often a result of referrals, typically from sources such as customers, associates or professional partners. They are a bit of a Holy Grail of marketing prospective customers arriving at your doorstep supported by the strong referral of someone they know and trust yet as obvious as it is that a strong referral program can create a major influx of customers, marketing and sales departments have a difficult time harnessing the opportunities. To truly leverage potential referrals, you need to build a professional referral program and to support its success you need to have the following features support your efforts. // 4
01 // DEDICATED MANAGER First and foremost, set aside a dedicated point person to manage your new referral program. Countless programs never get off the ground because of a lack of ownership and stewardship. Make the program the main project of a marketing or sales development team member and then provide support through tools and administrative staff as needed. This will also help streamline inquiries from your affiliates and bolster your efforts in the long run by keeping a singular voice on all communications. // 5
02 // CLEAR OFFERING You can t run a successful referral program without a clear menu of products and services. If your referral partners are responsible for selling you to their connections, your offerings need to be clear and easy to convey. If you haven t figured out what your brand promise or value proposition is, your referral partners surely won t be able to either. // 6
03 // COMPENSATION STRUCTURE Of course, every referral program has rewards, commissions and/or incentives for partner members. Before you begin your referral program, make sure you know exactly how you will compensate your referrals for their participation. Perhaps you will offer a percentage of the sales and commissions or reward through freebies and extras whatever you choose, make sure you can clearly explain how the program will issue any payments due and create clear, easily to understand instructions for how partners can earn benefits. // 7
04 // CUSTOM WIDGETS One of the biggest differences between a homegrown (and unlikely to flourish referral program) and a robust, lively partner program funneling leads is your ability to utilize current technology. The best referral programs offer custom widgets that referring partners can include on their websites to help draw traffic. These widgets can be simple banners linking to your website or more advanced widgets, including data-capturing forms and interactive tools. Your widget will likely depend on your technological know-how and your product needs. The most important thing is to be able to offer a customizable widget to help track your referrals leads to your website and subsequent inquiries about and sales of your product. // 8
05 // DEDICATED LANDING PAGES In addition to a customized widget, consider including dedicated landing pages to support your referral program. If you have the ability to provide your referral partners with a customized landing page this will likely depending on your direct access to web developers and your ability to make ongoing modifications to your website then you should consider including customized, dedicated landing pages as part of the feature set for your referrals. There are many benefits to dedicated landing pages, from helping track inbound leads to lending credibility to your partnership. // 9
Prospective customers coming to your site from your referral partner s link will note the branded page as a sign of a strong connection between the brand they trust (your partner s) and the brand they are just getting to know (yours). Make the most of it by offering co-branded, relevant content, including sharing blog posts, relevant news or white papers and quotes from your referral partner. In short, use this landing page to convey the close relationship you have with your referral partner it will go a long way in establishing the trust factor your inbound leads are looking for. // 10
06 // REGULAR COMMUNICATIONS One of the biggest pitfalls for professional referral programs is a lack of follow through. Companies often begin with the best of intentions, only to see efforts fall apart when they aim to get a follow up newsletter out without any fresh content ideas. Avoid this by setting manageable communications goals, from a monthly newsletter or a simple blog post update and then stick to it. Ask referral partners to contribute content or take a role in your communications think of it as an opportunity for referral partners to get in front of each other as well as a means of relieving some of the burden of creating your own content. Once you get things underway, you ll find it is easier to keep it going. // 11
07 // TRAINING AND MATERIALS Set your referral partners up for success by offering onboarding, training and educational materials. Whether your products are easy to understand or are complex services requiring industry knowledge, your referral partners will likely benefit from sales knowledge and support that only you as the expert in the field can offer. Every pool of referral partners will have a group of early adopters partners that are ready and willing to shout your company from the highest mountains and partners that straggle behind, waiting for proof that referring customers will be worth it or easy or both. You can identify your early adopters as those who take you up on the offer for training and support remember them as they will likely be the ones carrying the majority of the referral burden, and treat them accordingly. // 12
08 // TAGS, TRACKING AND REPORTING Your program is only as strong as your ability to give credit where due. Launching a successful referral partner program means being able to track leads from source through to close, and then report back to partners to pay or reward as per the commission structure. Regardless of how many ways you can receive a lead (web forms, email inquiry, inbound phone call, etc), you need to be able to accurately track and attribute leads to your referral partners. For online leads, this means tagging through cookies, tracking pixels and unique URLs. For offline leads, this means setting up a method of fact-finding questions or even unique codes through your call center or inbound sales team. // 13
Make sure to account for every possible lead type and be prepared to offer regular, formal reports it will offer your referral partners an accurate snapshot of their activity as well as reinforce your interest in their success. Create branded templates with your referral partners logos and send them at regularly scheduled intervals. // 14
// CONCLUSION // Even if your referral partners aren t actively referring you business, they will be reminded of your program and their potential benefits every time they receive your communications. Slowly but surely, you ll make more active referral partners out of them as well. // 15
About Talkdesk Talkdesk is easy-to-use, cloud-based call center software that helps growing businesses provide excellent customer service with phone support. Talkdesk makes it possible to have real time, personalized conversations with customers, without hardware, coding or downloads - all that is needed is a computer and an Internet connection. With Talkdesk, companies can have a call center up-and-running in minutes and have access to robust call center functionality including IVR, skills-based routing, call conferencing, comprehensive reporting, all in an intuitive web-based interface. Integrations with top business tools and CRM systems, such as Salesforce, Desk.com and Zendesk, make customer data easily accessible, so agents never have to wade through endless systems to provide superior service. For more information, visit www.talkdesk.com. TRY TALKDESK FOR FREE // 16