How do I get people to recommend my business?

This newsletter is for people who run a business or want to run a business. I’ll be addressing all of the main questions you will come up against when you launch a business and during the running of your business.

Alongside a deep dive into these important questions. I’ll be journaling the growth and ups and downs of my own agency, Bottled Imagination. These updates will always contain the highlighted version (the LinkedIn friendly version) and then the version of what really happened that week.

This won’t be fortune cookie advice from someone who has already ‘made it’.

These will be practical, real time thoughts and learnings from someone who is doing it right now

Weekly journal 31/05/2024

The LinkedIn version

• There’s been lots of important meetings at Bottled Imagination, both in the UK and abroad. Here’s me taking a 5 minute break on a beach in between meeting lots of existing and potential new clients in the Algarve…

The Real Version

• There’s been lots of important meetings at Bottled Imagination, both in the UK and abroad. Here’s me taking a 5 minute break on a beach in between meeting lots of existing and potential new clients in the Algarve…

I was on holiday. Just say you were on holiday. You don’t need a big post about important meetings and planning for the future. I literally sat on a sun lounger, ate loads of fish kebabs and floated around in the Atlantic Ocean like a Seapig for a week.

I did have one moment of reflection. I admittedly splashed out on a nice hotel last week, the kind of one I normally wouldn’t splash out on. It was a wellness hotel (I still put on 7 pounds..probably muscle) with a spa and rooftop pool. I’d visited the same place in Portugal 10 years ago and we’d stayed in a basic hotel which was all we could afford then but totally did the job. We went back to the same hotel. I felt the same levels of happiness on this holiday as I did back on the holiday 10 years ago. They were both treats. There were just fewer influencers and yoga instructors at the old one.

How do I get people to recommend my business?

Recommendations are massive when it comes to getting more customers or clients. If you aren't getting any you either don’t have a big enough network, aren’t doing good enough work or aren’t marketing yourself in the right way.?

Before I go into a few pointers on how to get referrals and recommendations for your business.

I’m going to give you an insight into a relatively new business. My own.

I’m going to show you the past 2 years worth of leads at Bottled Imagination and where they came from.

Our top 5 sources for leads over the past 2 years are

1. Inbound: 35% - A few of these could go under inbound but counting this as someone getting in touch who we perhaps don’t have a past relationship with who has got in touch via our site or social.
2. Past connection: 20% - A former client or colleague
3. Partner: 20% - An agency or consultancy we have a partnership with who have referred us a lead
4. Conference: 6% - Counted as a direct lead we received from a conference. Us speaking at conferences has come up in other leads too.
5. Outbound: 6% - These have been leads quite far away from converting.

If you take into account upsells/cross sells - about 45% of our leads have come from a recommendation.?

It’s been a big part of how we have grown over the past 2 years and now we are 2 years in, it’s happening more, not less.

Now if we take a look at the past relationship we had with the eventual brand that got in touch or we pitched to.

Only 12% were past clients. Nearly 30% knew who we were but…

Over half the brands didn’t know who we were or there was no previous relationship. So nearly half of our leads are coming from recommendations but over 50% of the brands have no prior knowledge of us (Have they not seen my Twitter??)?

Can you see how important the recommendations will have been in converting those brands who didn’t know us? It’s a recommendation from someone they probably trust themselves and it immediately gives us a chance in a new business scenario.

In fact, out of those leads that came via recommendation but they had no knowledge of who we were we converted them into clients 66% of the time.?

Of the leads that came in that had no previous relationship with us that came from other channels, like inbound. We converted into clients just 30% of the time.?

Now, our win rate in pitches is far higher than this, we do a good at that. This is all leads at all stages. These types of leads were in a far higher volume and not all of these leads were leads we pitched for, some were later qualified out or have been delayed. But you can see the difference and how important a recommendation can be.?

Are you good at what you do?

Someone might be sticking their neck out to recommend you. You’re going to need to be good at the thing it is that you specialise in. Good for a while, good in a relevant way to the company they are referring you to.

If you do an amazing job for your clients and each client has 3-4 contacts and those contacts leave to go elsewhere, they are more likely to bring them with you if you’ve done a great job for them. They will be recommending you to their new bosses, of course they are only going to do that if you are good.

There’s a number of PR and design freelancers we’d recommend to people and do frequently and the first reason is because we believe they are good at what they do.

Do you offer a complimentary service to others??

This is where being a specialist is a good thing. You can be referred to by people who don’t do the thing it is you do. It’s harder if your company does everything to be referred by partners or others because you might be in competition with them on another service.?

Do people want you to do well?

This sounds like a weird one but people in your network are going to have to want you to do well in order for them to recommend you. It sometimes.

To be honest it comes down to if you are likeable. Burnt bridges? Been rude to people? Belittled people below you? Been a pain in the arse to bosses? Forget it.

I always let other agency owners make their own mind up about people they work with that I know but I would let them know most of all if, if they asked, if that person was a bit of a dickhead. You can come back from “I liked them but it didn't work out for them at our last place” but it’s hard to come back from “They are a bit of a dickhead”

What’s in it for them?

Not everyone's a saint. What is in it for the people or companies referring you? Kickbacks can be a great revenue stream for smaller consultancies and a good way of bigger companies to bring in revenue for clients they can’t take on for various reasons.?

Our first client was from a bigger agency and we had an agreement with them on a kick back. We got our first client, a big brand, they got something in return for referring us. They were a big agency…we weren’t…and they chased every damn invoice from us within an hour of a delayed payment..which kind of shows you how they got big in the first place.?

We wouldn't have an agency without our first two recommendations.