How To Multiply Your Referrals By 100%!
Dear Friend,
In the beautiful rolling mountains of Helmsley, in North Yorkshire, England, there isn't a lot of "partying" going around.
Mostly, the people who live there are busy looking after their sheep (there are literally THOUSANDS of them scattered all over the mountains)... taking care of their farms... and relaxing.
The town is so historic, that most of the homes, shops, churches and commercial buildings -- even the ones on the main street -- haven't been altered in over 300 years.
The town is located right next to one of the most beautiful castles in all of England, Castle Howard, which was also built over 300 years ago, and is located on over 10,000 acres of property.
Helmsley is also the site of a HUGE hunting "to-do" during winter time, and hundreds of hunters (including many or the UK's "rich and famous") travel up there to shoot pheasant, quail, and grouse (which is a brown bird that is sort of "chicken-like").
If you're going to stay in Helmsley, or if you're traveling to York, which is only a 20 minute drive away, and you don't want to stay inside the city of York itself, there is ONLY one place you'd want to stay, and that is at a lovely little Bed & Breakfast resort called "The Carleton Lodge."
The Carleton Lodge is owned and operated by Chris Parkin and his wife Margaret -- in fact they've owned the resort since 1989, and we were lucky enough to stay with the Parkins when we were over in the UK last month.
Chris and I got to talking about his marketing, and he shared a very interesting story with me.
At the breakfast table (I have never seen such huge slabs of toasted whole grain bread -- nor have I ever tasted strawberry preserves like that in my life.) Chris has a small tray where he has "thank you" cards.
Actually, they're more like thank-you "notices", and on these notices, there are a couple of questions asking you what you liked about your stay (One man wrote he had the best sexual experience in his life at the Carleton Lodge. Obviously since we had three kids with us, that man wasn't me.) and there is also a place asking you for referrals.
This is actually where Chris gets most of his business from -- if I remember correctly, more than 50% actually.
I gave Chris a few tips about how he could change his sales copy, to make his "ad" pull a higher response, and he told me something remarkable:
He told me that once he started placing a ballpoint pen next to these cards, his response rate...
Doubled!
Now think about your business -- is there a place in it where you can make it easier to either get feedback... get orders... or increase your referrals?
I bet there is.
See, even though this sounds like something obvious, people are overlooking things like this all the time.
In fact, last Sunday, we took the kids out for breakfast to our favorite place, The Breakfast Nook.
The owner had similar survey cards on the table, and since the service there is excellent, I wanted to fill one out, but of course... I didn't have a pen on me, to fill her card out.
When I asked the owner how important it was, those cards get filled out, she said "Very." So using Chris's system as a model, I told her what his experience was and she immediately started placing ball-point pens in the trays where her feedback cards were located.
Smart woman.
Now go sell something,
Craig Garber
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