Many of us are glad to see this challenging year of 2020 come to a close. In fact, planning for 2021, can be approached with great optimism, considering what we have just been through.

As our team plans for a new year, and we assess our accomplishments and shortcomings, over the last 10 months, one metric stands out more than any other. Sure, our sales may be down, our activities and networking are down, and we haven’t attended one business conference, but as if rising out of ashes, the sources of our wins glimmer of hope and gratitude.

Thank you for our REFERRALS!

Our business has always relied on referrals as the primary source of new business generation, but in this challenging year, our data reinforced just how much we depend on our referral network for continued new business development. For each win we had, was tied to a referral source. Our CRM Software allows us to track this. It helps us focus on where and who, we should spend our time and money in marketing and sales. With the help of our CRM software, we know:

• Who our top referral sources are
• How many leads they generated for us
• How much revenue that equates to

These are the key metrics of a revenue generating team, and a software solution to track this is critical.

I encourage our clients to use technology to manage and track these metrics and give management the insight they need to invest time and money into drivers of revenue. For some businesses, referral sources are technology based, such as a website or web advertisements, and others it is more traditional business contacts in the actual “human” form.

If you need help aligning your software to measuring these key metrics, our team can help. You can see an example of our solution for referral management at Referral Management Indicator (ROI) or contact me to discuss your ideas and challenges.

Wishing you much success in 2021.

Dan Holzgen