When your customers refer a new customer to you, you should reward them.

First, it's the right thing to do. Second, if your customers learn that they get a reward for recommending you, they'll do it again and again.

The form of that reward or 'thank you' depends partly on the business that you are in and what you're selling.

The best type of reward is the cash reward, for obvious reasons. People like money! If it's appropriate to do this, you should consider it.

A close relative of the cash reward is the gift or gift certificate. So you could send your referring customer a bottle of champagne, or if you sell products - one of your products. Or a gift certificate for a local business or restaurant.

In some businesses, rewards that have financial value are not allowed. In these cases, you should at least thank the person with a handwritten note. I am sure you recommend people to various businesses all the time. When did the owner of one of those businesses last send you a personal thank you? Probably never.

Hopefully you are getting a sense of how powerful these strategies are. Imagine having an internal Marketing system for getting Referrals, loads of Referrals coming in, those people referring you being rewarded, and doing it again and again.

Then the icing on the cake - the people coming into your business through Referrals start recommending you and getting Referrals too.

It's a very powerful spiral of success that can transform your business.

Here's a great Referral strategy.

Don't just get Referrals from your customers. Get them from your suppliers too.

You want to find out who your suppliers know who could also be potential customers of yours. Establish a good relationship with your suppliers if you haven't already, ask the question, and get the contact details of all those untapped potential customers.

If your suppliers are smart, they will realise that it's in their best interests to help your business grow, and they could become an ongoing source of Referrals for you.

If you put the initial time in, this is a brilliant way to increase your customer base without having to spend a single penny.