Getting Referrals from Your Current Clients
The easiest way to get referrals is from your existing clients. Here are some suggestions:
When they hire you, let them know that your business is based on referrals and that you must do a good job to get those referrals. When you quote your price, clearly state that your fee is $X and two referrals. In other words, the two referrals are considered a part of your fee. By making it clear that it's a part of the fee, and that you MUST deliver to their expectations to get those referrals and now you are asking them to start thinking about who they'd refer to you. Tell them that you'll be asking "how am I doing" in 2-3 weeks and, if they are happy, you'll be asking, "So who do you know that would like to have results like this.
I include two referrals as a part of my fee, and after getting those two; I'll make sure to let them know that from this point forward I'll give them a 10% referral fee for any more that I get.
If you get a minimum of two referrals from every client, and if you sell 50% of those you meet with (you should have a higher sales success ratio from a warm referral than from your other sales avenues), then you will always have clients waiting in line.
Getting Referrals from Prospective Clients
I've had clients that are serious about hiring me, but are struggling to come up with the fee. Usually, we've had an initial meeting or two and they have already had some break through. So, it's pretty easy to say, "Do you know anyone else who'd like to have the kind of results you've seen so far? I pay a 10% referral fee. If you'd really like to hire me, but are struggling with the fee, I'll give you 10% of every referral that you give that buys. You could get a significantly reduced fee . . . or just might end up getting it for free.
I just made an offer to a client that had started working with a competitor on a training program and that competitor dropped the ball. Therefore I got referrals to 20 people at one time for a training program. My client attended for free plus got paid 100%. And I got 19 paid clients.
How to Ask for Referrals
From Existing Clients - the next best time to ask (the first best was above) is when you ask your client how well he's progressing. Be sure to have your client always tell you how far he's come, how much more money he's made, how much time he's saved, etc, and that's the time to say, "That's great. Do you know anyone who'd like to have that kind of result as well?"
Another great time to ask for a referral from a client is a month or two after you've finished working with them. Call them back to "check on how well they've progressed since 1963 Topps baseball cards finished working together." Be sure to ask for the measurable progress, which should be tremendous, and then simply ask that question, "Do you know anyone who'd like to have that kind of result as well?" By the way, this is also the ideal time to ask if they'd like to get some more of that kind of result too. Get them to hire you back.
From Unhappy Clients, or clients that decline to re-hire you-- ????? Yes, I said unhappy clients. I know that, even if you are a terrific coach, that you Fleer Ted Williams have a client that less than satisfied. It happens to the best of us, not because of what we did, but because the client just wouldn't follow through, or due to some slip up. As you ask him, "how's it going" and he tells you, you'll have the opportunity to correct the problem. When you do correct the problem, frequently the unhappy customers become some of the greatest promoters of your services. Now ask them the same questions you asked above.
From Vendors -If they are doing business with you, it's likely they are doing business with your ideal customer. Also, make sure that if that vendor has done well by you, that you'll give him some referrals. You are more likely to get a referral after you've given a referral.
From Strategic Partners - Always be on the lookout for a strategic partner. They are the companies that are likely doing business with your target customers.
Set up a partnership where something you do can be shared with them. A good way of doing this is doing joint seminars. I frequently approach a bank, or a Tarzan action figure developer, to do a seminar in their facility.
For the bank, I'll market to their community to bring business owners in to the bank for a seminar. They'll market to another segment of their community and to their existing clients. The seminar establishes the bank as a center for growing businesses. And they also bring in their own clients, and they lend their name to my marketing. We help each other in shared marketing, in a sense, the bank is Transformers me to their clients and I'm sharing my clients with the bank for the use of the bank facility and the use of their name in my marketing. That erectile dysfunction treatments just about doubles my marketing response. (You can do the same thing with a chamber.).
I also partner with web developers. Those businesses looking for a web developer are looking for ways to grow their business and that's what I do. Again, we share our marketing and do seminars on business building, and I'll tailor the business building a little more toward internet marketing. More often than not, it goes way beyond the sharing of marketing, as I'll probably get referrals to most of the banks customers and most of the web developer's customers. Works great!
Be Specific When Asking for a Referral
Asking, "Who do you know that . . . " may not get as much of a response as being much more specific. A great way of asking is to name your narrow target niche and then telling them what kind of struggle your target market is struggling with. Or, even, at times name a company or specific person. It may seem somewhat counterintuitive, but the more you narrow down on a specific name, or type of company with a specific struggle, the more likely the person who you are asking for a referral from will come up with that specific person, or it'll trigger a though about someone like that person.
Networking Power Teams
This is a group of people from your networking that either are your target market, or are doing business in your target market, but they aren't your competition.
Ask this group of people how you can help them get lots more referrals, and then suggest that you get together once or twice a month to discuss how you can refer to each other. Put your heads together and develop ways to get those referrals, be creative and always support them. When this team starts working you are likely to get 50% or more of all of your referrals from this group.
How to Get Even More Referrals
Have a monthly and weekly goal for the referrals you will be getting. Make sure that you actually get that targeted number of referrals each and every month, and that you are reviewing what's working, what's not, and what percentage of the time you do get referrals versus how many requests you have made.
Then review while asking yourself,
- How to get more referrals next month
- Who gives the most referrals, or what kind of company gives the most referrals
- What message got you the most referrals
- What you could do to get larger referrals
- Who you could talk to that would give you larger referrals.
Almost every time I go through the review process with a client we see another sudden leap, many times by several times.
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