How to Generate Referrals Without Asking
/Part 2: Three Steps for Getting Referrals with Your Own Plan
Last month, we took our first look at insights from Stacey Brown Randall’s webinar, “How to Generate Referrals Without Asking.” We discovered her penetrating critiques of referral-generating “best practices,” and we learned about the science of referrals. (Read Part 1 here.) Ultimately, we discovered that the common wisdom isn’t so wise, and that the best referral-generating strategies are the ones that empower referrers to serve their own social networks, boost their own senses of self, and close the loop on generous reciprocation.
This month, we’re pivoting out of philosophy and into practice. We’ll discover Stacy’s actionable advice for identifying existing referrers and building systematized, low-effort campaigns to nurture them. We’ll discover how the right language paired with the right concept and the right rollout can keep you top of mind. In short, we’ll cover everything we need to know in order to encourage repeat referrals without asking.
Of course, there are all sorts of ways to generate more referrals. We can redesign the client experience to make ourselves more referable, we can mine our client lists for new potential referrers, we can reach out more broadly to our existing communities, etc. In this article we’ll be focusing on just one strategy: turning one-time referrers into repeat-referrers.
All it takes is 3 steps.
3 Steps for Generating Referrals
Step 1. Identify Your Existing Referral Sources
Note: It’s important to take this step even if you think that you know your existing referral sources off the top of your head. Stacey says that this process nearly always reveals additional names. Sometimes it reveals many. Plus, it will teach you a great deal about your business, generating smarter decisions across many domains.
Make a spreadsheet, listing all of your clients from the last 2-4 years.
Then, in an additional column, identify the source for each client. How did they find you? This might be via LinkedIn posts or networking events or your newsletter. Whatever it was, note it. If it was a referral, note the name of the person who referred them.
(If you’re not sure how a client found you, check your initial emails with them, hard copy notes, calendar invite notes, or any old intake information.)
Next, sort that list so it only displays clients whom you acquired via referrals.
Finally, repeat this process for prospects who didn’t become clients. These referrals matter just as much as the ones above. For our purposes here, we care about referrals made, not deals closed.
If you’re ever uncertain whether someone should count as a referral, apply this two-question litmus test:
Did someone make money off this referral? If yes, then don’t label it as a referral. Instead, label it as a strategic partnership. (For instance, someone who collected a finder’s fee would be considered a “strategic partner.” Likewise, someone who hired you as a subcontractor would either be a strategic partner or a direct client.) If the referrer made no money off the transaction, then their referral might count. Proceed to the next question.
Should this person be a target of my customized referral plan? If yes, they go on the list. If not, they don’t. For example, family members who send you referrals don’t go on the list. They’re always going to send you referrals just because you’re family. The same goes for “strategic partners”—they’re making money off their referrals, so they don’t need a personalized nurture campaign to motivate them.
Step 2. Create Your Referral Plan
Once you’ve identified existing referrers, the next step is to build a campaign to nurture them, fostering future referrals. As we saw back in Part 1, this campaign isn’t going to ask for referrals, nor is it going to offer financial incentives. Instead, this campaign is going to lean on the science of referrals, cultivating the relationship.
Our first goal with this referral plan will be to stay top of mind. When clients encounter opportunities to help people in their social networks, we want to be the first resource they think of.
Our second goal is to trigger the hard-coded programming of social psychology, encouraging clients to close the reciprocity loop by making referrals. We can achieve that by opening the reciprocity loop with initial acts of generosity.
In a moment, we’ll consider what sets great referral plans apart. But first, let’s complete Step 3…
Step 3. Systematize Your Plan
Once you’ve got the concept for your referral plan in place, your final step is to systematize it. This is how you make sure it actually gets done.
One great thing about these referral plans is that they’re not at all time-intensive. This makes them very different from other referral strategies, which can eat up your whole life (lookin’ at you, “Networking”!). Our nurture campaigns for previous referrers won’t involve daily, weekly, or even monthly inputs. They’re going to take something more like 20 to 30 hours per year.
But that only works if we systematize our campaigns. That means identifying a few times a year when we’ll work on them, and it means getting specific about exactly what that work looks like.
Ultimately, the trick is to build the right kind of nurture campaign for your business, finding the language, touchpoints, and cadence that’ll work across the board for all of your contacts.
Building the Right Referral Plan for You
Now that we have a general feel for what we’re trying to achieve, it’s time to get specific about how we’re going to achieve it. We’ve got a list of our previous referral sources, and we know that we need a systematized nurture campaign. But what makes a campaign successful? And how do we build ours?
Be Memorable & Meaningful
Stacey says that the first and most important thing is to be Memorable & Meaningful. Our goal is to explicitly acknowledge how clients have helped our business, thank them, and make them feel taken care of. This is how we simultaneously build trust and activate the happiness trifecta that’s associated with altruism.
To qualify as Memorable & Meaningful, the tactics of your nurture campaign must feel thoughtful, sincere, intentional, and unique. So, a monthly newsletter isn’t going to cut it. Neither is running into clients at a networking event or handing out promo swag. You also can’t pick one single type of touchpoint that you deploy again and again, like a quarterly gift or a bi-quarterly greeting card.
Each touchpoint needs to be different. And each needs to feel genuine. That’s how you demonstrate that you mean it. And that’s how you get them to remember.
(Note: This doesn’t mean that each individual client needs a different gift, card, or widget. Trying to tailor touchpoints to that level of granularity will explode your timeline and your budget. Instead, Stacey encourages solopreneurs to look at their client base as a whole, selecting touchpoints that will appeal across the board. For instance, Stacey says, if all of your clients are parents, you might select one mother’s day gift and one father’s day gift to send out to everyone on the list.)
Use Strategic Language
No matter what your nurture campaign looks like, you’ll need words to go with it. The text will frame the campaign touchpoint, telling clients what you mean and influencing how they should feel. For that reason, it’s crucial to get the language right.
Stacey’s strategy: Steep everything in the diction of gratitude, and emphasize the heroism of the referrer. Again, your mission here is to acknowledge how clients have helped your business, thank them, and make them feel taken care of. “The language piece is my secret sauce of what makes all of this work together,” she says.
Stacey gives the example of thank-you cards. Not an email, not a phone script—an actual thank-you card that is steeped in gratitude.
She insists that every note ought to be handwritten (even if writing neatly takes time), and each one needs to express genuine thanks to the referrer.
Thank you, Liz, for referring Sharon to me. It’s an honor and a privilege to help the people you know and care about. If there’s anything I can do for you, please let me know.
Stay Top of Mind
Stacey says that solopreneurs sometimes confuse a referral plan with other business practices like client-experience tactics or general updates about your business. It’s important to maintain clarity of purpose because your mission is going to guide both the type of touchpoint and the cadence of rollout.
As stated earlier, one part of your mission is about tapping into the behavioral psychology of reciprocity. (Hence, the handwritten thank-you note.) The other part of your mission is keeping yourself top of mind. When someone in your referrer’s social network needs help, and when your referrer starts itching for some of that happiness-trifecta goodness, you should be the resource that leaps to mind.
So, when you’re planning out your touchpoints, remember to be genuine, make it about them (not you), and always provide value. This way you’ll stay top of mind while employing a “Meaningful & Memorable” approach.
Since your goal is to stay top of mind, you'll probably want to reach out more often than quarterly. But since you’re not trying to just “keep in touch,”—you’re trying to strengthen a relationship—monthly touchpoints will likely be overkill. Generally, Stacey recommends building a plan with about 5 to 7 interactions per year, or one interaction every eight to ten weeks.
Play the Long Game
It’s important to be clear that the strategy outlined here is very different from other kinds of business development campaigns. You’re not running a Facebook ad, targeting a hundred clicks and two conversions in thirty days. This is a deeper, richer, and more rewarding kind of work.
Building client relationships and fostering repeat referrals doesn’t happen overnight. By definition, it can’t. Because no authentic relationship grows overnight. But if you look at the timescale of one year, two years, three years, Stacey says that campaigns like this can yield huge, exponential dividends.
~~~ Additional Resources ~~~
● Watch Stacey’s full webinar
● Buy Stacey’s book, Generating Business Referrals Without Asking: A Simple Five Step Plan to a Referral Explosion
● Check out PICA’s other free webinars
● Explore the PICA Community
#GrowYourBusiness #Referrals #referralswithoutasking #solopreneur #Solopreneurship
