How to increase your referrals

Everyone loves referrals. They're the most efficient way of prospecting and building up your sales and your business. But are you actively and strategically working on building your referral network?

Or maybe you just have something like this in your email signature or on your business card: "The best compliment you can give us is a referral."

That's not active or strategic!

Perhaps you’re getting referrals, but you're tired of wasting time on bad ones. A good referral can come to you almost ready to buy. A bad referral, on the other hand, will waste your time and potentially damage the relationship with the person who referred them to you.

Ready to learn how to get more and better referrals? Let's look at some ways to increase referrals, then we'll dive into a few of the methods.

Tactics to get more referrals

Ready for some tactics that can help you get more referrals? Here are just a few.

1. Ask for specific referrals, not generic ones.
2. Look for referral partners.
3. Generate referrals from existing clients.
4. Utilize your connections on LinkedIn.
5. When you get a referral, find out where it came from and why you got it.
6. Join an industry exclusive referral group.
7. Play nice with your competition and have an attitude of abundance.
8. Track where your good referrals come from so you can get more.
9. Build specific activities into your prospecting plan around getting referrals.
10. Send thank you cards when you receive referrals.

Which of those can you start on today?

Ask for specific referrals

If you want more referrals, you need to get more specific with your questions. I hear something like this all the time, "Mike, if you ever run into anybody that needs any of the things we do, would you make sure you introduce them to me?"

Talk about a generic question! That person may do a million different things, so it would be hard for me to send anyone their way. Specific questions get specific results. Generic questions tend to get zero results.

Here's how you get more specific when asking for referrals.

First, determine what you want out of the referrals. Do you want to sell more of a specific product or service? Do you want to do more business in a specific industry? What do you want more of?

Second, determine who you need to talk to. Is it a specific person? Is it a certain company? Is it someone in a particular industry? Is it a specific position or role?

Third, determine how you can start those conversations. Should you look at shared connections and ask for an introduction? What associations do they belong to? Are you already connected to them on LinkedIn or another social media platform? Do you already see them on a regular basis? Are you both members of a particular group?

Once you've defined what you want, who you need to talk to, and how you can start those conversations, make sure you have a specific prospecting activity around starting those conversations. Then do that activity on a regular basis.

Look for referral partners

After you know who you need to talk to, it can be beneficial to find others that already talk with those people. That's a concept in Sandler that we call referral partners. Even if a potential referral partner won't end up doing business directly with you, they may still be able to send a lot of business your way.

So start looking for those people that know the people you want to be referred to! Join the associations those people are in. Attend the events and conferences they attend. Go to the luncheons and dinners they go to. Connect with them on LinkedIn.

Once you find a specific individual who could make a good referral partner for you, stay top of mind. Don't be annoying, but find ways to connect with them on a regular basis after you've met them.

See if you can do something for them! Introduce them to someone they should know. Set up a time to meet for lunch or coffee and see how their business is going. Send them a thank you card after you get together.

It can take a lot of work to build a strong network of referral partners. But it's way easier than chasing individual leads!

Generate referrals from existing clients

Maybe you've been in business for a while and have a huge list of clients. Or maybe your client list is small, but you'd still like to leverage those relationships. Most likely, you can do a better job of getting referrals from your existing clients!

One way to do a better job is to get referrals quicker by asking earlier in the sale cycle. Most people wait to ask for referrals until they've been working with a client for a while. And often they wait so long that they forget to ask. Instead, ask for a referral early in the process. Your client may be the most excited right after they sign up with you, so why not ask right then?

Another way is to connect with your clients on LinkedIn. If your clients also connect with others on LinkedIn on a regular basis, you can actually comb through their connections to find people you'd like to do business with. Then reach out to your client and ask if they actually know the person and if they'd be willing to make an introduction.

Finally, touch base with your clients on a regular basis. You don't necessarily have to do something as formal as an annual review, but be sure you get together once or twice a year to find out how things are going in their world. Spend the bulk of the meeting talking about them, then ask for a specific referral toward the end. Remember, the more specific you are when you ask, the more likely you'll get a referral.