Referrals are a great way to build your business. Not only are they free, they contain what we marketing peeps call “social proof” - that is, the person making the referral is PROOF to the person on the receiving end that your services are pretty great. Your client is thrilled after working with you and she passes your name on.
But many of us are resistant asking for referrals. You don’t want to impose. You don’t want to “put pressure on them.”
There are many strategies for getting referrals and I’ll be sharing some of them with you as we go along. The most obvious is still one of the very best: ask. But how?
Remember, you’ve provided value for the person. You wouldn’t be asking for referrals if they weren’t happy! Here’s something you might not realize: when people are happy with your “stuff,” they often really want to help you, too. So asking for referrals is a lot less “imposing” on them than you might think!
Here’s a simple yet effective way to ask for a referral. (For fun, I challenge you to think about what makes it so.)
At the end of your session, as the good vibes bounce around the room like light, you can say something like…
“You know, Ms. Client, I’ve really enjoyed working with you today. You’re so great to work with. In fact, I would really love to work with more people like you! If you think any of your friends might really get a lot out of the kind of work we’ve done here, I’d be thrilled to hear from them.”
So what’s going on here?
1. First, you’ve given the client a big heap of yummies. “I love working with you! In fact, gimme more of YOU!” You’ve made it all about THEM, not all about YOU. (Which it is, of course.)
“All about them, not about you” is a very important marketing principle, one that we’ll return to again and again. A quick take-away: when in doubt, turn the focus back to THEM.
2. “IF you think….” Again, about them. Also gives them an out with the “if”. They may, or may not. No big whoop.
3. “I’d be thrilled to hear from them.” Notice there’s a big step missing between the conversation you’re having now and their friends contacting you. You probably filled in the blanks when you read it. So will your client. 
That’s it! That wasn’t so bad.
After you’ve broken the ice, you can follow it up with two steps. Both of them will make it much easier for your client to send more of her friends your way.
1. Provide her with something to give her friends, like a brochure. I’d avoid business cards because they’re small and get lost easily. (Though on the other hand, they’re more convenient because they’re small. Up to you.)
2. Offer to follow up with her referrals yourself. Gage your client’s reaction after you break the ice. If she’s really enthusiastic, and even says something like, “As a matter of fact, there’s so-and-so…”, offer to do the legwork of following up with So-and-So so she doens’t have to do it.
For more on this referral strategy and others, be sure to download the interview with James Wells. It’s yours when you sign up for the ezine on the http://www.buildyourmetaphysicalbusiness.com homepage.
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