Bourn Creative is an almost 100% referral based company.
What does that mean? It means most of our new clients and leads come from others telling their friends, family and colleagues about us and suggesting they hire us.
Our most lucrative clients — and frankly our favorite clients — have been the results of someone else’s referral.
Imagine how different your life and your business would be if your phone rang every day, and your inbox had messages in it everyday from people who want to work with you because their friend recommended you? Awesome right!
Imagine how much less stress there would be over marketing? What a relief!
Here are 5 marketing tips to help you build a successful referral based business:
Referral Marketing Tip 1: Typically 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients.
Many business owners spread themselves too thin trying to make every person they come in contact with over-the-moon happy… If you have the team to do it, go for it and you’ll be rewarded. But if you’re a entrepreneur or micro business, you many want to think about adapting this belief. Continue to serve everyone well no matter what, but focus on delivering the highest, most outstanding customer service and client experiences for the 20%. If can do that, your business will drastically change for the better. Your biggest clients will spend even more with you, refer more of their clients, peers, and network to you, and become huge brand evangelists for your company.
Referral Marketing Tip 2: Share your ideal client profile with your referral network
One of the biggest barriers to receiving loads of referrals is an unclear ideal client profile. If your referrals partners, clients, and customers don’t know who is a perfect fit for your products, programs, and services, it will be difficult for them to identify their own friends, family peers, and contacts who would greatly benefit from hiring you, buying from your company, or learning from you — and in turn difficult for them to refer people to you.
Referral Marketing Tip 3: Build a brand, a reputation around the one thing you do better than anyone else so it’s easy to attract referrals
When someone refers another to you, they need to feel confident that you’re going to deliver on the promises they made on your behalf and live up to all the great things they said about you. If they aren’t crystal clear on what you are a complete rockstar at, they will be less likely to refer business to you. Why? Because they can’t be reassured you’re going to kill it for their referral. People want to do business with experts, not mediocre Jacks-of-all-Trades. If you offer too many different services or do too many different things, people will get confused and they won’t know what to refer people to you for. On the other hand, if you build a brand and a reputation about being an expert on one thing, it becomes incredibly easy for others to refer business to you anytime they meet someone who needs that same thing.
Referral Marketing Tip 4: Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals. People want to give them to you, they often just don’t know how or if you need them
Your happy customers and satisfied clients want to give you referrals! They want to hep their friends and contacts who are struggling find the same success they have … but sometimes they may think you don’t need their referrals (Crazy, I know!), or they aren’t sure how to refer people to you, or they aren’t sure who would be best to refer to you. Help them out by making the ask! Reach out to your clients and customers, share with them your ideal client profile, and ask them if they know anyone who fits that description and who would benefit from working with you.
Referral Marketing Tip 5: The best time to ask for a referral is right after someone has complimented your work
Uncomfortable asking for referrals? No problem! The easiest, most hassle-free, painless time to ask for a referral is right after a client or customer has complimented your work. If you’re speaking with a client on the phone and their raving about working with you or being in your program, take a moment to thank them and honor their praise, then casually mention that you do have openings for new clients or you are looking to fill a new program, then ask them if they know of anyone who may be a great fit or who may benefit from the same results they have experienced. You can use the same approach by email too!
About Jennifer Bourn
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There are designers that can make it pretty, coders that can make it work, and marketers that can make it sell — at 
Bourn Creative is a 
Great tips. And a referal is a warm if not hot lead, because of the recommendation. Most of my referals go on to to work with me because of the recommendation.
Same here Bill … our referral leads convert WAY better than a general lead from search etc.
Excellent post as always Jen! All of your points are great ones. My client base is mostly from referrals, and I must say that is the easiest and most fun way to get them. Who wouldn’t want to be contacted by prospects who have already been pre-sold on their services? I sure do.
Number 3 & 4 are great points and can often go hand in hand. Yes, many people are afraid to ask for referrals. I’m not sure why, but they are. So … what better time to ask than after they pay you a compliment or say something great about your services? A simple “do you know anyone else who might benefit from our services?” often gets the ball rolling.
Terry same here! The phone rings every day and when we ask how they heard about us, the answer is almost always that they ere referred by a friend or peer. It’s a powerful strategy to master … but not difficult. Provide awesome service and a great experience and people will talk about it with others!
Great tips, I totally agree that people don’t even think about making a referral for you oftentimes.
Exactly Sue! They want to help and are big fans … but it just doesn’t cross their minds. It’s our job as a business owner to stay top of mind (and provide continuous value) so we get the referrals :)
Jennifer, what’s your take on rewarding referrals? I like to send my referrers a monetary commission as a token of my appreciation. What are the best practices here?
Donna –
We have an affiliate program for referrals to courses, workshops, seminars, and products … but not for services. Here’s a follow up article to this one that shares my other suggestions on rewarding for referrals –> http://www.bourncreative.com/4-more-marketing-tips-to-build-a-referral-based-business
In this day and age where it can be hard to get new business leads, asking for referrals is the way to go. As long as your past and existing clients are happy with your service, they would most likely help you find more business. And the best way to do that is by asking your clients directly. As the old saying goes, “nothing ventured, nothing gained”. You have to take the first step.
I agree completely Jayden! Thanks for stopping by the blog :)
Excellent tips Jennifer! I particularly like #5 asking for a referral right after someone has complimented your work.
Mary Ellen – Thanks! For those business owners uncomfortable with asking for referrals, timing it right after a big compliment really makes it easier.
Jennifer, as always, I agree! When I work on business model and identifying those “hidden assets” with clients, I almost always find they are leaving the money on the table by two things: not creating the services that focus on the most profitable clients that keep them engaged longer and going back to those clients in different ways to ask for referrals. And when you ask for a referral, ask specifically – and do your homework before you ask, e.g. tell the person exactly who you are looking for, not a sweeping statement. Make it easy for your client to do that and go step further by asking for their HELP (introducing you perhaps) vs asking for their LEAD (handing over someone’s contact info). Makes all the difference in the world!
Sherri – EXACTLY. Just asking for general referrals doesn’t help the person you want to review referrals from. You definitely need to be very clear about what type of referrals you want and for what … that way it’s easy for them to identify someone who would be great to send your way.
I totally agree with all of your tips, Jennifer. I especially want to highlight Tip 3, “Build a brand, a reputation around the one thing you do better than anyone else so it’s easy to attract referrals.” This is so important, yet many people don’t think to communicate that ONE thing that they really are good at. Instead they give people a smorgasbord of services that noone remembers.
Tiffany – I think that comes from fear. They are too afraid to lose business by narrowing their services, so they offer any type of service that could make them money … but what they don’t realize is that they are shooting themselves in the foot because people want to hire experts.
Excellent points you raise Jennifer – I am so glad you brought up the pareto rule of 80:20 as that is exactly how it works.
At UQ Power we are also huge fans of people and company’s knowing and articulating their ONE THING because that’s the best way to get remembered and referred.
Heidi! Amen! When you are the bonafide, go-to, undeniable expert, you’ll have to stop chasing new business, because they’ll be chasing you instead!
I tell my clients that their customers want to help them, it just doesn’t cross their minds to do it. They need to write out a few things to say and practice them out loud so that when the compliment comes, they can easily ask the questions. One of the easiest things to say is, “My business is built on referrals…” or “Don’t keep me a secret!”
Thanks, Jennifer!
Amy – That’s great advice! Writing a few options down and practicing the “ask” will help you feel much more comfortable doing so!
I really appreciate all the key notes, I was one of those ones that were afraid to ask for referrals. I thought that people would not be interested in helping me with my business. Today as I read I’m going back through my list of customers and do all the things on here that I never thought would work, just done one now Im going to continue to grow my business. Thanks everyone.
Tyleatha – They can’t say yes and send you referrals if you never ask! Just remember, you don’t have to start out with a big referral campaign or even a referral letter … just remembering to make the ask when someone compliments your work is a great way to get started!
Love this Jen! When I had my CPA practice, it was driven mostly be referrals and the remainder was mostly networking. I am a firm believer in building a referral based business. When you talk about the 80/20 rule, I can totally relate. I had a business coach years ago that had me grade my clients with a letter grade. A’s were reserved for those that had referred me clients that had turned into business that year. They then received special perks with my business. It was a great way to run my business and helped me decipher my ideal clients from the not so ideal clients. :)
Kristi
Kristi – A couple years ago I did the exact same thing! I graded all of my clients, A, B, C, and F. I immediately fired anyone who got an F. I phased out all of the C clients over a few months, and worked on training the B clients to become A clients … now pretty much all of our clients are A clients thanks for a great intake process!