Referral Strategies

Many professional services firms have a raft of referrers, after all it’s often their main source of new clients, and they’re forever adding people to their list of “potentials” but struggle to understand why they’re not getting as many work referrals as they’d like.  There are a number of reasons why your network might not be generating the amount of work you’d expect for your firm. 

Quality not quantity 

Trying to build relationships with a large number of referrers is unlikely to provide satisfying results. The number of referrals you can give each one will be smaller and the reciprocity will therefore be poor. Focusing your efforts on a number of KEY referrers, passing more referrals their way and building a deeper understanding of each other’s service will generate rewards. Picture that ideal referrer that you’ve been longing to work more closely with – you give them one or two referrals every year (as you do with the other 15-20 referrers in their industry) but you get nothing in return. What you don’t perhaps see is that one of your competitors may be giving them five or six referrals, or even more, because they’ve pared down the amount of referrers that they work with – they have the same amount of referrals to give out per year as you do – but with a smaller base of referrers they have more to give each one. Now who is that “ideal” client going to be most likely to refer their client to – you or your competitor?... most likely the one that gave the most referrals to them.  

Build your foundations 

Having a smaller number of referrers that you work with means you can spend time with those “key referrers”, with both teams getting to know each other and their strengths. This will highlight opportunities for referrals into the future. Understanding when and how you can make referrals from each of your client bases will set the stage for the future. 

It’s all in the planning 

You can’t just see a referrer once and expect referrals to keep flowing (although the amount of firms that I hear say “we took their team for drinks 10 months ago and we’ve had no referrals since!!!!” is disappointing). Making a plan of how you’re going to keep in touch via newsletters, case studies, seminars, round table discussions and just the odd coffee (or something stronger!) will ensure you stay abreast of opportunities to refer and stay front of mind should one come up. 

Give and thou shalt receive 

It’s all about reciprocity. The more you give the more likely it is that you will receive referrals in return. It’s vital that you train your teams on how to identify when clients have a REAL need for a referrers services. Putting a process in place which allows more junior members of the team to flag these opportunities to the relationship manager/partner will empower them to be more proactive. If the client is likely to need the services of one of your key referrers, it’s in their interests to be referred to someone you know, like and trust – so making sure you have a process to identify these opportunities is actually key to giving your clients great service.  

Reporting is key 

Ensuring you have a process in place to record all referrals given and received will help you identify where there are referrers where the stream of work passed is biased one way or the other. Identifying these and planning on what steps can be taken to improve these work flows is vital to a healthy referrer relationship. Identifying where referrals are received/given and do not turn into work can also be crucial in identifying where there are issues in referrer relationships - these might be around pricing (their pricing structure might be massively different to yours, and so clients referred are unlikely to then use them), personality match or a difference in client service levels (lack of timely follow up etc). All of these things can either be addressed to help aid the conversion of referrals to work, or can at least identify when a relationship might not be fruitful to pursue, saving valuable time and energy on both sides (and risking client relationships!).

The dating game 

You wouldn’t go on a first date, ignore them for months and then expect a marriage proposal (unless of course your dating history is the subject of a Neflix blockbuster). Maintaining meaningful relationships with a small number of professionals, thus allowing you to maintain regular contact and share up to date information/legislation changes is far more likely to generate the results you’re looking for. 

The other fish in the sea 

This doesn’t all mean to say you can’t keep in touch with your wider referrer base. Sending newsletters, case studies and catching up at networking events will ensure that the wider pool are still thinking of you should an opportunity arise for them to pass a client your way. 

Should you want to discuss your referrer strategy and how I can help you review your current approach, tier your referrers and help you write key referrer plans that WORK (for you and your clients) get in touch anne.renshaw@flammerouge.co.uk.