I'll be posting more ideas soon, but the basic principle is that you need something you've already thought through and planned. Rather than the route most people take of asking for referrals ad hoc, you need to think through the factors that will make it more likely for you to get a strong referral and put those things in place. Then you need to “systematise” those things so that you can do them regularly and repeatedly without having to invent things from scratch each time.

Ian

Good article. I like the idea of a system.

Any ideas what kind of systems you can put in place to generate more referrals?

Ideas that come into my head are:
- proactively asking for referrals when you ask your clients for feedback on each project
- sending content such as whitepapers or relevant articles to your contacts and asking them to send it on and refer you

Are these the kind of systems you are referring to? Would love to hear your view.

Sonja

I do think it's really important as you say to make sure you really trust a person you refer. After all, it's your reputation that's on the line. That's why if you want a referral you must abosutely convice the referrer that you'll do a great job for the person they're referrign to. Sometimes we worry about how we should “motivate” them to refer us – but the primary issue is – “how can we ensure they trust us to do a good job?”

Ian

Whenever, I have a great experience, I want the world to know about it and especially when this involves someone or people. I will tell anyone that listens. However, I have become a bit more selective recently and tend to play the waiting game just to be sure that before I refer or write about someone on my blog, that I have done lots of research and I really trust the individual who's services or brand I'm referring on.

Thank you for your informative and very helpful blog Ian.

Kind regards & Many blessings

always
Liz.x

Word of mouth is by far the best kind of referral.