The 4 questions you need to ask to get more clients (Referral Marketing)
Getting referrals might be one of the easiest, most straight forward and at the same time most efficient strategies to grow your business…
Yet, it is vastly underused…
Hundreds of thousands of coaches, consultants and service providers literally lose money every day, because they don’t have a simple referral marketing system in place.
This is what I will help you do here.
I will explain the main principles of an effective referral system and the 4 questions you need to answer to build one. Then, you will be able to find also a resource that can help you get more referrals step by step.
Getting more clients through referrals is easier than you think.
The first thing you need to know is the following:
You can ask for referrals, whenever value is given or value is recognized.
For example, the Business Bootcamp grew through referrals to be the biggest live marketing training event for coaches, freelance consultants and service providers in the Netherlands. We helped more than 100 thousand professionals…
Why?
Because there was so much value given and there were so many people that recognized this value.
But we did not sit there waiting for them to refer others to us.
We asked them to do so. When? Whenever value was given or recognized.
But most people need something more, an extra push:
They need to know that they help somebody else while giving the referral.
So we gave them ways to help others: VIP cards, free access, valuable content.
We had a full referral system in place that consistently and predictably brought us more qualified clients.
Now, there is one more issue that needs to be discussed:
Most people will miscommunicate what you do unless you tell them how to talk about your business.
Even if people are willing to give referrals, most of the time they do it the wrong way, and that makes you lose clients.
To build yourself a referral system that works you need to ask yourself 4 questions:
- When do my clients receive value?
- When do my clients acknowledge that value is given?
- How do I want people to refer me to others? (What is the one sentence I want them to remember?)
- What resource can I give them that they can give to potential clients, and how can I make them feel that they help their network succeed or prosper while they send them the resource?
If you are able to answer these questions, then you can build a great referral system simply by:
Giving to your clients a resource they can give to their network while making sure they talk about your business in the right way.
Most people though struggle answering those questions.
So, I created a FREE PDF that will show you how to get clients through referrals.
My promise: by going through the process you will know exactly what is missing in order to get more clients through referrals.
After that, you will be able to implement immediately and get the new ideal clients that you and your business need.
You can get FREE access to the 20 Steps to Get More Clients through Referrals here.
Once you go through it, I would love to read how you plan to get more referrals in the comments below. If you have questions, I will give you my feedback and further suggestions.
Also, if you have someone in your network that could benefit from getting more clients, please, share this blog post with them. It might be exactly what they need to grow their business and serve more people!
Till the next time,
Live fully, be awesome
Nisandeh Neta
To your success,
I went through the guide and I found the experience quite valuable! I have one question though. I am running a life coaching business and I find it difficult to get my clients to talk about me to others. What can I do to convince them to talk to their network and get them on a first session with me?
Thank you Monica!
I think you are looking at it the wrong way. As I explain in the PDF, it is really difficult for your clients to get their network to set an appointment with you. But there is something that they can easily do: they can offer a free resource (a video that you created, a pdf tackling a specific problem, an audio recording with a simple exercise that their network can immediately try).
The main idea there is that this resource will also guide people back to your website for more information or on a quick 15 minutes call with you. The content should make people come back to you.
The easiest thing that you can do, which I explain in my Business Blogging Masterclass (link below), is to create a few blog posts that each tackles a specific problem. Then, you just need to ask your clients if they believe somebody in their network could benefit from solving this problem. If they say yes, then just ask for permission to send them the link to the blogpost so that they can forward it.
You can check the business blogging masterclass here:
https://www.udemy.com/business-blogging-masterclass-for-coaches/?couponCode=BBM50EY
Good afternoon Nisandeh and thank you for that post! I am not sure how to answer your third question: “How do I want people to refer me to others?” What would you propose of telling them instead of “I am a business coach”?
Good afternoon Gabrielle!
There are ways that can get you a better response. Keep in mind: what you want is to get them to respond in a certain way. And this does not apply only to getting referrals. It applies also when you meed a potential client in person.
Let me explain: What does usually happen when somebody asks you what you do for a living and you answer that you are a business coach? I believe that most of the times the conversation ends there.
The trick is to make them curious to learn more.
The ideal, after answering the question “”what you do for a living?”” would be to make them come back to you say: “”Interesting, how do you do that?””. If you manage to do that, then you have their attention.
Let me share some examples. Imagine you answer one of the below:
1) I help entrepreneurs become financially free in 12 months.
2) I help consultants get clients almost automa””g””ically.
If you answer like that, then people will most probably follow up by asking you “”how do you do that?””. And then you have a stage to answer a describe your business.
The bonus here, is that these short sentences are extremely memorable. Keep that advice in mind while going answering the questions in the PDF resource, and let me know if it helped you!
That was great advice, thank you Nisandeh!
Thank you for the referrals’ guide Nisandeh! You have a question there that I am not sure about. The 4th question: “Who contacted you, the person who gave the referral or the potential client?” Why is that important?
The idea here is that you want to make it as easy as possible for someone to contact you after somebody else talked about you.
Imagine how many things have to go right for a potential client to call you:
first, you need to have delivered a great service.
Then your clients need to understand who would be a good client for you.
Then they need to remember you at the right time in order to talk about you.
Then, the potential client should take the initiative to contact you.
Now, imagine going back to your client and asking “”Why did you introduce me?””, “”How did you describe me?””, “”Why did you think of me at that moment?””, “”How did you give my contact information?””. And then imagine going to the potential client and ask: “”What did my client tell you about me?””, “”Why did you decide to call?””. If you take all those answers, you got yourself a referral marketing system. Then you can educate other clients to do the same.
All that information can help you answer all the questions 9 to 19 from the PDF resource I shared above. Does this make sense?
That was a great read! You mentioned in the PDF that I need to ask myself what kind of content I need to create in order to make referrals happen easier. That was a great question. Can you please elaborate a little bit more on how I can create content that people will read?
Good morning Eveline!
Wait for the next week’s blogpost 🙂
It is all about creating great content using 5 simple concepts.
I am coaching people for years to improve their lives by creating a roadmap for them. I got a lot of referrals due to the quality of my work. Reading the pdf I realized that I was missing what you mentioned in #18: creating more opportunities for referral conversations. I am working on that now, and I will get back to you!
Looking forward for your ideas Zoé!