Referral Generation Strategy: 3-Step Process (With Tips!)

Let’s talk about your referral generation strategy. Your fastest route to making another sale is through your existing customers or clients.

No big surprise, but here’s what I want you to consider. I want you to take a look at your role. Think for a moment about how much time you spend trying to bring on a new B2B customer or client versus the amount of time you try to influence and work with your existing customers or clients. To differentiate further, I don’t mean you’re handling issues or addressing problems.

Think about the time and energy you put into finding and bringing on a new company versus the time and energy put into existing customers. You’re going to find there’s a key difference, and that’s the point of this referral generation process and tips about asking for referrals.

What would happen if you treated every customer as if they were a prospect? I’m going to tell you some referral tips you need to apply.

Let’s get into it.

3 Steps to Get Referrals from Customers

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You have a series of customers or clients you’re supporting today, and depending on your role, you may spend more time supporting them and less time developing business or vice versa. Maybe you’re spending more time trying to find new prospects or clients and less time managing those accounts. Maybe you hand that off to somebody else.

Here’s what I’ve found. A lot of sales professionals put a ton of time and energy into finding (and more importantly) closing new business. But, once that business comes on board, they manage the account, but they don’t put a lot of new energy into that account.

If you change your mindset around your existing customer or client base, you can generate more business than you’ve ever generated before just by managing those accounts and focusing on a few key referral generation strategies in treating those customers like prospects.

Let me give you the steps and a few tips for your referral generation strategy that you can apply.

Referral Generation Strategy Step 1: Capitalize on Existing Accounts to Generate More Biz

First off, when it comes to your existing customers or clients, I want you to consider one question that you ask in every interaction with that customer or client. Here it is: a referral ask.

Ask for a Referral

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You’ve heard about referrals before. You’re probably sick of hearing about referrals, but here’s the key:

It’s not asking for the referral that matters. It’s how you ask for the referral.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say I’ve closed your account, you’ve been onboarded and I’m giving you a call 30 days in to check in and see how things are going. I give you a call and ask:

• How are things?
• How’s the account?
• Everything seems okay.
• A few minor issues I’m going to address. Great!

“Before you go, Bob, Sally, (or whatever your name is), there’s something I’d like to ask you.”

The client or customer says okay, and you say,

Now, that’s a little bit of a vague referral ask. I realize, you would be more specific here based on the example.

(2:54)
If I’m talking to a company that I met at an association event, I would say, “Hey, who else do you know that belongs to the ABC association that’s a similar company to yours, not a competitor necessarily that might be interested in our [blank]?” So there’s a more specific ask.

The key is that when you’re talking to your customers or clients and you’re checking in and things are going generally okay, you ask for a referral and you do so almost every time you speak.

Now, if you speak to them daily, don’t ask them daily, but if you speak to them monthly or several times each month, I would ask monthly, just change up how you ask. Don’t ask the same question.

Are you capitalizing on your existing customer selling opportunities? Are you looking for more ways to generate sales without bringing on more customers or clients? There’s a referral generation strategy I’m going to share with you with a few key steps, so stay tuned. We’re going to find some new business for you without bringing on new customers or clients.

Leverage the 3-Part Power Move

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When it comes to your existing customers or clients, there’s what I call the power move, which is something you want to make sure you’re applying at least every three months, if not monthly.

The power move is a single question you ask your customers or clients when the conversation goes well. Now, depending on your role, you may say, “Well, Sean, I only check in with my customers once a month or once a quarter.” Or you may say, “Sean, I never check in with my customers. I’m on to the next one.” That’s fine.

If your role is not to check in with existing customers or clients, I would suggest you just add your own step (with approval of course). Or maybe at 30- or 60-days you follow up with them to say, “Hey, you’ve now been introduced to our company or service or product. I wanted to see how things are going.”

Now, if they give you some feedback to follow up on, do so. But the key reason for that call is to ask the power question.

The power question is a referral ask, but it’s specific. It’s specific to your customer or client.

So it’s not,

• “Hey, I was wondering, do you know somebody else in the ABC industry?”
• “Hey, do you know somebody else in your city that might need our help?”

That’s a vague ask for a referral and it will get you nowhere. At best, they’ll say, “Yeah, let me think about it”, and you’ll never hear from them again.

What you want to do instead is ask a very specific question, which is the power question. So let’s use an example.

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Let’s say that I’m selling you insurance, commercial insurance for your company. I developed a business, I developed your account, I passed it over to somebody else, and now I’m doing a 60-day check-in.

“Hey Sarah, it’s Sean calling. How are things? I just wanted to do a check-in which I normally do with all my clients just to make sure things are going well.”

Sarah tells me some things are going well and maybe has some questions.

The Question

And you say, “Do you know somebody else with a similar-sized company to yours that’s maybe not a competitor, but that might also be buying commercial insurance.”

That’s a fish hook, right? That’s a no-brainer. Every business has insurance, commercial insurance specifically, and I’ve asked that question in a specific enough way that allows Sarah to answer.

Now, there’s kind of a 50-50 chance that Sarah will probably say, “Let me think about it.” She may know somebody there’s a chance, but she may also say, let me think about it. If she says, let me think about it, follow on. So I’ve given you the opening to the question. I’ve given you the question.

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So this power move is this three-part question. The positioning of the question,

1. the opening of it,
2. the question itself, which is very specific to who you’re looking to connect with, and
3. the follow-up in the event they said, “let me think about it” (which is quite possible).

so that you can ensure that you’re getting another lead, another opportunity.

So that’s step one to capitalizing on your existing customer or client accounts and generating more business. Let’s jump to step two.

Step 2:  Leverage the Sales Multiplier Effect

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Step two is what I call the sales multiplier effect.

If I’m following up with existing customers or clients, I’m doing this check and I’m asking for referrals, what I want to do is tell others who may also be working with my client or customer as to what I’m doing so they can support me.

So let’s further our example of commercial insurance.

I tell operations, who’s maybe supporting my client on a regular basis. “Hey, I’ve talked to Sarah today and I’ve mentioned to her, that I’m looking to meet somebody else in her sector, her industry, non-compete, et cetera. I’m going to follow up with her next Friday. We’ve agreed to have a quick call. I just wanted you to be aware. If she happens to mention anybody, let me know, and if she doesn’t mention anything and you’re talking to her next week, just mention you know that I spoke to her because that will remind her of our meeting and what she should be thinking about.”

So the second part of this is that you’ve got to then influence Sarah before that next call or before the follow-up in order to get the referral.

You see, that’s the problem with the referral generation strategy. Even if you have the three parts, there’s a chance that Sarah and our example will move on to other stuff, and ultimately she’ll never get back to thinking about, “Well, hold on a second. Who could I introduce Sean to?”

So if I’ve got other people interacting with Sarah, the way I influence and get those referrals is to have others in my company who interact with her know what I’m up to, and in some cases even follow up with Sarah on my behalf. “Hey, I know Sean talked to you, is there anything I can help with there?”

The more people know in your company as to what you’re trying to achieve (which is to generate more business from your existing customers or clients) the more they can help you. But when you work in isolation and sales, which we often do, nobody knows what you’re trying to do, they can’t help you, and then it’s like an uphill battle.

Multiply your sales by telling others in the company what you’re up to with Sarah (in this example, a referral), and they can help you get it.

Step 3: Establish Regular Client Nurturing

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Here’s the last step I want you to consider. When it comes to mining your existing customers, pardon the pun here, but mining your existing customers and clients for more business, you should have a nurture process for your existing customers or clients.

I don’t know what your role is. Maybe you sell the customer and then you deal with them. Maybe you bring the client on board and you never see them again. Whatever your role is, you’ll have to make adjustments, but what I would suggest is you have a regular interaction where you’re adding value to your existing customer or client. That could be

• new information that you share with them about your product or your service, it could be
• new information about the market that your customer or client is in (stuff that they’re not aware of),
• it can be check sheets,
• checklists, or it could be
• information on new products that you think they’d be interested in.

Just know that it can’t be something you’re trying to consistently sell.

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The goal is to add value. The goal is to differentiate ourselves from our competitors by providing

• information,
• insights, and
• support that our customer or client might not get elsewhere.

I call that a nurture process because you set something up that happens quarterly and it goes to everybody. So you don’t have to do a lot of thinking about “when was the last time I talked to Sarah? Is it time to ask for another referral or not? I can’t remember.”

You simply put her into a nurture process, and part of the referral generation strategy process is asking for referrals.

If you’ve ever gotten an email from me at all, you’ll see in my signature, it says along the bottom, if you know somebody interested in a sales speaker or sales training, let me know. I’ll take great care of them. That’s the kind of idea you want to consider when it comes to nurture.

Let’s say you’re in real estate. I send you information on where the market is heading in your area, your region, your type of building, and at the bottom there’s a block box that says, “Hey, I really appreciate your referrals or introductions. Here’s how you do so.” It’s an indirect reference to the referral request, and you see what’s happening here. If you think about what I’m walking you through, that’s going to be step three.

The third step, is that we’ve got a nurture process, which includes a request for referrals very clearly. Whether it’s in an

• email,
• a document you mail,
• a book you send,

you can always add a personalized note requesting that referral.

There’s a last step I’m going to share with you, kind of a bonus tip if you get this far.

Bonus Referral Generation Strategy Step: Celebrate Client Referrals

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This last bonus tip for our referral generation strategy is really a bonus for your customer or client.

You see, when somebody even thinks about a potential referral, we want to celebrate them. We want to thank them for their effort because they’re putting time into giving this thought.

So let’s go back to the start where I asked Sarah in our example for a referral. Sarah says, “Let me think about it. ” We agree to have a follow-up call on Friday.

• I tell Bob who’s interacting with Sarah during the week what I’m doing, and Bob maybe mentions, “Hey, I know you got a meeting with Sean. Let me know if I can help with anything.”
• Sarah says, “No, I’m good.” But, it’s a reminder to Sarah to be ready for Friday.
• Friday comes, and Sarah goes, “Sean, I’ve racked my brain. I can’t think of anybody to share with you to introduce you to at this point. I mean, I’ll keep it in mind.”
• I say, “Well, no problem”, (because I’ve got a nurture process that’s going to be asking.) This is where that comes in.
• But here’s the bonus: I say “You know what, Sarah? No problem. I really appreciate you investing your time and thinking about this. And of course, if you ever come across somebody, let me know. “

Now, you might be thinking, “Yeah, but Sean, you just walked away without a referral.”

But the nurture process will pick that up. What I want to do is thank her because she invested her time in giving it thought. So I send her a personalized thank you note and say, “Your time is valuable. I just wanted to thank you for really considering who else I might be able to work with. If you ever come up with a name at all, please let me know, and I will treat them as good or better than I treated you.”

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So the bonus tip is when somebody does invest time, even if they tell you they invested time and you don’t think they did, you send them a personalized thank you note with that language, which again reinforces the request for referral.

See how through these steps apply consistently, you can generate referrals on a regular basis from your existing customers or clients?

Notice now we’re not going out and trying to find cold leads that we can then warm up. We’re getting our leads all internally, but investing external work.

That is the key referral generation strategy to mining your existing customers or clients for new business opportunities. If you treat every customer like a prospect, you’ve got that opportunity.

© Shawn Casemore 2024. All Rights Reserved.