October 21, 2025 • 17 mins
Referrals – they’re often seen as the gold standard for growth, but are you treating them like a real sales strategy… or just leaving it to chance?
In this episode, Nicky breaks down exactly why referrals are one of the most under-utilised growth levers in business – not because they don’t work, but because most leaders and sales teams aren’t being intentional. We dive into the three-part formula that turns casual word-of-mouth into a powerful, proactive pipeline: ask, make it easy, and follow up.
You’ll also hear how to segment your network into A-players and B-players, why even prospects who said “no” might still be valuable, and how to embed referrals into your overall nurture strategy for consistent, scalable growth.
If your team’s relying on referrals but there’s no real process behind it, this one’s a must-listen.
Learn more about Nicky at nickymiklos.com
Grab The Growth Code™ here!
Get your a copy of Healthy Hustle: The New Blueprint to Thrive in Business & Life at www.healthyhustle.com.au
Contact: 0403 191 404 | hello@nickymiklos.com
Music by Jules Miklos-Woodley
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Hello and thank you for joiningme again today as I want to
(00:31):
dive into this conversationaround referrals and really
answering the question (00:36):
are referrals a real sales strategy?
Now, oftentimes when I ask abusiness owner, a leader, and
I'm going to ask you now, how doyou grow your business?
Oftentimes the answer is thatthere's a big reliance on
referrals.
Referrals are such a massivegrowth strategy, whether it's
(00:58):
intentional or unintentional.
And I've had so many differentrobust conversations with
business owners and leaders,other coaches and people in this
space around actually, is it areal strategy?
Can we over-rely on referrals?
And here's my thoughts.
My answer to this question isthat absolutely referrals can be
a real sales strategy as longas we intentionally,
(01:23):
strategically, deliberatelyfocus on being proactive around
the referrals within ourbusiness.
So here's the problem (01:30):
a lot of people will rely on referrals
being given to them.
There's a very reactive orreserved approach around it.
Sometimes there's even anervousness to ask for
referrals.
But the statistics show that91% of customers said that they
would give a referral, but only11% of salespeople actually ask.
(01:52):
So we know that referrals canbe a great way to grow business.
We know that in a lot ofinstances, salespeople, sales
leaders, business owners areactually not maximising the
opportunities of really leaningin and asking for more
referrals.
And we also know that clients,customers are highly likely to
say yes to giving you areferral.
(02:14):
This episode is almost how manytimes can I say referral in
this episode?
But you know, this is a reallyimportant topic for us to have a
look at.
Well, how can I get moreintentional and strategic around
this?
And I want to share a couple ofthoughts to make sure that you
can be in that proactive space.
Now, an ideal strategy, salesstrategy, which I call a nurture
(02:37):
strategy in the business, ismade up of three key things.
It's about how do you nurtureyour clients, your existing
clients and your past clients.
They're your hottest or warmestrelationships lead potential.
No surprises, it's then aboutlooking at how do you nurture
referral opportunities.
(02:57):
And we'll go into a bit moredetail.
I want to share with you sometips today on how to do that.
And then the third part is howare we nurturing leads?
And leads are not yetnecessarily warm or hot.
They're cooler, they might notknow as much about you, they
potentially don't know yourbusiness or how you can serve or
help them.
But you're proactivelyinvesting in marketing and
(03:19):
outreach to nurture those leads.
The referrals are reallypowerful because they're what we
call a warm lead.
A referral is warm because evenif they don't know you or your
business, they know the personthat is connecting you.
Now I've mentioned before, andyou'll hear me say again, that
trust is at an all-time low.
(03:40):
And so our number one job goalfocus as salespeople, as sales
leaders, as people who arelooking to provide a solution
for our market is to buildtrust.
And so that's why referrals canbe so powerful because
immediately they're a warm lead,in that there's a connection,
which means that we've got moreof a jumping off point in terms
(04:02):
of building trust.
Now, existing clients or pastclients, they are warm to hot
because they already know you,they've experienced you.
But we're not going to go intodetail around how to nurture
existing and previous clients inthis podcast episode.
But even if you think aboutactually, I haven't done that
for a while, this might plantthe seed for you to actually
(04:23):
look at how you could do that.
And maybe I'll record aseparate episode specifically
focusing on that.
So, overall, I want to remindyou that if we're looking at an
effective nurture growthstrategy, we've got to be
looking at how are we nurturingour hot leads, which are
existing clients and previous.
Really look at how do wenurture and be proactive around
referrals, and then also look atour leads, which are the
(04:46):
holder.
Now, warm leads, referrals.
Who do you ask for a referral?
I think the biggest pitfallthat I see around referrals is,
as I mentioned before, it'salmost like a sit back and wait.
If they love what I'll do, orif they love what the team does,
or the product or service weprovide, they'll come to us or
they'll proactively on their ownthink about sharing the word.
(05:10):
When in fact, it's not thatyour clients and customers don't
think you've done a great job,but they're busy and you're not
top of mind for them.
You're not their priority.
And so sometimes just by askingthe question, our clients will
go, oh yeah, absolutely.
I didn't even think of that.
Of course I can.
But here's the thing (05:26):
just asking the question isn't
enough.
So often when I'm running salestraining, I'll ask the
question, who here asks forreferrals?
And I would say maybe 80% ofthe room agree.
When I then ask about theprocess behind it, how do you
then follow up with thereferral?
A lot of the hands start comingdown.
(05:49):
So, yes, we can ask thequestion, do you know anybody
that would benefit from XYZ, thebenefit or the outcome of your
product and service?
If the answer is yes, amazing.
We've got to ask a follow-upquestion.
So that's where you can thenask, wonderful, would you mind
doing an introduction for me?
(06:09):
Or best practice, you couldask, are you happy to share
their contact details?
Now, sometimes they don't wantto do that, and probably more so
these days, and that's fine.
But at least you've asked thequestion.
The ideal is getting thecontact details so you can call
Bob and let him know that Marysuggested that you reach out.
Amazing, that would be ideal.
(06:30):
And if if your contact, yourclient, says, no, I'm not
comfortable with that,absolutely no problem.
Would you mind sending an emailintroduction to both of us?
And that way Bob can see that,you know, we're connected.
And that's typically whereyou'll get most of the yeses.
So you can see already howthat's a layer deeper, rather
(06:50):
than just relying on them totalk to the person.
Yes, you need to ask thequestion, but you also need to
make it easy for them to be ableto make that connection.
Which brings me to my nextpoint.
Not only do you want to ask theadditional question for the
connection, what you can do isactually send them, ask, Mary,
would you like me to sendthrough a couple of sentences
(07:12):
outlining the work that I'vedone for you or what I do?
So you can just copy and pasteit in the email and send it off.
Now, highly likely Mary isgoing to say yes.
She's already agreed to send areferral.
She's already agreed thatthere's somebody that she has in
mind that could benefit.
And all you're doing here isyou're really making it easy for
her or him or them to be ableto make that introduction.
(07:35):
I've done a little bit of anexperiment around this where
I've asked for a referral or anintroduction, and I didn't send
any body copy of the email.
I then asked for a referralactually to the same person, and
I've I've also asked it indifferent people, where I did
give them, here's some suggestedcopy.
And immediately the responserate of getting that
(07:57):
introduction increases.
Now I don't know what thestatistics are on that, but I
know it's a lot higher.
And if you think about it froma common sense point of view, if
you're doing an intro, ifyou're doing a referral, you
know, I love connecting people,but I have to really stop and
think, okay, hang on a second, Ihave to talk about, you know,
why am I doing this intro and alittle bit about that person?
It's not that I don't want to,but it's just that it takes a
(08:19):
bit of thinking and a bit oftime.
So if somebody's providing thatto me and I can tweak it and
change it, I'm much more likelyto do it because it will take a
lot less time.
So we're being proactive.
We're asking the question.
You're making it easy for themby asking the second question
for the introduction and givingthem some information in the
body of the email.
(08:40):
The third thing you have toremember to do a really
effective referral is to makesure that you follow up.
Now, the money is in thefollow-up, friends.
The money is in the follow-upis just a classic statement in
terms of sales 101.
But it actually is so relevantin all areas of sales
leadership.
If you follow up with areferral, you know, hey, hey
(09:03):
Mary, I noticed that you haven'thad a chance to do that yet.
Is there anything I can do tomake it a bit easier for you?
Or just wanted to double checkthat was still possible to do
the introduction.
You're not being annoying.
You're you you've got arelationship with this person.
And chances are they're sohappy to do it, but it's just
slipped their mind.
So in terms of how to do thereferral, we ask, we make it
(09:25):
easy, and we follow up.
In terms of who to ask for, Ilike to think of, think of it as
in two buckets.
You've got two differentbuckets of types of contacts
that can help you grow yourbusiness.
A quick interruption to thispodcast episode.
I'm really curious, do you wantto close more sales in less
time?
If the answer is yes, which Ihope that it is, then you need
(09:48):
to get your hands on the growthcode.
It is going to give you threeproven frameworks and tools that
will help future-proof yourbusiness and scale with clarity.
All you have to do is head downto the show notes and click the
link below.
One bucket are labelled Aplayers.
The other bucket is labelled Bplayers.
(10:10):
So your A player relationshipsare those that could potentially
be your direct client.
So, for example, in your Abucket, A player bucket, for
referrals, you've got existingclients, people you've been
working with already or thathave bought from you.
You've got previous clients orcustomers, people that maybe
aren't working with you now, butthey have been.
(10:32):
If this is brand new to you andyou haven't been proactive in
asking for referrals, there isso much untapped opportunity.
There is so much money that isbeing left on the table and what
I call low-hanging fruit.
So it really excites mebecause, you know, particularly
if you're looking at fillingsome gaps in terms of revenue,
where at the run home toChristmas to really hit that
(10:55):
target end of year going intothe new year, there's massive
opportunity here by going backto existing clients, going back
to previous clients.
And, you know, it's not justbusiness owners necessarily.
So it depends on how, you know,what type of product or service
you provide, but you could havecontacts within businesses.
Or for example, maybe youworked with an existing client,
(11:17):
but that person has left and arenow somewhere else.
Could you contact them, A, tosee how they're going and see
what's happening in their world?
And you never know whatopportunities might come from
not calling to sell to them, butcalling to check in and have a
chat and see what's changed intheir world.
And then, second to that, ifthey're raving fans or they got
value out of your service, yourproduct, you can still ask them
(11:40):
for a referral, even thoughthey're somewhere else.
I trust this makes sense andit's starting to get the cogs
turning in terms of gettingcurious around who and where can
I go to ask some referrals.
Now, the other element, Iguess, from the A player bucket,
so you've got existing clients,you've got previous clients.
Okay, now this one, just hearme out here.
(12:01):
You also could ask prospectsthat didn't say yes, prospects
or potential clients that didn'tturn into clients, depending on
the reason they didn't goahead.
I always sort of think thatevery no, depending on the
reason they said no, most of thetime it's a not now.
You know, if it just turned outthat it wasn't the right time
(12:21):
for them to buy, um, it didn'tmake financial sense at the
time.
Seasonally it didn't work out,or whatever that reason is that
they said no, it doesn't meanthat they're not a good uh
person to offer a referral.
And the way that you can askthat is look, I appreciate, you
know, this wasn't the righttime, or it it didn't make sense
for you to go ahead for us towork together uh at the moment.
(12:43):
But I'm really curious, do youknow anybody else who could
benefit from the service of XYZ?
You know, this is a reallysimple script that I'm giving
you, and you don't have to makeit different and interesting
because it works and it makessense.
So existing clients, previousclients, or contacts that have
moved around, prospects who havesaid no, depending.
(13:04):
I mean, if you didn't like themand there was no rapport, don't
ask them.
But any of the other reasonsmentioned, go for it.
Like what else?
What have you got to lose?
You don't have anything tolose.
They're all in the bucket of Aplayer clients, so potential
direct clients.
The B player bucket.
Now, B players are people thatyou could have a great
connection or relationship with,but they're not potentially
(13:27):
clients directly for you.
But they might know or beconnected to your ideal client.
Chances are in your network,you have really good
relationships with otherleaders, other business owners,
other contacts that are awesometo have in your world and
they're really well connected,but they're never going to be an
ideal client or you'll neverwork with them directly.
(13:51):
You can still contact them andask them if they know of anybody
that could benefit from serviceXYZ.
So your existing networkconnections and also reaching
out to people who havecomplementary services, when,
you know, win-win, but notnon-competing.
So this is a little bit of adifferent strategy in terms of
(14:14):
referrals, but it's connectingyour networks.
So for those of you who havealready nailed and you're asking
for referrals from yourexisting, your previous clients,
you've asked all of them forreferrals, previous contacts,
where you've got goodrelationships.
You're already in the processof asking even when a sale
doesn't go through.
You've asked your networks.
Maybe it's about elevating thisto another level and actually
(14:38):
looking at almost partneringwith another business that's
non-competing, you're servingthe same audience, same type of
client, and there's really coolconversations that can happen
there.
It doesn't always have to be areally structured referral
program.
You know, this is the otherthing I see a lot is people get
in their head about, oh, okay,so there's got to be a reward
system, um, there's got to be areferral program in place.
(15:00):
Uh, okay, if I if they give meone, I have to give them one.
It doesn't have to be likethat.
It actually does not have to bethat complicated.
If somebody knows you, if theylike you, if they trust you, if
they know that you can deliverfor them, whether that's they've
seen you in action and they'veexperienced you personally or
they know of the work that youdo, guess what?
(15:22):
We want to refer, we want toconnect, we want to help people
in our network.
So if you're that person thatcan deliver, then people will
want to spread the word for youon what you can do for them.
Okay, so to recap, we know thatresearch shows 91% of customers
will say yes to giving areferral, yet only 11% of
(15:45):
salespeople will actually ask.
It's money on the table,people.
That is opportunities.
I really want you to thinkabout are we hitting our revenue
targets?
Are we going for 100%, 110% totarget?
Is there a gap?
Could you take on more capacityof clients?
Now, if the answer to that isno, we're at capacity, then you
can start thinking about what isthe process that we can
(16:08):
implement around referralopportunities.
So don't just walk away fromthis, but look at how we can
create this as part of oureveryday rhythm within our
business.
If the answer is yes, I have agap to target, my team aren't
being as proactive as they canbe, jump on this.
And your action for thispodcast episode is exactly that,
(16:28):
to have a look at where I am atin terms of sophistication in
our referral process.
If you don't do anything thatI've talked about, go back to
the beginning and really all Iwant you to do is contact two
people this week, whether it'sexisting clients or previous
clients or previous contacts.
If you do have somewhat of asophisticated process in place,
(16:50):
then look at what the gap isfrom what I've mentioned.
There's always an opportunityto improve in these areas.
And, you know, referrals, it'slow-hanging fruit.
It's a warm opportunity.
There's immediate trust.
So really make sure that you'rebeing intentional and you're
being deliberate.
And so to answer the firstquestion that I asked at the
beginning of this episode, arereferrals a real sales strategy?
(17:15):
Absolutely yes, when you arebeing intentional and proactive
and it's a part of a mix.
That's one key part of anoverall nurture strategy,
alongside nurturing existingclients and nurturing your
leads.
Have fun with this.
Take yourself lightly.
I'd love to hear how you go.
And until next time, enjoy.
Hello and thank you for joiningme again today as I want to
(00:31):
dive into this conversationaround referrals and really
answering the question (00:36):
are referrals a real sales strategy?
Now, oftentimes when I ask abusiness owner, a leader, and
I'm going to ask you now, how doyou grow your business?
Oftentimes the answer is thatthere's a big reliance on
referrals.
Referrals are such a massivegrowth strategy, whether it's
(00:58):
intentional or unintentional.
And I've had so many differentrobust conversations with
business owners and leaders,other coaches and people in this
space around actually, is it areal strategy?
Can we over-rely on referrals?
And here's my thoughts.
My answer to this question isthat absolutely referrals can be
a real sales strategy as longas we intentionally,
(01:23):
strategically, deliberatelyfocus on being proactive around
the referrals within ourbusiness.
So here's the problem (01:30):
a lot of people will rely on referrals
being given to them.
There's a very reactive orreserved approach around it.
Sometimes there's even anervousness to ask for
referrals.
But the statistics show that91% of customers said that they
would give a referral, but only11% of salespeople actually ask.
(01:52):
So we know that referrals canbe a great way to grow business.
We know that in a lot ofinstances, salespeople, sales
leaders, business owners areactually not maximising the
opportunities of really leaningin and asking for more
referrals.
And we also know that clients,customers are highly likely to
say yes to giving you areferral.
(02:14):
This episode is almost how manytimes can I say referral in
this episode?
But you know, this is a reallyimportant topic for us to have a
look at.
Well, how can I get moreintentional and strategic around
this?
And I want to share a couple ofthoughts to make sure that you
can be in that proactive space.
Now, an ideal strategy, salesstrategy, which I call a nurture
(02:37):
strategy in the business, ismade up of three key things.
It's about how do you nurtureyour clients, your existing
clients and your past clients.
They're your hottest or warmestrelationships lead potential.
No surprises, it's then aboutlooking at how do you nurture
referral opportunities.
(02:57):
And we'll go into a bit moredetail.
I want to share with you sometips today on how to do that.
And then the third part is howare we nurturing leads?
And leads are not yetnecessarily warm or hot.
They're cooler, they might notknow as much about you, they
potentially don't know yourbusiness or how you can serve or
help them.
But you're proactivelyinvesting in marketing and
(03:19):
outreach to nurture those leads.
The referrals are reallypowerful because they're what we
call a warm lead.
A referral is warm because evenif they don't know you or your
business, they know the personthat is connecting you.
Now I've mentioned before, andyou'll hear me say again, that
trust is at an all-time low.
(03:40):
And so our number one job goalfocus as salespeople, as sales
leaders, as people who arelooking to provide a solution
for our market is to buildtrust.
And so that's why referrals canbe so powerful because
immediately they're a warm lead,in that there's a connection,
which means that we've got moreof a jumping off point in terms
(04:02):
of building trust.
Now, existing clients or pastclients, they are warm to hot
because they already know you,they've experienced you.
But we're not going to go intodetail around how to nurture
existing and previous clients inthis podcast episode.
But even if you think aboutactually, I haven't done that
for a while, this might plantthe seed for you to actually
(04:23):
look at how you could do that.
And maybe I'll record aseparate episode specifically
focusing on that.
So, overall, I want to remindyou that if we're looking at an
effective nurture growthstrategy, we've got to be
looking at how are we nurturingour hot leads, which are
existing clients and previous.
Really look at how do wenurture and be proactive around
referrals, and then also look atour leads, which are the
(04:46):
holder.
Now, warm leads, referrals.
Who do you ask for a referral?
I think the biggest pitfallthat I see around referrals is,
as I mentioned before, it'salmost like a sit back and wait.
If they love what I'll do, orif they love what the team does,
or the product or service weprovide, they'll come to us or
they'll proactively on their ownthink about sharing the word.
(05:10):
When in fact, it's not thatyour clients and customers don't
think you've done a great job,but they're busy and you're not
top of mind for them.
You're not their priority.
And so sometimes just by askingthe question, our clients will
go, oh yeah, absolutely.
I didn't even think of that.
Of course I can.
But here's the thing (05:26):
just asking the question isn't
enough.
So often when I'm running salestraining, I'll ask the
question, who here asks forreferrals?
And I would say maybe 80% ofthe room agree.
When I then ask about theprocess behind it, how do you
then follow up with thereferral?
A lot of the hands start comingdown.
(05:49):
So, yes, we can ask thequestion, do you know anybody
that would benefit from XYZ, thebenefit or the outcome of your
product and service?
If the answer is yes, amazing.
We've got to ask a follow-upquestion.
So that's where you can thenask, wonderful, would you mind
doing an introduction for me?
(06:09):
Or best practice, you couldask, are you happy to share
their contact details?
Now, sometimes they don't wantto do that, and probably more so
these days, and that's fine.
But at least you've asked thequestion.
The ideal is getting thecontact details so you can call
Bob and let him know that Marysuggested that you reach out.
Amazing, that would be ideal.
(06:30):
And if if your contact, yourclient, says, no, I'm not
comfortable with that,absolutely no problem.
Would you mind sending an emailintroduction to both of us?
And that way Bob can see that,you know, we're connected.
And that's typically whereyou'll get most of the yeses.
So you can see already howthat's a layer deeper, rather
(06:50):
than just relying on them totalk to the person.
Yes, you need to ask thequestion, but you also need to
make it easy for them to be ableto make that connection.
Which brings me to my nextpoint.
Not only do you want to ask theadditional question for the
connection, what you can do isactually send them, ask, Mary,
would you like me to sendthrough a couple of sentences
(07:12):
outlining the work that I'vedone for you or what I do?
So you can just copy and pasteit in the email and send it off.
Now, highly likely Mary isgoing to say yes.
She's already agreed to send areferral.
She's already agreed thatthere's somebody that she has in
mind that could benefit.
And all you're doing here isyou're really making it easy for
her or him or them to be ableto make that introduction.
(07:35):
I've done a little bit of anexperiment around this where
I've asked for a referral or anintroduction, and I didn't send
any body copy of the email.
I then asked for a referralactually to the same person, and
I've I've also asked it indifferent people, where I did
give them, here's some suggestedcopy.
And immediately the responserate of getting that
(07:57):
introduction increases.
Now I don't know what thestatistics are on that, but I
know it's a lot higher.
And if you think about it froma common sense point of view, if
you're doing an intro, ifyou're doing a referral, you
know, I love connecting people,but I have to really stop and
think, okay, hang on a second, Ihave to talk about, you know,
why am I doing this intro and alittle bit about that person?
It's not that I don't want to,but it's just that it takes a
(08:19):
bit of thinking and a bit oftime.
So if somebody's providing thatto me and I can tweak it and
change it, I'm much more likelyto do it because it will take a
lot less time.
So we're being proactive.
We're asking the question.
You're making it easy for themby asking the second question
for the introduction and givingthem some information in the
body of the email.
(08:40):
The third thing you have toremember to do a really
effective referral is to makesure that you follow up.
Now, the money is in thefollow-up, friends.
The money is in the follow-upis just a classic statement in
terms of sales 101.
But it actually is so relevantin all areas of sales
leadership.
If you follow up with areferral, you know, hey, hey
(09:03):
Mary, I noticed that you haven'thad a chance to do that yet.
Is there anything I can do tomake it a bit easier for you?
Or just wanted to double checkthat was still possible to do
the introduction.
You're not being annoying.
You're you you've got arelationship with this person.
And chances are they're sohappy to do it, but it's just
slipped their mind.
So in terms of how to do thereferral, we ask, we make it
(09:25):
easy, and we follow up.
In terms of who to ask for, Ilike to think of, think of it as
in two buckets.
You've got two differentbuckets of types of contacts
that can help you grow yourbusiness.
A quick interruption to thispodcast episode.
I'm really curious, do you wantto close more sales in less
time?
If the answer is yes, which Ihope that it is, then you need
(09:48):
to get your hands on the growthcode.
It is going to give you threeproven frameworks and tools that
will help future-proof yourbusiness and scale with clarity.
All you have to do is head downto the show notes and click the
link below.
One bucket are labelled Aplayers.
The other bucket is labelled Bplayers.
(10:10):
So your A player relationshipsare those that could potentially
be your direct client.
So, for example, in your Abucket, A player bucket, for
referrals, you've got existingclients, people you've been
working with already or thathave bought from you.
You've got previous clients orcustomers, people that maybe
aren't working with you now, butthey have been.
(10:32):
If this is brand new to you andyou haven't been proactive in
asking for referrals, there isso much untapped opportunity.
There is so much money that isbeing left on the table and what
I call low-hanging fruit.
So it really excites mebecause, you know, particularly
if you're looking at fillingsome gaps in terms of revenue,
where at the run home toChristmas to really hit that
(10:55):
target end of year going intothe new year, there's massive
opportunity here by going backto existing clients, going back
to previous clients.
And, you know, it's not justbusiness owners necessarily.
So it depends on how, you know,what type of product or service
you provide, but you could havecontacts within businesses.
Or for example, maybe youworked with an existing client,
(11:17):
but that person has left and arenow somewhere else.
Could you contact them, A, tosee how they're going and see
what's happening in their world?
And you never know whatopportunities might come from
not calling to sell to them, butcalling to check in and have a
chat and see what's changed intheir world.
And then, second to that, ifthey're raving fans or they got
value out of your service, yourproduct, you can still ask them
(11:40):
for a referral, even thoughthey're somewhere else.
I trust this makes sense andit's starting to get the cogs
turning in terms of gettingcurious around who and where can
I go to ask some referrals.
Now, the other element, Iguess, from the A player bucket,
so you've got existing clients,you've got previous clients.
Okay, now this one, just hearme out here.
(12:01):
You also could ask prospectsthat didn't say yes, prospects
or potential clients that didn'tturn into clients, depending on
the reason they didn't goahead.
I always sort of think thatevery no, depending on the
reason they said no, most of thetime it's a not now.
You know, if it just turned outthat it wasn't the right time
(12:21):
for them to buy, um, it didn'tmake financial sense at the
time.
Seasonally it didn't work out,or whatever that reason is that
they said no, it doesn't meanthat they're not a good uh
person to offer a referral.
And the way that you can askthat is look, I appreciate, you
know, this wasn't the righttime, or it it didn't make sense
for you to go ahead for us towork together uh at the moment.
(12:43):
But I'm really curious, do youknow anybody else who could
benefit from the service of XYZ?
You know, this is a reallysimple script that I'm giving
you, and you don't have to makeit different and interesting
because it works and it makessense.
So existing clients, previousclients, or contacts that have
moved around, prospects who havesaid no, depending.
(13:04):
I mean, if you didn't like themand there was no rapport, don't
ask them.
But any of the other reasonsmentioned, go for it.
Like what else?
What have you got to lose?
You don't have anything tolose.
They're all in the bucket of Aplayer clients, so potential
direct clients.
The B player bucket.
Now, B players are people thatyou could have a great
connection or relationship with,but they're not potentially
(13:27):
clients directly for you.
But they might know or beconnected to your ideal client.
Chances are in your network,you have really good
relationships with otherleaders, other business owners,
other contacts that are awesometo have in your world and
they're really well connected,but they're never going to be an
ideal client or you'll neverwork with them directly.
(13:51):
You can still contact them andask them if they know of anybody
that could benefit from serviceXYZ.
So your existing networkconnections and also reaching
out to people who havecomplementary services, when,
you know, win-win, but notnon-competing.
So this is a little bit of adifferent strategy in terms of
(14:14):
referrals, but it's connectingyour networks.
So for those of you who havealready nailed and you're asking
for referrals from yourexisting, your previous clients,
you've asked all of them forreferrals, previous contacts,
where you've got goodrelationships.
You're already in the processof asking even when a sale
doesn't go through.
You've asked your networks.
Maybe it's about elevating thisto another level and actually
(14:38):
looking at almost partneringwith another business that's
non-competing, you're servingthe same audience, same type of
client, and there's really coolconversations that can happen
there.
It doesn't always have to be areally structured referral
program.
You know, this is the otherthing I see a lot is people get
in their head about, oh, okay,so there's got to be a reward
system, um, there's got to be areferral program in place.
(15:00):
Uh, okay, if I if they give meone, I have to give them one.
It doesn't have to be likethat.
It actually does not have to bethat complicated.
If somebody knows you, if theylike you, if they trust you, if
they know that you can deliverfor them, whether that's they've
seen you in action and they'veexperienced you personally or
they know of the work that youdo, guess what?
(15:22):
We want to refer, we want toconnect, we want to help people
in our network.
So if you're that person thatcan deliver, then people will
want to spread the word for youon what you can do for them.
Okay, so to recap, we know thatresearch shows 91% of customers
will say yes to giving areferral, yet only 11% of
(15:45):
salespeople will actually ask.
It's money on the table,people.
That is opportunities.
I really want you to thinkabout are we hitting our revenue
targets?
Are we going for 100%, 110% totarget?
Is there a gap?
Could you take on more capacityof clients?
Now, if the answer to that isno, we're at capacity, then you
can start thinking about what isthe process that we can
(16:08):
implement around referralopportunities.
So don't just walk away fromthis, but look at how we can
create this as part of oureveryday rhythm within our
business.
If the answer is yes, I have agap to target, my team aren't
being as proactive as they canbe, jump on this.
And your action for thispodcast episode is exactly that,
(16:28):
to have a look at where I am atin terms of sophistication in
our referral process.
If you don't do anything thatI've talked about, go back to
the beginning and really all Iwant you to do is contact two
people this week, whether it'sexisting clients or previous
clients or previous contacts.
If you do have somewhat of asophisticated process in place,
(16:50):
then look at what the gap isfrom what I've mentioned.
There's always an opportunityto improve in these areas.
And, you know, referrals, it'slow-hanging fruit.
It's a warm opportunity.
There's immediate trust.
So really make sure that you'rebeing intentional and you're
being deliberate.
And so to answer the firstquestion that I asked at the
beginning of this episode, arereferrals a real sales strategy?
(17:15):
Absolutely yes, when you arebeing intentional and proactive
and it's a part of a mix.
That's one key part of anoverall nurture strategy,
alongside nurturing existingclients and nurturing your
leads.
Have fun with this.
Take yourself lightly.
I'd love to hear how you go.
And until next time, enjoy.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.