In this episode of Sales Growth Made Simple, host Ben Wright, a veteran sales consultant for trade, construction, and industry businesses, explains why relying on new‑lead channels (paid digital ads, cold outreach, etc.) is costly and often unnecessary for 7‑ to 8‑figure firms. He argues that referrals are an under‑utilized, low‑cost, high‑conversion source of new business. Drawing on 15 years of experience and tens of thousands of deals, Wright outlines three optimal moments to request a referral: (1) immediately after the sale is closed, while the customer’s enthusiasm is fresh; (2) at the “retention point” when the project is underway and the client sees tangible progress; and (3) after project completion when the client is enjoying the delivered benefit. For each moment he provides soft‑ask phrasing that avoids the harsh word “referral” and instead asks for introductions to anyone who might need similar work. He notes that for medium‑ to high‑ticket services (thousands to tens of thousands of dollars) incentives are usually unnecessary—simply asking is enough. Wright concludes that implementing at least one of these referral‑asking moments will raise close rates, reduce dependence on expensive lead sources, and drive sustainable growth.
In this episode, we're going to discover the 3 times you should always ask for referrals to reduce your sales reliance on new leads.
Welcome to Sales Growth Made Simple, the show helping 7 to 8 figure trade, construction, and industry sales and business leaders finally end the stress of inconsistent sales by simplifying your sales systems so your team can close more deals and grow faster. I'm your host, Ben Wright, and over the last 15 years, I've helped hundreds of trade and sales leaders grow their businesses and generate over $200 million in additional revenue by simplifying their sales processes.
Let's get started. It's rare that I meet with a trade business who isn't chasing new leads. So in this episode today, we are gonna unpack the 3 times that you should always be asking for referrals so that you don't need to be consistently chasing new leads through your Google or your digital, right? Or your very expensive traditional leads. Lead channels. As we roll into today's episode, have a think about times in your business, they may not be now, but times in your business you felt you were desperately short of leads. Times when you were then worried about how much forward work you could book around your forward schedule being filled, around how you keep your teams busy, and then of course how your business remains profitable. I don't know many business leaders who haven't had to deal with this issue multiple times across their journey. I certainly have. In fact, in any business that I start. I'm constantly thinking about how we can build new leads and very much so fill out our pipeline moving forward. The good news about this is that generating new leads doesn't always have to be done through traditional channels. And in my experience in the 25 years of working with salespeople, one thing that I've consistently seen is one area of lead generation that is almost always overlooked by businesses. It's also almost always quite a significant source for businesses when it comes to bringing in new leads to their business. It's often the least expensive. It's often very easy to action. And it's often a lot more enjoyable than going out trying to get new leads and meeting new customers for the first time. And yes, by now you'd absolutely know what it is because I mentioned the word at the start of this episode, but it's all about referrals. It's all about not only making sure you're asking for referrals, but you're doing it at the right time and you're getting enough yeses to justify the time in it. So for me, across the tens of thousands of deals that I've worked with, there really are 3 times when I see referrals being effective to ask for. 3 times, not just 1, but 3 times. And I will say that the 3 times won't always apply to every business, i.e., you won't always be asking for referrals at each of these 3 times. However, every business, every single business that is listening now, every single leader that's listening now, at least 1 and more than likely 2 of these are going to apply to you at a minimum when it comes to asking for referrals. So let's have a look at what those 3 times are. Number 1 is a very common method, particularly for those businesses that have short delivery cycles and particularly for those businesses that have quite engaging sales cycles. And that's to ask for a referral straight away when you do the deal. So we're building out a pergola at the back of a house or a beautiful new extension to a house, right? Or we're building out a nice outdoor area for a B2B business. Somewhere for their staff to sit or their team to sit. We've just signed the deal. All right, we have a customer that's super happy with us. And the first thing we ask is, hey, we're a family business that is very grateful whenever we can be recommended to new customers. Is there anyone you know that's looking into doing this now? Right? Whether you're a commercial business or a residential business, a homeowner, is there anyone you know that's looking into doing this right now that we could speak to? So it's at that time when you've just signed the deal The customer's happy with what you've done so far from a sales process point of view. And it's a nice little opportunistic moment to ask if they know anyone else. Now, the key here when we're asking for referrals is to make sure that we're asking if they know anyone else who's interested. Right? It's not asking them to say, do you have anyone else that you could refer us to? That's a very different and it's a much harsher way of asking to be introduced to someone than is there anyone you know that we could talk to? Is there anyone you know that's interested? It's a much less confronting use of words. Of course, the word referrals I wouldn't put at the high end in terms of being super, super confronting, but it's a much softer, much nicer, much easier platform to ease into working potentially with someone else that they know. Is there anyone else that you know that we could perhaps talk to? Is there anyone else that you know that maybe you could introduce us to? These are very soft introduction requests. All right. And a great time to be asking that is at the point of sale. The second time is at what we'd call the retention point. So that's once a customer's dealt with you at a sales cycle point of view, and they've seen from an operational execution point of view that what you're doing is good work. So if you're building out that pergola out the back, once they've seen the detail that you've put into putting the posts up and you have 4 beautifully set posts concreted in Nice and sturdy, perfectly straight. The project is starting to come to life and the customer's like, wow, I can't wait to see this come to life. I can't wait to see this happen. Right? There's a great book out there called Retention Point by Robert Skrob, S-K-R-O-B, worth reading. Retention Point by Robert Skrob, if you get a moment. However, the retention point's all about that moment in time when your customers are super committed to not just what you've said you're going to deliver, but what you are delivering. So have a think about your type of industry, your type of business, that moment when you've turned soil, when you've made some effective momentum forward in your project delivery, things are going well for the customer, right? And they're happy with the progress. Great time to be asking for a referral, particularly if you're out on site and you're checking in on the project to see how things are going. The project's going well, right? Again, it's that soft question. Hey, is there anyone else you know that would be really interested in speaking to us? Hey, your post's looking good. Do you have any of your friends, right? Or your business colleagues that would be interested in learning a bit more about what we do? Is there anyone else you know that could do with a pergola that you'd love us to speak to. So that's the second point in time. Great time to be asking for referrals. And the third one here, this is the easiest entry point and the most obvious for a lot of businesses. And that's once the project's done and the benefits from the project are being achieved. So if we're looking at the pergola example, it's up, the posts are up, the roof's up, it's being used. A couple of weeks after it's gone in, we've had a beautiful outdoor day and we know that could have been the perfect time that our customers out there with their friends, with their family, right? And actually using that pergola area. So once the customer is using it and they've seen how it can impact their life, then is a perfect time to also roll in and ask, is there anyone else that you think could do with a pergola? Is there anyone else you know that you might be able to introduce us to? Is there anyone else that you can think of who could do with something like this? So we're not using the R word, we're not using the referral word, but we're asking for an introduction to someone else they know. Now there's a whole other topic we can discuss here around How do you incentivize them? Is it worth doing so? What type of incentives do you run? But for me, the most important piece of communication I can get across today, particularly for businesses that are medium to high ticket items, right? So if you're in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, is often that you won't need to incentivize people for a referral, but you simply need to ask. So to recap for today, 3 times you should be asking for referrals to reduce your reliance on new leads. 'Cause of course, every time we bring in a referral, that's one less lead we need to be generating at the other end. Right, those three times are straight away, once you've made the sale, at the retention point, so once they're starting to see momentum in your project, and then lastly, once the major benefits have been achieved. Okay, so that's it for today. Thank you, very grateful for your listening as always. The aim from today is you take one of those at least and you roll it into your business. If you are not asking for referrals, please start doing it. Close rates are higher, you will absolutely need less leads into your business, and it can make a huge impact on your future sales. That's it for today. Please keep that focus on being 1% better each and every day. It does make all the difference, and we'll see you next time. Bye for now.
