What to do if your clients are terrible at sending you referrals

Got a question recently from someone who's a service provider, a coach, and she asked, what do I do if my current or past clients just aren't very good at sending me referrals? And it's a really important question because if you're not getting referrals, you're not really tapping into the organic growth that you could have in your business. And you're in this constant place where if you don't get the referral thing right, you're going to be constantly on the hunt for new clients. Right. Instead of just allowing your clients to multiply because the word spreads about how good your work is. I'm sorry if there's a little bit of wind in the background. I'm outside with my dog scout going for a little walk. So, three tips for getting more and better referrals. Tip number one is to ask. I know this sounds pretty basic, but sometimes people will tell me that they're not getting referrals. And I'll ask them, are you asking for referrals? And they'll say, well, no, I thought that that is kind of selfish. I should just let them give me referrals if they think I do good work. That's really not how it works. Right. People are busy, and if they don't know that you want referrals, they may not even think to give you a referral. And that doesn't mean they didn't love the work that you did. It doesn't mean you didn't do a good job. It doesn't mean that they might not even know someone who could give you a referral, but it just means that you're not top of mind. They may even assume that your client roster is filled up. So number one in terms of getting more referrals is to ask. Right? If you don't ask, you're not going to get any referrals. The times that I usually ask for referrals are number one, at the beginning of a new coaching engagement, which can seem a little bit odd. Well, why would you ask for a referral before you even start working with the person? Well, if you think about any product or service that you invest in, sometimes the time that you're most excited about that new thing you invested in is right when you just bought it. Right. If you think about my fiance, Emma has this thing called a passion planner. It helps her plan out her day. She loves it. And as soon as she got it in that first couple days as she was using it, she, I think, convinced two other friends to buy it right away. So the first time to ask for referrals is right when the person becomes a client. The second time is during the engagement if the person's gotten a great result, if they've just sent you a text saying that you did an awesome job. And by the way, those are good things to save. Organic referrals where people just text you and and tell you about some outcome they got that's a lot better than just a written kind of manufactured refer testimonial at the end. So go ahead and ask for referrals once someone tells you about an outcome they just got in the middle. And then the final time to ask for referrals is at the end of a coaching engagement. Right? That's the one that most of us always think about. But sometimes we don't remember to ask for referrals at the beginning of the engagement, right when they sign on and in the middle when they get a great outcome or they're raving about you. And you can just ask, hey, I'm glad it's going so well for you. Do you know anyone else who would benefit from having let you know, a conversation with me? All right, so tip number one for getting more referrals was just to ask. Make sure you're asking every client you have that you love. Say, hey, you're an awesome client. I'd love to have 10 of you. Do you know anyone else who might be a good fit for the work that we're doing together? Alright, number two. Tip number two for getting referrals from current or past clients is to, I know this is gonna sound silly. Do a better job. Continue to master your craft. This is the reason that why often we think we're not getting referrals is just because we're not good enough. It's not always the reason, but it could be that you just need to continue to pour into your clients a little bit more. And it might not be because you're not a good enough coach, but maybe you just need a part part of your service that's remarkable. So, for example, when a new client signs on with me, I have one of my illustrators draw them as their favorite superhero, right? With their head on the superhero. And that's just kind of a fun thing. And if you don't have those little client delight things built in to your service, it might make it less likely that you'll get a referral. But the bottom line is, if you're getting awesome results with people, if their lives are changing, eventually people are going to Ask those that person, what are you doing? What made the difference? And that's when they're going to naturally refer you. So tip number one for getting more referrals is ask. Tip number two is just continue to master your craft, Continue to improve as a coach. The third tip for getting referrals is actually happens at the end of a coaching engagement. And this is when you want to say, as you get the testimonial, you want to say, hey, do you know anybody else that could benefit from the work that we're doing together? And not just saying that. I kind of mentioned that in tip number one, that you should ask at the end of the engagement. But when you ask for a referral, there's a very specific way you want to do it. You want to tell the person who your ideal client is. Now, obviously, in order to do this, you need to have some clarity around your marketing and your brand in general, which I keep coming back to in videos, because if you don't know who your ideal client is going to be really hard to do any sort of marketing. And you're kind of just going to have to sit back and hope that the person who's referring you does a good job at finding people. But one of the things with referrals is if it's overly broad, if the person doesn't really understand who you specialize with, who you best work with, then even if they're a client so they know it benefited them, they might not be able to think of someone readily who you could really help. So tip number three for getting more and better referrals is to ask at the end of your engagement, specifically for the type of person you're looking for. So, you know, for me, I would say, hey, do you know any other coaches, you know, life coaches, health coaches, career coaches who want to get more clients and want to increase their income, but are struggling with their sales and marketing? Now, if I just said, hey, do you know anyone else who I could help? They kind of have to go through this huge mental Rolodex, right? Which is a little bit tricky, because if it seems like you help everyone, they're not going to. No one specific is going to come to that person's mind. They're not going to refer you. And when they see someone, you know walking around, they meet someone, they're not going to think of you because you haven't given them an articulate, clear description of who you best work with. So tip number three is help them out a little bit. You know, your referral partners or your clients, tell them, hey, this type of person I really work well with. You're an ideal client because of this xyz. Do you know anyone else who has those same characteristics? So quick summary how to get more referrals from current or past clients Tip number one was to ask okay, Tip number two was to master your craft, delight your clients more often so that they're more likely to spread the word. And tip number three is at the end of that coaching engagement, when you ask for a referral, get specific about who you best work with so that when that person's going through the mental Rolodex, they can come up with someone right away and let them know how you want to put them in touch. Say, hey, shoot us an email or connect us on Facebook. You know, tell them each step to take to do you a favor, right? Hope that that helps. Guys, go out today and I want I challenge you to do one of those three tactics. All right? Ask find a way to master your craft or figure out what is the specific description you're going to provide people that will make it easier for them to refer you. Alright, Scott and I got to get back get back to work, but good to see you guys and hope this video helped. Take care y'. All.