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How to Boost Referrals from Your Partners and Clients.
- BY LYNN WHITBECK
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
This article is for you if want to turn your clients and partners into a referral engine.
Business owners are under pressure: more competition, massive cuts in budgets, and rising client and partner burn out.
Too often, your existing clients and partners do not even think about referring their network to your business.
What you will discover is a powerful method to boost referrals, while building a larger client and partner base. You will learn
How to Identify what’s holding you back
How to use the EAR methodology to grow your client and partner base
Where to incorporate referrals into your client and partner process
Why you need to Leverage scripts to ask for the referral
By systematically implementing referrals into your client and partner process, you will serve more people, shorten your client acquisition cycle, and increase your sales and profits.
Did you know… Referral leads convert 30% better than leads generated from other marketing channels?
Referrals are often called word of mouth marketing.
In addition to the immediate result of stronger client conversion, there is much more value generated across the lifetime of the relationship.
Why?
Because people who are referred to your organization already have an element of trust built in. Referral leads also have a better idea of your business and products/services. And, they already have a good first impression before they talk to you.
Bonus: people who were referred to you give you even more referrals. Data reveals they are 4 times more likely to provide you with fresh referrals than clients who got involved via other means.
And, you increase client and partner retention 10 to 20% with those that become referrers.
Referral leads are not only easier to convert to buying, but they help your business grow over the long-term.
So, what’s holding your business back from asking your clients and partners for referrals?
For most business owners, the number one reason is that you have not trained your team on when and how to ask.
The fist step to consistently generate referrals is to map out your client and partner experience journeys with your business.
Map every touchpoint from the very first phone call, to implementation, to the results delivered party — every interaction matters. And you want to be clear about who on your team owns each step.
You and your staff need to believe that asking isn’t pushy. It’s part of providing excellent service to your organization’s community. Clients and partners who feel valued actually want to help your organization even more — but most won’t do it unless you invite them and show them how.
You need the tools in place: the journey map, simple scripts that feel authentic, staff training, and a basic way to track when and how often your staff are asking for referrals.
The key to consistently asking for and receiving referrals is mastering what I call the E.A.R. Method.
Here’s what that really means: your organization must deliver a client and partner experience that earns the right to ask. Your team needs to believe that asking isn’t pushy — it’s earned.
Your clients and partners are happy to help when they are asked and given simple tools.
Your staff needs to know the right timing and the right words, and they need a system that makes recognition and reward part of your organizations culture.
Because what you recognize and celebrate is what gets repeated.
Now, let me break this down.
E.A.R. stands for Earn, Ask, Recognize & Reward.
E.A.R. stands for Earn, Ask, Recognize & Reward.
E is you must Earn the Right.
Your clients and partners are eager to spread the word when they’ve had a great experience. When your staff knows they’ve delivered on this promise, they feel confident asking for referrals.
A is you must Ask.
Bottom line: if your staff doesn’t ask, you don’t get a steady flow of referrals from your clients and partners.
Training your team on when and how to ask — and giving them the confidence to do it — is the key to making it happen consistently.
Then you must provide your clients and partners with a quick and easy way to give you the referrals.
R is you must Recognize & Reward.
The behavior you celebrate is the behavior that gets repeated. The reward doesn’t need to be big — it just needs to matter to the person receiving it.
The reward doesn’t need to be big — it just needs to matter to the person receiving it.
For some clients and partners, that might be a heartfelt thank-you note.
For staff, it could be as simple as a shout-out at the team meeting.
The size of the reward doesn’t matter — the meaning does.
Here’s the problem: when your staff isn’t trained on the E.A.R. Method, opportunities slip away. Referrals from your clients and partners will be inconsistent, or they won’t happen at all.
That means you miss out on the steady flow of new clients and partners your business needs to serve your community and grow.
In fact, not using this method can mean losing five or more referrals a week — twenty clients and partners a month.
The solution is straightforward.
Your organization already provides a needed service to the community and excellent care. The E.A.R. Method gives your staff the confidence, structure, and consistency to turn that care into growth through your clients and partners.
When your staff asks with confidence and you have a system for recognizing and rewarding the behavior, you create a steady stream of new clients and partners — without adding more overhead.
Small actions. Big results. That’s the power of mastering the E.A.R. Method.
To incorporate referrals into your client and Partner process – you can’t just talk about referrals once. You need to seed the idea early and mention it often, so it feels like a normal part of the client and partner experience.
You need to have a written plan that spells out exactly how referrals will be seeded, asked for, and tracked.
And it can’t just sit on paper — you and your team need to role-play those conversations so everyone knows what to say and when to say it, with confidence.
As you begin building rapport with a new client and partner, you want to plant the seeds for a future referral.
As an example:
You know, it is so wonderful working with you.
So many of our clients are referrals, and I don’t usually get to have this kind of rapport with someone I’ve just met.
You have now seeded the idea that most of your clients come from referrals at the beginning of your relationship.
Here is another example:
I’m super happy that you are one of our partners.
All of our partners are so important and we want you to have a great experience. When you do, you may have peers or friends you want to refer to our organization.
Once again, you are setting the stage to ask for the referral once you have earned the right to ask.
You need to leverage scripts for your team to ask for referrals.
Creating scripts that feels authentic to your mission and voice are crucial for your staff. They are templates for each individual to make their own.
Effectively a huge confidence boost on how to ask – the words to use.
Here are some tips when composing your referral statements:
Frame your referral requests by focusing on the community you serve or problem you address.
Include who you serve, your ideal client or partner, and the core results of your organization.
As an example:
Who do you know who wants the same experience you’ve had and receive the results you have gained by working with our organization?
While this is a very generic example, you can see the framework of seeding the referral.
One thing to plan is how you will respond to your client’s or partner’s questions about referrals.
They may want to know about your referral process or what it means. Anticipate the questions, plan your responses, and practice.
When you receive a referral, take immediate action. If you can’t interrupt your task at hand, add it to your calendar, CRM, or stickie note taped to your desk.
Training your staff on how to ask and practicing provides the knowledge baseline to put your referral plan in process.
In conclusion, How to Boost Referrals from Your Clients and Partners, you have learned:
How to identify what’s holding you back
How to use the EAR methodology to grow your client and partner base
Where to incorporate referrals into your client and partner process
And why you must leverage scripts to ask for the referral
By systematically implementing referrals into your client and partner process, you’ll serve more people, shorten your client acquisition cycle, and increase your sales.
That’s the power of mastering client and partner referrals.
Meet the expert:
Lynn Whitbeck is the Queen of Strategic Sales. Business owners hire Lynn to ignite winning sales, because most fail to create consistent, repeatable, and scalable growth. So, Lynn helps sell with intent for maximum impact, influence, and income.
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