How to Get More Referrals
For the full set of lead generation ideas see: 101 Ideas to Get More Freelance Work and Generate New Client Leads
Getting a new lead referred to you by a previous client or friend is probably the single best source of work for most freelancers. Not only do referrals usually happen organically but they tend to start off with a high degree of trust and positive expectation.
The downside to referral clients is that most freelancers don’t feel any control over where and when it happens. Some months you have lots of new leads and others none at all, seemingly without rhyme or reason.
In this article we’re going to talk about how to make yourself referable and how to actively encourage those referral leads.
Being Referable
There are some businesses, some products and some people that are just easier to refer. How do you, as a freelancer, make yourself more referable? To answer this question, let’s talk about why you might NOT get referred on:
- You aren’t very good at what you do
- You aren’t reliable
- You are unpredictable
- You aren’t very likable
- You are overpriced
What all of these boil down to is that you might make the referrer look bad in front of their friend or acquaintance. When a person refers someone else they are essentially putting their name to your business and this is a risky thing to do.
So to be more referable you must either reduce that risk or make the pay off big. Here is how you do this
Everything to Win
When a person refers on a winner, it makes them look good and they earn kudos with their friend or acquaintance. If you can prove yourself to be a success story then you are going to get more referrals. You can do this by:
- Doing High Quality Work Every Time
Producing the goods not only for the person who might refer you, but also throughout your portfolio makes you a lot more referable. - Being Really Reliable
If you answer every email within a few hours, pick up the phone when it rings, show up to meetings and deliver when you say you will, you’ll find your refer-ability will skyrocket. - Price Yourself Right
There is a place for really high prices, consistent referrals is not it. If you are aiming to be referred over and over you will either need reasonable prices combined with quality or reliability, OR low enough prices that you’re a steal even if you don’t produce the best work around. - Be Likable
Clients don’t need to love you, but they do need to find you pleasant and easy to deal with. Most people don’t want to refer a freelancer who is patronizing, rude or just offensive. I’d like to say this is probably a life lesson, but if not for everyone, at least curb it for your clients!
Nothing to Lose
Giving your referrers the minimum possible risk means they are unlikely to look like a goat for telling their friends to actually *pay* you money. Here’s how you can mitigate the risk:
- Give a Guarantee
Let me say straight off the bat, that you should only do this if you are an *experienced* freelancer. Guaranteeing your work either with a money-back promise or endless revisions is not for the faint of heart. It can however be the clincher that means people feel safe referring you on. Use with caution. - Make Service Your Middle Name
If you are all about service and keeping clients happy, then your referrers will know that even when things go wrong their referrals are in good hands and are unlikely to become upset with the freelancer and in turn with them. - Free Consultations
If you provide a no-obligation, free consultation then your referrer can tell people about you knowing that there is no immediate financial obligation on their referrals. This takes the pressure and onus off them and places it on your shoulders instead, where it should be.
Encouraging Referrals
There are only three reasons someone will refer work your way:
(1) They want to help you
(2) They want to help the person they are referring
(3) They want to help themselves
If you want more referrals you need to both encourage these motivations and make it EASY to refer you. Here’s how:
Incentives
A gift, a commission or a reduction on their own bill, can all work as incentives for clients to help themselves. Adding an incentive alone is not generally enough, since whatever you offer is unlikely to make up for the possible risk involved. Think of incentives more as the carrot to push a referrer from ‘thinking about referring you’ to ‘actually referring you’.
If you do offer incentives, it’s really important to do it with tact and care. This is because you don’t want your clients to feel you are trying to buy them and neither do you want their referrals to think they were referred for some other reason than you are an awesome freelancer.
Ask and you shall receive
Yes it sucks, but if you want more referrals, then just asking for them is likely to spur them on. Personally I hate this sort of thing, so what I found to work for me was to do this after a client told me I’d done a good job. At this point I figured it was a reasonable request and made it feel less awkward.
If you don’t like asking in person, why not send an email to your recent clients or include a business card with your next invoice?
Make sure they have the tools they need
Ensuring your referrers have an easy point of contact – whether it’s a website or just a business card to give out – means you are removing one more obstacle to getting those referrals. And of course make sure that the phone gets answered, emails get responses and you follow up on those referral leads. Don’t let them go to waste or you are unlikely to get referred again by that person.
Refer Us
And on that note, if you enjoyed this article, why not digg it with the button below and refer FreelanceSwitch on to more and more people! On the other hand you might want to hide this article away and get the edge on those other freelancers 
Leave a Comment
Good tips and a good follow on from your earlier post about referrals, I agree that friends etc are useful..
I give my fiance an incentive of dinner for every client
Awesome article. Very true about the riskiness, i’ve recommended people who’ve had bad experiences and you feel really bad about it
A great way to get referrals is to join your local chapter of BNI. Its based on referral giving. You give and you gain. The meetings are pretty structured and involve presentations so its great for your confidence. We’ve had over £8,000 worth of business from BNI. The only downside is that it starts at 6:45am (here in the UK anyway).
BNI? What is that?
The golden rules to getting more customers in =) nice
BNI – Business Network International. Heres the official site;
http://www.bni.com/
Virtually every single client I’ve ever worked with has been a personal referral from a client, friend, former coworker, etc. I think it comes down to a number of factors:
1. I’m friendly. That makes a big difference.
2. I explain why I do what I do. Most clients don’t know why Dreamweaver is a company’s worst web design nightmare…when they do understand, my value goes up exponentially.
3. I work for them. The work that I do is what’s best for them, regardless of whether it’s best for me. Hand-coding great XHTML + CSS means that their next redesign will cost less…which means I’ll get less money. They like to know that they’re really getting good advice.
4. I guarantee my work. I tell them that if I can’t get the job done, I’ll help them find someone who can. That puts the pressure on me to really know my stuff.
Finally, it’s important to know when to NOT work with someone. I’ve never made a website for someone I couldn’t trust, and I’ve told people that I think I’m the wrong guy to do the work. In the end, honest and excellence goes a long way.
Clients love when you can give them a little “insider information”, some tips or show them how things work – it helps build trust and gains confidence
Great breakdown. I’ve used referrals before, but never thought about making myself more referrable. I’ll try the suggestions above to encourage my clients to refer me more often.
These are great suggestions. Some additional suggests I have been given about asking for referrals can be found on my blog, http://www.hardingco.com/blog/
This article makes some great points. As a trainer, coach and consultant with Referral Institute, I find clients do not know how to create a referral network. It takes time to create a relationship that follows the VCP process. VCP is Visibility, Credibility = Profitability. With out the first two you will not be profitable. A couple of great companies that will help are BNI and Referral Institute. BNI is a great system to develop a referral system. While Referral Institute has great training program that will take your referral marketing plan to next level.
Armand
Excellent tips
thanks
Cheers to all freelancers
Being a freelancer definitely helps a lot. We can give more time to the client, and if we give few more tips to them will also help them to make the decision of referring us to more clients as well.
I read this article in preparation of writing a 5 part series on how to get referrals for free to join sites where you make money online.
Even with it being a different market then the Free Lance field, I can see how to easily translate and incorporate some things I read here for my series.
Thanks for sharing some nice tips.
I must have lousy relatives and friends, because they’re satisfied when I proofread whatever they need proofread, but they don’t ever help me out by referring me to people who need stuff proofread. Its like pulling teeth to get referrals sometimes.
Thanks for sharing valuable informations. Getting potential referrals is often the hardest part in affiliate marketing.
Great information. Kudos to the writer.
Facebook targeting advertising has definitely helped us in getting more quality referrals.
Hi Cyan, excellent post.
Most who write on the topic of referrals, write about how to get more. I particularly liked that you mentioned Being Referable. Too many forget that first you have to deliver real value to a client, first.
I’ve also recently blogged on the subject of how to obtain referrals and searched for other resources on the web for my readers. Your’s is easily one of the best.
Again, many thanks, Mac.
Being a freelancer definitely helps a lot. We can give more time to the client, and if we give few more tips to them will also help them to make the decision of referring us to more clients as well.
very good and nice blog , thx
Thanks for the excellent post. I am planning to start freelance web designing online and this blog post would be the guideline for me.
Thanks for the great article. Getting referrals is pretty hard.
Great article. I’m looking to expand my business and these are some great ideas to start.
Truely said. Being reliable is very important for freelancers. As there were many freelancers out there and offering their work for very less prices.
You can still get projects for a reasonable price by being reliable.
Great post BTW