Practice the Golden Rule of Referral Giving

Keep Asking for Referrals

Don’t forget to go back to your clients every so often for more referrals . Take them to lunch once a year, perhaps on the anniversary of when you started doing business together. Just as you keep track of your conversations with prospects and clients about other issues, you should keep track of when you asked for referrals , what the response was, and the names you collected. When you are building your business from referrals , your relationship with clients must never end, because they are always meeting new people. Even long after you’ve served them, they can be advocates for you and your business. So keep in touch, and keep serving them any way you can.

Be a Referral Giver

Since building a referral-based business is not just a set of techniques but a mindset, you must become an expert at giving referrals. Serve your referral allies, your clients, and your friends as best you can by helping them with referrals as often as you can — not just by finding prospects for them, but by helping them meet people and businesses that will serve them, whatever their need. There is no better way to send the message that you work from referrals than to business the giving side of it. Let’s say you meet someone at a business event who might become a good referral alliance. The next time you get together, do whatever you can to serve him. Try to find a way to refer him to either a prospect or someone with a product or service that will help him solve a problem.

Written by Bill Cates.  To read the full article, click here.