You’re going to love this.

You’ll love it because it’s a simple (and proven) way to bring in more referrals.

A lot more.

Instead of getting referrals onesy-twosy, you’ll get them in bunches.

Two referrals lead to five. Five referrals lead to ten.

When referrals beget referrals, your client base grows geometrically, not mathematically.

The referrals come from the new clients who are referred to you. They also come from the original referring clients who see that their referral was appreciated by the client they referred, and by you.

Treat your clients right and they come back to you and refer others.

It’s called “client math”.

A new client is worth more to you than the value of their initial case or engagement. Their value includes the fees you earn from their repeat business, over their “lifetime” as your client, and from all of the referrals they send you.

You could also include the value of the fees that come from the clients they refer who themselves send you referrals.

Oh, so now you like math!

Okay. What do you have to do to foster this growth?

I hinted at this above, when I used the word “appreciated”.

When you show people you appreciate their referrals, or anything else they do for you, they tend to do more of it.

When you recognize and thank someone for sending you a referral, they usually repeat that behavior.

Yes, it is that simple.

All you have to do is tell the person who made the referral that you appreciate them, and say “thank you”.

Send a thank you note. Not a form letter, a personal message that shows them you noticed what they did and that it means a lot to you.

Send a letter, not an email. A hand written note is even better. It shows you took your valuable time to pen a personal message.

You may do this already. But you may not be doing it as much as you could. And by that, I mean thanking the client or referring party at each stage of the process.

Don’t wait until a referral or introduction turns into a new client. Thank the client or contact for the referral or introduction immediately, because you appreciate what they’ve done and you want them to do it again.

Then, after you speak to the prospect or the professional, thank the referring party again. “I spoke to John Jones and you were right–he’s a great guy! Thanks again for introducing us”.

Then, if that introduction or referral leads to new business, send another thank you. (If appropriate, or you get the new client’s permission to tell the referring party that their referral signed up.)

A small gift (e.g., a book) is also a good way to say thank you.

Well, there you have it. Smother people with appreciation. Make them feel good about what they did and they’ll do it again.

How to get (a lot) more referrals from your clients