Most of my business comes from word-of-mouth referrals.
My best clients come from referrals.
I don't ask for referrals.
I give referrals.
I only give referrals to people I trust and know will do a great job.
Have you ever referred someone and they did a horrible job?
Your reputation goes down the tubes because you referred that person.
I know people who give referrals and expect you to return the favor every time.
1:1 referrals.
I give you three referrals and I expect you to give me three referrals in return.
Keeping score doesn't work.
You may send me a referral today, but I may not have a referral to send you right now.
In a month or two I may have a referral for you, but I don't send referrals just to even the score.
Referrals don't work that way.
I give referrals with no expectation of you returning the favor.
A few weeks ago, I heard about Michael Whitehouse from three circles of business connections.
I connected with him on LinkedIn and last weekend we were both speakers at the More Life More Profit virtual event.
Michael is the guy who knows a guy.
He's a human connector.
Tell Michael you're looking for a great executive coach and off the top of his head he'll ask, "Do you know XXX?"
He makes the connection with no expectation of you returning the favor.
Of course, it all comes back to him because of reciprocity (you can also hire him to be your full-time "connector" which is how he makes his living).
Referrals are not rocket science.
Give referrals with no expectations.
As Zig Ziglar once said, "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want."
