I had the great good fortune at noon on Wednesday to sit in on a webinar given by Hinge Marketing. I find Hinge's webinars and publications to be a great investment of my time. Even when the speakers are less than dynamic, I find the information to be on target and very valuable.
Today's webinar was no exception. It was about referrals, which are great tools for growing your business with minimal marketing cost.
One of the points made was that more than two-thirds of the 523 professional services firms they surveyed said they would make referrals, and that the reason they didn't is that they are not asked to do so.
I was brought up by a very strong, very smart mother who always told me, "You never know until you open your big mouth and ask someone!"
So I always ask, I especially ask clients for a referral. If a client won't refer me, I'm no worse off than I was before asking, but if the client agrees, that referral can go a long way toward convincing other prospects who haven't even met me to consider using my services.
I have one client who, when asked for a referral letter that I could post in my firm's Web site, explained that her firm had a policy of not giving such letters, but that she would be happy to give me a good reference anytime I listed her in a marketing effort and a prospect called her. I have since used her as a reference with positive results.
In December, I completed a proposal for a new client, a Northeastern law firm. I had been referred by a colleague and friend in the A/E/C industry who has referred me a few times for proposal writing. I emailed the prospect my Statement of Qualifications, he asked for my rates, we agreed on a "not-to-exceed" figure, and off I went, with a new project for a new client.
Another major point of the webinar had to do with the positive impacts that could come to you if you write a blog, especially if you are consistent in your writing and publish with some frequency.
This coming Friday morning, I will participate in a conference call with a prospective client who is looking for help with a blog. The first contact about this opportunity came a few months ago, from a LinkedIn contact on behalf of his client.
Now I tell myself that the reason the prospect is finally ready to speak with me is that I have been participating in a 30-day blog challenge—one post every day for 30 days, and this is post #28 for January.
And I think it helped that I have been announcing each new post as it is published on my company's Facebook page and on LinkedIn. So there has been some great visibility for my blog.
Referrals are great, no matter the size of the project, and no matter what kind of referral fee you offer. Even the smallest project can be profitable if there is no marketing cost, and it's definitely cheaper to pay a small referral fee than to have to write a proposal and compete for the work.