One of my mentors blew my mind last week. “We surveyed our customers years ago and asked them a simple question after the job was done,” he said. “Were you asked for a referral?”
The answer shocked me.
Turns out only 15% had ever been asked for a referral. Then came the follow-up question: “Would you have provided one if asked?” I’ll save you the suspense: 85% said they’d have happily handed one over if somebody had only bothered to ask.
I’ll skip the mock surprise. I’m terrible at asking for referrals. It makes me feel like a used car salesman. I’ve been on the receiving end of the “ask” in a dozen flavors and most of them land squarely in the awkward zone. A good example featured a vendor who had asked me who I admired in the market, then asked me to introduce him to them. I hated how disingenuous that felt.
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Luckily, integrators are in an easier spot. Our businesses are already referral-driven. The average integrator’s project revenue is 80% referral-based. Which means without a plan to ask, we’ll still get business, but we’ll leave a mountain of potential revenue sitting there untouched.
There are two stages to fixing this. First, you drink the Kool-Aid yourself. Then you bring the team along by telling stories about real results. Let’s start with you.
The Script: “Glad you’re happy with the system, Mr. Big. 80% of our business is referral-driven. In fact, you came to us because Mr. Smith introduced us. Who else in your network could use our help?” Direct, not creepy. Notice we’re not asking if they know someone. It’s assumptive, and the open-ended format triggers a different part of the brain primed to help. Notice also when we’re asking. We call it the “love me” phase. This is peak referral time. They’re happy, ready to write a five-star review, and want to introduce you to their friends.
The Program: Make it easy. We have a web form at Livewire that spiffs the sender and receiver a $100 gift card for each qualified referral. Maybe they use the form, or maybe they just text you. Who cares? They’re handing you business.
The Shout Out: Saying thank you and sending a note or a gift after a big referred job closes gives your referrer a dopamine hit and makes them want to do it again. Recognition is rocket fuel and the lowest cost, highest yield way to prime the pump.
Nail those three and start running them. Send the link. Say thanks. Pay attention to how you personalize the pitch and the shout-out depending on who you’re talking to.
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Once your confidence builds and you’ve got a few good stories about referred work, you won’t be able to help yourself. It becomes part of your patter when somebody asks what’s working in the business.
When you bring this to the team, remember their referral opportunities look different depending on the role. Service techs should use a “did you know?” opener after spotting something in the home or business, like lousy Wi-Fi or builder-grade can lights. Think of that one as sales training for people who swear they aren’t salespeople. Project managers are perfectly positioned to ask during the “love me” phase and salespeople are in the same boat, so those two should coordinate.
Kick it off internally with a spiff program that drives employees to the same form customers use, then feed everything into your CRM so no balls get dropped. Reward people with cash or a small percentage of the job, split with the sales team. Celebrate the wins in team meetings and praise your high performers by name. Our top referrer is a rock-star named Jim. He’s cracked the referral code, and I’m sure he’s sick of being singled out, but I love his consistency year in and year out.
When you turn up the volume on referrals, chasing brand new customers stops being a life-or-death activity. Better still, your business stops riding the shark’s teeth of new projects closing sporadically.
What will you do in your business to bring referrals to life? Just remember, out of the next 10 people you meet, 8.5 of them are happy to refer business to you.
Go get ’em.
Stay frosty, and see you in the field.
