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If you’ve been looking for ways to encourage staff members to ask for referrals, they might appreciate a few pointers from the clients and professionals they would be approaching.

Information direct from the “horse’s mouth” will always have more impact than what you might tell them.

When you’ve established a solid relationship with another professional firm in your town, you might want to ask them to serve on a panel discussion attended by your staff.

Invite the professionals to tell your staff members how they like to be asked for referrals.

You may even be able to obtain a panelist who is a staff member at another professional firm.

They can provide an ideal role model for your staff. Encourage the panelists to provide specific stories and examples of people who receive their referrals.

Five Keys to Referrals
I recently worked with a panel of attorneys to help CPAs stimulate their referrals. Much of what they said would apply to any professionals.

1. Work from your strengths.
People who are overly cautious will not earn respect. Help your referral source anticipate the future and prevent problems.

As a staff member, your statements about your firm are given more credibility than the partners’. Provide a balanced picture while still plugging your firm’s strengths.

2. Talk results.
Vague statements about quality don’t impress people. Give them clear examples of ways your firm has made a difference for clients.

3. Shoot straight.
Be up front about any problems or limitations of your firm. It builds your credibility.

4. Understand your referral sources’ needs.
Talk to potential referral sources about how to improve their own profits and how to satisfy their goals.

5. Share your professional expertise.
Advise your referral sources on how to use your firm’s services to their benefit. Give away “free samples” when possible.

Asking for Referrals
May professionals and staff, as a group, are timid and fear asking for business. There are ways to ask without being aggressive. When you are meeting professionals or their staff, you must express your personal style.

In general, to build rapport with a referral source, you need to understand their style and approach them in a way that will be comfortable for them.

Wrapping up
Some of your best referrals will come from happy staff. When your staff give you referrals, they have more credibility than when you ask for the business directly. They are seen as relatively objective sources of information.