Most accountancy practices grow through word-of-mouth referrals. Whilst business development and marketing activities also bring in new clients, by far the most effective (and cheapest) way of attracting new business is through referrals. So, how should you ask for referrals?

Who to ask for referrals?

Referrals may come from existing clients, business contacts and introducers, even friends and family. Whilst you may already receive some referrals from these people if you want to sign up more new clients you need to be proactive in asking for them. For many accountants, this can be a dilemma as you don’t want to do this and come across as being pushy (or desperate)!

Ways to ask for referrals

• If you have regular meetings with clients or business associates, but you keep forgetting to ask them for referrals, add a reminder to meeting agendas, or even just a reminder to yourself on your phone or Outlook.
• Have reciprocal referral arrangements with your business contacts and clients. In professional services firms, people are more likely to refer work to you if you also send work to them.
• Regularly attend business networking meetings. Whilst some groups such as BNI are based around members referring business to each other, many other networking groups operate in a less formal way, which can be just as effective.
• Create a flier to send to clients and contacts as a visual reminder that you are looking for new business. It can prompt them to mention it (and referrals) the next time you speak to them.
• Carry out client surveys or hand out customer feedback sheets asking, amongst other things, if they would be happy to refer you to other people and if so, would they like to give that person’s name/refer a friend?
• Add a P.S or similar to your emails, to highlight to your contacts and clients that you are actively looking for new clients.
• Offer incentives to your staff – it’s surprising who they will know outside of work and who could be a future client. Don’t assume that your staff will automatically be looking to bring in new business for you, they’ll assume that it’s someone else’s responsibility. However, they are just as capable of referring work as well. Rewards or internal competitions can be a great way to achieve more referrals from staff, whilst also having a bit of fun.

Asking for referrals is a great way to grow your business and quite often produces good quality clients. Just don’t forget to ask or remind your clients and contacts that you’re happy to take on new business!