What you ought to know about the common advice on getting client referrals
A copywriter, my friend Geneva, had been booked solid spring and all summer. And she expected lots of work straight through the end of year before a new project scheduled to begin in January.
When new work suddenly dried up in early September, she called me for ideas and we talked. She zeroed in on asking clients for referrals.
She knew referrals would be gold for her!
Later in November, Geneva called again. This time, without a hint of new business, she was panicky.
She had researched how to get referrals and sketched a rough plan. While she had a general sense of where to start, she still couldn’t answer one important question.
When’s the best time to ask for a referral in a client relationship?
All the advice she found was vague or not helpful for a newbie. Geneva was confused. Questions raced around in her mind.
Am I too late to ask my client from last summer?
Maybe, I should have asked my new client last week at our kickoff meeting. But is that too soon?
What if I do this wrong? I could ruin these relationships forever! I can’t take that risk…they’ll never call again.
She thought doing client referrals would be easy. But now she didn’t know what to do. She froze. “Now is not the right time,” she said. [Read more…] about Until You Know Exactly When to Ask Clients for Referrals…Don’t Even Try To