How to 10x Your Freelance Referrals
Only a small percentage of people you know will hire you or make a referral.
Most freelancers don’t get many referrals because they don’t ask. Even if they were to ask, they still wouldn’t get enough referrals (and, later, repeat business) because their networks are too small.
Do you have enough strong business relationships?
In order to get enough new leads and repeat business each month to cover the majority of your income, you need a bigger referral base.
In order to grow your referral base, you must meet new people, form new relationships, and keep in touch.
So let’s recap the insultingly obvious takeaways we’ve covered so far:
- Keep track of your existing business contacts, which is another way of saying, stop trusting your brain.
- Expand your freelance network, which is another way of saying, meet more people.
- Ask for referrals and repeat business,which is another way of saying get over yourself and ask.
Some of you are saying, “Yeah yeah yeah. Tell me something I don’t already know.”
Fantastic. If you’ve already got one marketing strategy that works, then you’re ready to use these 24 questions to kickstart your content marketing. (I recommend running two marketing strategies in parallel.)
However, if you’re not meeting lots of new people and getting lots of referrals, then you set a goal of two lunches per week.
Use this reliable, repeatable process:
- Make a list of all of your clients. Don’t try to remember them. Just look at all your invoices from the past two to three years.
- Export your contacts from your primary email address.
- Export a list of email addresses to which you have sent an email.
- Dump all those contacts into a master spreadsheet.
- Pick some characteristics of people who represent strategic partners for your business. For example, they might be business owners or startup founders. They might be in fintech or healthcare. They might specialize in marketing or sales. For our purposes here, you can think of these folks as your target audience even if they aren’t business owners themselves but referral partners — that is, one degree removed from a client.
- Distill that list until you have 50–100 names and email addresses of people who fall into that target audience.
- Next, peruse your LinkedIn connections. If possible, augment your core list with anyone else who belongs to your target audience.
- Once you have your near-final list — “near-final” because you’ll always be remembering more people — upload it to your CRM of choice. (I prefer Highrise because it has the handful of features I actually use, and it is free up to 250 contacts.)
- Review your new list and set up automated reminders to touch base with those people every two to three months. I call this “the art of the casual connection.” (For example, once I have set up the reminder, Highrise sends me an email on the appointed day.)
- Next, grow your network by asking your favorite people and best referral partners for introductions to their favorite people.
- Next, you want to grow your network by forming new relationships with interesting people in your city. You can use keyword searches in LinkedIn to identify people with whom you have some affinity—for example, same industry, mutual connections, similar interests, similar background, alumni from your alma mater(s), support of the same non-profits, send invitations to connect to those people.
- Once they approve your invitation, invite them to lunch, your treat. Here’s a simple email you can modify:
Hi so-and-so,
Nice to meet you. I saw that know Bob Schneider/went to Stanford/have a background in venture capital (insert what you have in common here). Can I buy you lunch?
I’d love to get to know you and learn more about what you’re up to these days.
I’ve got Friday, January 17, open. Does that work for you?
Sincerely,
Austin
- Remember to pay for lunch. (Think of it as a marketing expense.)
- After lunch send a follow up email. Think back on your conversation. Most people will touch on their problems and challenges. Find some small way to help your new friend — for example, with an introduction, book recommendation, or other resource.
- Read this post on following up without annoying people and develop your own list of “excuses” to connect — not that you really need one.
- Keep in touch, consistently, for months.
- Eventually, once you gained this person’s trust, you can ask for introductions to their favorite people.
- Eventually, once you have gained this person’s trust, an opportunity to collaborate may present itself.
- Create a repeat business request email template that you can keep on file.
- Create a referral request email template that you can keep on file.
- Ask for repeat business.
- Ask for referrals.
When is the right time to ask for referrals?
Asking for repeat business and referrals may always bring some discomfort. Similar to asking someone on a date, you’re opening yourself up to rejection.
But good things come to people who ask. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.
But what if the person is a relatively new contact? How soon is too soon when it comes to asking for an introduction or a referral?
Sorry. There’s no hard-and-fast rule here. Reflect on your own experience. Do you appreciate it when people ask for a favor right after you have met them?
How you feel about doing a favor really depends on the person. If you have a bunch of mutual friends, then you probably won’t mind as much.
“George is okay because Mark says he’s okay.”
Or if you barely know the person and she starts asking for access to your network, then you may find yourself reluctant to help. She hasn’t put in the time, right? Your natural aversion to “being used” may kick in even if Jen isn’t a taker.
Trust takes time.
Time proves honesty, sincerity, and integrity, and trust puts down its roots in those three. Trust takes time.
So if you ever feel weird about doing a favor, it’s probably because the trust you have in that person doesn’t yet support the favor’s weight.
Take these social dynamics into consideration before you let fly haphazard emails begging for freelance work.
I generally don’t ask for anything unless I have had at least three meaningful conversations with a new contact. And I do my best to be thoughtful and helpful before I ask for anything in return.
Always be making deposits in your relationships. Give away what you want. We want to be friends with, work with, and recommend generous people.
That is the secret to long-lasting business relationships: heartfelt generosity.
Effective networking isn’t about numbers because numbers are people. Treat people the way you want to be treated, and sure enough, your relationships (and your freelance business) will prosper.
Do you want my 7 favorite “excuses” for following up?
I used to worry about getting on people’s nerves. You can only have so many reasons for emailing, right?
It’s true… if you only get in touch to ask for something, you probably will annoy people. BUT if you reach out because you are helping and creating value, then people will love hearing from you!
Click this link to share your name and email address, and I’ll send you the email templates that helped me to stop overthinking, get out of my own way, and get more repeat business and referrals from my network.
