INITIAL LANGUAGE AND BEHAVIORS TO STIMULATE LEVERAGE

The potential for referral business begins with initial meetings. We’ll focus for the moment on business relationships, since clients who partner with you and benefit from the value of your work are your most important referral sources of all.

Here are my suggestions for language to use in four stages of a client relationship:

New Clients, Project Launching

• “As we move forward, it’s common for me to request referrals from my client partners, since that is the source of most of my business. I hope you’ll consider agreeing to do that when the time is right.”

• “Referrals are the ‘coinage of my realm’ in this business, and I’m going to work very hard to maximize your project’s outcomes so that you’ll be very comfortable in providing them at the right point.”