Asking for referrals: Ask "who do you know" not "do you know"

You all know that asking for business referrals is good thing, don’t you?  But how to go about asking for them can be an entirely different kettle of fish.

One of the most simplest, yet most effective, ways of increasing the number of referrals from existing clients is to stop asking:

“Do you know of anyone who may be interested in what I offer?”

and start asking:

“Who do you know who may be interested in what I offer?”

The simple change of emphasis on the word “who” opens the person’s mind up and they start searching for an answer.  “Do you know” is a classic closed question which only gives you two answers:  yes or no.

“Who do you” is an open question which allows the person to think about an answer. 

And if they can’t think of anyone at the time, there is a greater chance of them thinking of a name at a later date. 

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Comments

[Alice Elliott]

Excellent concept, Karen. Asking for referrals should become second nature after completing a job or project. To help get the ball rolling, why not invest in some referral postcards you can send with the invoice or receipt, which will give you a topic to talk about when you make your follow up telephone call or visit.

To see examples of referral postcards, go to http://www.alice-designs.co.uk/postcards.html

Alice
Alice Designs