After a consistent hard-working on your referral journey. Finally, you got your referrals from your clients! You’re now halfway on of your referral journey before you goal your sales with referrals! With the new personal information in your hand, you are now ready to reap the fruit of your new business.

Referral Mastery Series:

1. 4 tips to providing a fantastic client experience

2. When to ask for referrals(Part 1)

3. When to ask for referrals(Part 2)

4. Referral Objection handling 101- how to make a client from saying no to yes?

5. 5 Things You NEED TO Know Before Your Next Referral Call

6. Approaching new clients from referrals? This is the ultimate guide you need to know(ongoing)

7. How to make your referral career HUGE? Developing your referral pipelines (ongoing)

Before you exactly start off your first approach to your new clients, here are 5 steps you should prepare for to providing a good client experience:

Step #1 Gather Information

After receiving a referral, the first thing you have to do is to find out as much you can about that person.

You can search for information as much as possible such as occupation, hobbies, interests, current stats of life, personality and so on. Thanks for the convenience of technology, this information is not hard to find by a simple search from social media(Facebook, LinkedIn)or search engine (Google).

The common open lines for a polite cold call can start out with something like:

“Hi, this is……, I am calling you because you were referred by……”

Or something like

“Hi, this is……A mutual friend of ours suggested I call you because it happens that you also work in the field of ……, and you might find what I have to offer useful.

People recently are so busy that every moment your clients allocate for you should be regarded as gold. The main point of this part is simple—- cut into the topic politely and precisely, if there’s a mismatch, you can lead the conversation towards more specific people that he or she might want to connect to.

Step #2 Ask For An Introduction

A referral gotten from your previous clients is a sign of confidence, trust in your profession and you as a person. (you may also want to read: 4 TIPS TO PROVIDING A FANTASTIC CLIENT EXPERIENCE)

As a result, you can ask for your clients to give you a brief introduction of you, or even better, ask them to schedule the first meeting from you. Psychology indicates that comparing to a call from a unknown number, talking with someone who’s already expected your call because your clients (their friends) inform them in advance will have a higher chance to get a face-to-face meeting.

However, in some cases your clients might not have a time to call a referral for you, you can still get the most use of the power of networking by the following creative ways:

1. As a way of establishing credibility, ask permission of your clients if you can drop his or her name during the conversation
2. 2. Ask your clients to write a testimonial on your online social media or your website is

Step #3 Follow-up On Your referral Process with Past Clients

Remember last time we talked about the true reason why people don’t give referrals? They are actually afraid that you might have a chance of embarrassing them and ruining their reputation. As the result, we should work hard to diffuse their insecurity by assuring that we’ll give the same quality of service as they’d received previously.

Most people do well on this part, but seldom do they continuously deliver this assurance to their clients after they contacted the person their clients had referred.

Therefore, give a follow up message to your old clients to inform them that your meeting went well and that his or her friend appreciated the referral. Believe me or not, you’ll surprisingly find that this action can encourage your Past clients to continue giving more referrals! It’s a win-win situation, isn’t it?

Step #4 The Power of Thank You Messages

What is the value of a referral? It’s a testimonial, a recommendation, a word-of-mouth promotion that can translate to a sale. Your clients certainly deserve your gratitude for giving us a favor for each referral. Therefore, A simple thank you will go a long way. (You may also want to read:WHEN TO ASK FOR REFERRALS (PART 2))

What are the ways of saying thank you? it can be a simple text message or a call, but if you want to take a step further and truly show your clients how much you’d appreciated them, you can try these creative ways such as

1. traditional gifts customized cards with fruits, flowers, or food
2. practical tidbits like Starbucks, 7-11, or Amazon gift card

step #5 Here’s How Your Referral Call Starts Off

After going through these preparation and supplementary measures before and after of referral calls, we’re now ready to proceed the exact referral calls! The main principle is to make your call as calm and as natural as possible. In our later chapter: Approaching new clients from referrals? This is the ultimate guide you need to know, we will be teaching the step-by-step script for your new referral call. Stay tuned!

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