Virtually every professional has learned that generating referrals from clients and prospects is a key to success, yet surveys of thousands of my referral training seminar attendees indicate that less than 15% of all salespeople and professionals generate enough referrals to impact their business. Traditional referral trainers have taught us to "do a good job and ask for referrals." Using the traditional approach, the typical professional services business will get an occasional "referral" or two from their clients, but these tend to be just names and phone numbers, rather than qualified prospects. Even worse, this "do a good job and ask for referrals" approach creates five problems:

1. The Client Is Not Prepared To Give Referrals

By waiting until the service is complete and then asking for referrals, your client has not had an opportunity to prepare for your request. To the client, the request comes from out of the blue. When you approach your client with your request without giving him an opportunity to think about it, you put him on the spot. You are giving him only a few seconds to go through his mental file cabinet.

2. The Client Does Not Know What You Need

It may seem obvious to you, but your client has little idea of what makes a good referral for you, even if she takes a few seconds to think about it. You assume that because your practice involves a number of services for small to mid-size businesses, from management consulting, to tax preparation, to financial analysis, your client is immediately going to think, "What other companies do I know or do I do business with that might need Toms' advice and expertise?" Wrong assumption. What she actually thinks is "what does this person want from me?"

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