Don't Grow Your Business On Accident, Do This Instead
To systematically grow your business through referrals, you must create a measurable scorecard system, establish a clear workflow for asking, and use a specific script that capitalizes on client wins. Without measurement and a defined process, referral growth remains accidental rather than intentional.
Summary
The speaker emphasizes that most businesses grow through referrals accidentally, without any systematic approach. The first critical step is creating a scoreboard—a simple spreadsheet that tracks weekly referral targets and actual referrals received. By measuring referrals (e.g., receiving 2 when you need 10), you can identify the deficit and set specific weekly targets to close the gap. Without measurement, you cannot manage or improve referral generation.
The second component is establishing a workflow for the referral request. The timing is crucial: you should ask for referrals only after your client or partner has experienced a win. This win could be seeing a foundation in a new house, getting their first coaching result, or having their first meeting with a referred client. By anchoring the ask to a tangible success, you create the emotional context for a positive response.
The speaker provides a specific ask script designed to remove friction: "Do you know anybody that you care about that I might be able to help with this? All I need is a name and an email." The speaker addresses the gatekeeping tendency where referral sources want to introduce people themselves. Instead, the recommended approach is to collect the name and contact information directly, get permission to use the referral source's name, and make the outreach yourself without waiting for an intermediary introduction.
Key Insights
- Most business owners claim to grow through referrals but lack a system for doing so—they cannot explain how to replicate or scale their referral success
- A referral system requires three components: a checklist, a specific script, and a scoreboard to track performance metrics
- If referrals are not measured on a scoreboard, they cannot be managed or improved, making accidental growth the default outcome
- The optimal timing to request a referral is immediately after a client experiences a measurable win or success, not at the beginning of the relationship
- The speaker prefers making direct outreach to referral contacts themselves rather than waiting for the referral source to make introductions, bypassing gatekeeping behavior
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] The way we improve our referrals is we have to we have to build it into a script because like a lot of people they're like, "Oh yeah, I've grown my business off of referrals and it's great. I make a lot of money." And I'm like, "How do you do more?" They don't have a system for this. Okay? I have a system for referrals. A system means it's a checklist. This this this is the script. This is the ask. There's a scoreboard. I know how we're doing. We know if we're going out. Does that make sense? So, first off, you're going to [0:32] have to one create a scoreboard. Right now, on your scoreboard, you're…
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