Wendy McCallum (01:40)
Here's something that most coaches know but don't act on. Referrals are the single best source of clients. Here's why. People who come to you through a referral already trust you because they've heard from you, from somebody that they respect. The sale is half made before you even get on the call. And yet most coaches leave referrals entirely to chance, which is exactly why I'm doing this episode today. They hope that their happy clients are just gonna spread the word.
without any prompting. They assume that if someone loved working with them, they're naturally gonna tell other people that, but that is not a strategy. And so this episode is all about getting intentional with referrals without feeling awkward or desperate or salesy. Welcome back to The Coaching Edge. I'm your host, Wendy McCallum. Thanks for being here today. This is the first episode that I'm doing in a five-part series in June that I'm calling The Conversations That Build
coaching businesses. Over the next five weeks, we're going beyond the discovery call and talking about all the other conversations that really matter, the ones that coaches avoid and fumble their way through, or frankly, never think to have at all. So here's what's coming. Again, today we're going to be talking about the referral conversation, how to ask for referrals in a way that feels natural and actually works, and how to put a little structure around that process inside your business.
In episode two of this series, next week, we're gonna be talking about the networking conversation. So this is what to say when you meet someone who could become a client, a referral source, or a collaborator or partner down the line. The third episode in this series is all about the not right now conversation. So how to respond when someone's interested but not quite ready, how to leave that door open. This is something that if you can get really good at this is going.
to really have an effect on your bottom line. I promise you, I'm pretty good at this and I do it a lot. And it's all about having a different mindset around it when somebody indicates that they're not ready right now or you can tell that someone's not ready right now. What you say after that can be really, really impactful in your business. The fourth episode in the series, we're gonna be talking about the price conversation. So what to say when someone asks how much you charge and how to hold your ground on that.
We've talked a little bit about this in other episodes here and there. It's been part of the conversation, for example, when we talked about like how to tell people what it is you do as a coach. But this one is really specifically focused on the price part of it. How to talk about your price and really do that with confidence. And then the last episode in this series is about difficult client conversations. So how to address some of the problems that often result arise in a coaching relationship.
before those things become really problematic and deal-breakers for you. So these are the types of conversations in this five-part series that quietly build a sustainable coaching business. They're not glamorous, they don't go viral, but they're the difference between a business that grows through relationships and one that's constantly hustling for the next client, frankly. So we're gonna start today with the one that I think most coaches avoid the most.
which is asking for referrals. So why do referrals matter more than anything else? Well, the math is really simple on this. It's because a referral comes to you pre-warmed. They already trust you because someone that they trust has recommended you, right? And because of that, the conversion rate on referral leads is significantly higher than cold leads. And the sales conversation for most of us feels completely different. When someone's coming into a call and they're like, my gosh,
My best friend was just raving about the coaching experience she had with you, or my boss loved working with you so much, he recommended I come and talk to you. It really changes the dynamic. It's like there's a big exhale when someone says that, and the rest of the conversation flows a lot easier for most of us. So for all of those reasons, referral clients are easier to land.
And they're also, a lot of the time they're your better clients. You actually have a better experience working with them. They're more committed, more aligned, and more likely to offer other people. I have a little story that I wanted to kick off this episode with. And it's actually one of the reasons why I decided to do this five-part series is because just last week, a client that I haven't worked with for over three years reached out to me. Now, he's a CEO. He owns a number of companies. And he reached out and said, I'm wondering if you have any capacity to take somebody new on.
because there is a C-suite person in one of my companies, so somebody up at the top of one of my companies, who I believe, and the CEO of that company believes, benefit a lot from working with you. And that is really the power of doing great work. And I don't want to undervalue or dismiss, when it comes to referrals, the importance of showing up and doing great coaching work.
because none of the stuff we're talking about today is really gonna have any impact if you're not doing that. So first and foremost, you have to be doing great work as a coach. You have to be showing up present. You have to be really, really working on staying connected with great listening and good powerful questions and all the other stuff we talk about in here. But assuming you're doing that, the power of that great work is that three years later, I'm still the person that makes
that he thinks of when someone in his world needs coaching, right? And that's what you wanna be for people. I didn't ask for that referral from him, but it came to me because the relationship was strong and because the experience that he had with me doing coaching was really memorable for him. Yet most coaches have no system for referrals, for generating referrals. They leave it entirely to chance.
And as I've said earlier, they just assume people who are happy are just gonna naturally spread the word. And for a number of reasons, that's actually not the case. Oftentimes, your clients, even the ones who love you the most, are really busy and referring you just isn't top of mind for them.
They may not know that you are taking new clients, for example. That's another reason why they might not refer. They might not know how to describe what you do. They had a very personal experience with you where you worked with them on a very particular challenge. And while they know you're a great coach, they don't know how to describe what you do to somebody else. They may not realize that a referral would be helpful to you. They might not realize that you're looking for more work and you are in fact taking on new clients and appreciate referrals.
So the truth is that without prompting, most people don't think to refer. And that's why we need to have this conversation today. And that's why you need to put some structure in place around this. Now, why do we avoid this as coaches? Why do we avoid asking referrals? I think it's uncomfortable for a lot of us for a lot of the same reasons that we've talked about around the pricing on the pricing side of things and on the conversation around, you know, what it is we do. It can just feel really awkward and uncomfortable.
for us, especially if we don't have language that feels good to us. Most of us have never been taught how to do this, right? It's not something that is inherent for most of us and we've never been taught. And I think we have some anxiety and fear sometimes about asking for referrals, you know, I think a default...
default thought that I hear a lot with the coaches that I work with is like wouldn't they have already referred me to somebody if they Liked their experience working with me so much and again, I've given you lots of reasons why that might not be the case You don't want to put people on the spot make them feel like uncomfortable and I think it can feel a little transactional if you don't do it, right I think underneath that there's just as I said
I just said like that, just that general discomfort that we have, a lot of us around self-promotion, around appearing salesy. So for all of those reasons, a reframe can be really helpful. And I think one way to reframe this is to just really accept the fact. I'm here to tell you that this is true as somebody who's been doing this for a long time now. Asking for referrals is not desperate. It is actually professional. It is part of any...
business building. It is not something that will be surprising to people. You're not asking these people to do you a favor. You're inviting them to help somebody that they already care about, right? So if your coaching changed their life, they probably know somebody else who could benefit. Case in point, this client last week who reached out to me. It's not gonna be right away. This is a long game, most of the time referrals. Sometimes you'll get a referral right away from somebody when you...
when you ask them for it. But a lot of the time, it's a long game. But by not asking for it, given all the reasons why people might not think to refer that we've talked about, you're actually withholding an opportunity from that person to help somebody else and also from the person that they could refer, right? So it's an invitation to refer. That's really what we're talking about here. It's not an obligation. It's not a sales pitch. It's just...
saying to them, hey, by the way, I don't know if you're aware of this, but I do take referrals and I really appreciate word of mouth and referrals. I'm a small business owner, this is how I've built my business. So if you happen to know anybody else who might be a great fit for coaching with me, I'm always happy to hear from you or to have you connect me with those people, right? So.
Now we get into this question of who do we ask? Who are the potential referral sources? Because not all asks are created equal and there are different relationships, potential referral relationships that require different approaches. And I think it's not just about a different approach with words, it's a different approach with timing sometimes as well. So the first group of people that can make really amazing referrals, in fact, are usually your warmest referral source are
clients, right? So people that you have actually worked with or are working with. Now, I think past clients is really the place to focus. They've experienced your coaching firsthand. They have gone through some kind of a transformation working with you. They've had success and that's a really great time to start talking or ask for a referral.
I think for me, I tend to ask at the end of the coaching engagement, it's part of the process that I use for offboarding is to go through, and I've talked about this on another episode. I have a practice, and maybe this is something I could talk about more. If you think it would be helpful, let me know, send me an email. I'm always happy to hear from you guys. But when I'm offboarding one-on-one clients and group clients, I have a...
like a very specific process that I take them through, including filling out what I call a reflections document, which allows them to reflect on where they were when we started, where they are now, what's changed for them, what new tools they have, what areas are still feeling a bit challenging for them, what they can do down the line if things start to feel sticky again. And then also gives them an opportunity to reflect on their experience coaching with me and to give me some feedback. And then I ask for permission to use some of that feedback.
in ⁓ future marketing, so as testimonials. That's a really formal part of my off-boarding process. And in the process of discussing the reflections forum, which I usually do in the last session of the coaching engagement. So I send the form out, say it's a 12 session engagement. I send the form out after the 11th session. And in the 12th session, we talk about it.
in that conversation in our last session, I always say it's been an absolute delight working with you. have here all the things that I've loved about our coaching engagement. It gives me an opportunity to really champion them. And then I'll say something like, you know, I always appreciate word of mouth and referrals. So I would really invite you to just keep me in mind if you happen to know anybody or you.
come across anybody down the line who you think might be a good fit for coaching with me, you can always refer them to me directly and I am always very appreciative of that. And I do usually do that at the end of the coaching engagement. I do not do that normally while I'm still actively working with someone. Now there are some exceptions to that and the biggest exception is that if I'm working with someone and they ask me if I am...
taking referrals or if they would be open to me referring me to their coworker or friend or whatever. That's a different story. So if the client opens the door, then that's a golden opportunity. And I will always follow up with that. I will always send an email to follow up on the conversation. So in the moment I'll say, oh my gosh, yes, that would be amazing if you know people who you think would be a good fit for me. I'm always like delighted to have personal referrals from.
past clients or current clients. And then I always send out an email after that, that just says like further to what we were chatting about in our last session. do have the capacity to take on a couple of new one-on-one clients right now. And if there's anyone you think would be a good fit, here's some language that you could pass along to them to just sort of describe what it is I do and a little bit about me. And I provide that with them. You always want to make it as easy as possible for people to refer.
Right? I've talked about this in the context of getting testimonials. You always want to make it as easy as possible for people to give you and approve a testimonial that you can use. Same thing goes with referrals. So actually giving them some words that they can copy and send to that person can be really helpful. Now, another thing that I do with clients that not everybody does, but I will do it if someone asks me if they can refer or if we're just having a conversation at the end of the coaching engagement about referrals, I have normally,
⁓ an application that people have to fill out before I will offer a discovery call. And with clients that I have been working with who I really love and trust, if they have somebody who they think might be a good fit for me, I will often say to them, just to sweeten the pot a little bit, if you connect that person with me directly, they do not need to fill out the application. I'm happy to just get on a call with them right away to talk about what they're struggling with and whether we'd be a good fit.
So that's like just a little, I don't know, bonus is the right word that I offer existing clients in the referral situation. They get, that just makes it all that much easier for my friend or my coworker to start working with Wendy. And because I know them and trust them, I am happy to skip that application process before a discovery call. Now, that doesn't mean that if the person's not a good fit, I'm gonna work with them, I won't. But normally,
these people, again, this is why they're such great referrals, really know what it's like to work with me, know what type of work I do. And so those referrals are usually people who are a great fit, right? So that's how I have the conversation with current and past clients. I think it's also important to remember that you might need to give clients a reminder.
So you have that conversation at the end of the coaching engagement about referrals and then you may decide to reach out a couple months later when you have some spots in your one-on-one practice to some of your favorite one-on-one clients and just remind them of the fact, let them know that you have a referral opportunity for them.
Wendy McCallum (16:59)
you could do that in a direct email to those clients or you could just do it in your newsletter, which I do regularly. send out as part of my newsletter a note if I'm accepting and have space for another one-on-one client or a couple clients, I will let.
people know on my newsletter list that as well. Because those are also, lot of my, all of my past clients pretty much are on my newsletter list, but also I have some warmer people on my newsletter list. People who maybe have worked with me in a group program or attended a workshop I was putting on or who are...
regular listeners of this podcast, for example, and or have downloaded and gone through some of my free or low ticket resources for coaches. Those people are all on my newsletter list and they already like No Trust Me. They're maybe not as warm as the people I've worked with directly one-on-one, but they're still great referral sources. Okay, so that's clients.
Now let's talk about peers and colleagues. So other coaches, your peers can be really amazing referral sources. And I have cross-referral arrangements with lots of other coaches out there. I wanted to talk about this. Coaches who coach, especially coaches who are in a little bit of a different niche, right? So for example, I coach...
Professional women who are burnt out and who are oftentimes also drinking as a way to cope with that and want to change the relationship with alcohol I do work with men and ⁓ I will occasionally work with Men who are basically the same niche but are men but sometimes men come to me and I feel like they're not the best I'm not the best fit for them as a coach and they're probably not the best fit for me as client I have a couple of coaches who are male coaches who coach men who are trying to change the relationship with alcohol who I might refer out to
and vice versa, right? If you're a coach and you work in, let's just keep going with this alcohol example. Let's say you're an alcohol coach, you help people change their relationship with alcohol, and you know a coach who is an intuitive eating coach, this is a great opportunity for a cross-referral situation because you don't do food coaching and she or he doesn't do alcohol coaching, presumably, but many people who struggle with their relationship with food and are looking to find freedom from food are also, you know,
struggling with a relationship with an addictive substance like alcohol and are looking to find freedom from that as well. And you as an alcohol coach might find that once people change their relationship with alcohol, they start looking at their relationship with food. And that's not something that you, you know, are, that's not within your scope. And so you can refer out to that other coach. they're, these, oftentimes these other coaches have people in their network or meet people.
who are not the right fit for them, but might be the right fit for you. So that sometimes happens, or maybe they're the right fit for them now, but then down the line, they're the right fit for you, right? So this is about building mutual referral relationships, not one-sided asks most of the time. So we're gonna talk more about cross referrals in a bit. But peers and colleagues, other coaches in adjacent niches, so you're looking for people who serve a similar.
audience to you, work with the same, a similar type of avatar client, but solve a different problem that that client has. Those are perfect people to start looking at and talking, starting conversations with around potential cross referrals. Okay, another great referral source is friends and family, but I'm telling you right now, they probably don't know how to help you. So the main thing I want to say about friends and family is it's really important to give them clear language to describe what you do, right?
funny story, my mom had, in my early years of coaching, had really no idea what it was that I did. And there were a number of her people who came to me who were just absolutely not a good fit for coaching. was not doing what it was they thought I was doing. And so I had to have conversations with my family and friends about what it is I do and really give them some clear language around it. And, you know, also as my niche and my expertise has grown over the years,
I have had to have those conversations again with my friends and family because your friends and family want to support you but if they don't know how to talk about what it is you do they're either not going to communicate it clearly which means you're not going to get referrals or they're going to communicate the wrong thing and then you're going to get the wrong referrals right so you want to give them clear language so they can describe what you do. Another great area of referrals is professional contacts so these are not we're not
really talking here about other coaches, although other coaches are professionals, but we're talking more about people like therapists, consultants, HR professionals can be a great referral source, doctors, depending on your niche, right? These relationships can take longer to build, but they can become really consistent referral sources. I'm going to give you a couple of examples of ways that I have done that in my own business in a moment.
And again, like the thing to remember with all of these referral sources, that the referral conversation, always is, it's always best to have that when people are up.
not when people are down. So when I have that conversation, when people are like, oh yeah, absolutely, this has been great, or they're really on a high because they've achieved a goal with you and they're feeling really good about things, right? As opposed to when they're still struggling, which is the main reason why I do not usually have a referral conversation with clients that I am currently coaching. I wait until the end of that engagement.
Okay, so let's talk about building referral relationships with other professionals for a while, because I think that this is an important topic and there's, you know, there are some differences here in terms of how you would go about this. This is a long game thing, but it will pay off. And it's something that you want to be, you know, you want to start doing in the very early days of launching your business and then you want to keep doing it. Have a...
have this be something that you're consistently thinking about and doing because new professionals will come into your world. You're looking for professionals who serve the same audience as you do but in different ways. Those are the people who can become really good consistent referral sources. So therapists, doctors, consultants, HR people, and other coaches in adjacent nations. We'll just put all those people into this category. These relationships can take some time to build.
But once they're established, you can find yourself in a situation where they are sending you a pretty steady stream of really aligned clients, which is amazing when that happens. Here's what I suggest you do with these people. When you identify someone in your community or online who you think it appears to be serving a very similar demographic to you, but doing something very different for those people, start a conversation. Okay, so reach out.
don't do it by way of, know, if in a perfect world you do this with a voice note or you pick up the phone and call them. Okay, so there's make it more personal and something that they're going to notice and say something like, I would love to have a conversation. I'm really interested in the type of work that you do. I think it's fascinating. I think there's a real overlap between the people that we serve and I would love to get together.
⁓ and have a chat so they can understand a little bit better what it is you do and maybe also explain to you what it is that I do just to see whether there's an opportunity for some cross-referring here. When you get together with that person, whenever you have that next conversation, you need to get super curious and you need to ask some iteration of this question. What is the gap for you?
with your clients or patients or employees? And how can I help you fill it? So you do this type of work. I understand that now that we've talked about it. Where does it start to feel sticky for you? Where does it feel like, you know, something has come up that's maybe within my scope and the type of work that I do, but that you don't quite feel like you either have the time or maybe the expertise.
or the tools to deal with effectively. Where is that gap and how can I help you fill it? What's the need that you have? What's the need that your clients or patients have that you can't fill? How can I help you with that? It's all about supporting them in their work, making that more efficient without stepping on their toes.
Example of this might be the work that I do, for example, with lawyers who are helping women through separation and divorce. They don't have the time or the skills, frankly, to support women on the emotional side, processing the emotions that go along with that.
you know, getting clear on what matters to them about how they go through this process and making sure that they're showing up in a way that's aligned with their personal values in all of this and that making sure that their priorities in this process are actually being honoured and respected through all of this. That's all coaching work. And that is stuff that the lawyers don't want to do, don't have the time to do, don't want to charge their clients a lot of money an hour to try to do. And so,
I am filling a gap there for those lawyers when I come in and offer them transition coaching support for their clients who are going through separation and divorce. I can actually make their job easier in that the client can come to meetings, can come to interviews or depositions, whatever you call them in the jurisdiction that you're in.
can be feeling much more grounded and clear and calm when they come in. And that can make the process a lot more effective and efficient, right? So there are things that I can do to make that lawyer's job easier. So I'm supporting them, but I'm not stepping on their toes. I'm very clear. I don't give any legal advice. I'm not here to provide advice at all. I'm here to support the client and you as they go through this process. So that's an example of that. I can tell you that
Over the years, I've had a couple of family doctors of primary care physicians, general practitioners, we call them in Canada, who became referral partners for me. One of them, I never actually met in person, but I did reach out to regularly and send her like handwritten notes saying thank you so much for referring that client to me because these people would come to me and tell me that their doctor had recommended me. Now,
She was referring me because she had been following me online. I had published a couple of cookbooks at that point, which were part sort of wellness support. know, there were recipes, but there was also a lot of text in there about, you know, healthy habits and that kind of thing. And she just liked my vibe, I guess, and what I was saying. And it was aligned with what she needed. And I was filling a gap for her in that she couldn't support their clients.
her patients, sorry, with the type of support that they needed to make long-lasting, meaningful changes to the way they ate and the way that they lived. And so she referred to me regularly. I had another doctor who reached out to me actually after I published that, I believe it was after I published my first cookbook, and asked to meet with me. And she was wonderful. I ended up actually, she invited me into a wellness circle that she had with other practitioners. And we used to get together once a month and talk
talk
about a variety of things that were going on in our practice and it was an opportunity for me to do a whole lot more cross-referring. That second doctor that I'm talking about, I asked her what the gap was and we sat down and talked about some of the most common types of challenges that her patients had that she felt like they could use my support on and I actually created a set of resource documents.
and she looked at those documents and was in agreement with them. They were aligned with what she was already telling her patients, but I had these resource documents I could give them or that she could give out, and they had my information on the bottom. So people wanted more support, they could reach out to me through my website to ⁓ get some more focused coaching. But she also referred people directly to me regularly over the years. So again,
The power of these professional referral sources is enormous. it's a, you you've got to put some work into it and cultivate it. And oftentimes these are not cross referrals. So for these, both of these doctors that I'm talking about, there was no cross referral happening in that.
in our system here in Canada, there was no way for me to really refer patients to them because of the way the medical system works here. So there wasn't much I could give back to them in terms of referrals, but what I was doing for them that was really valuable was filling this gap, right? So that's the question to keep in mind here. What's the gap and how can I help you to fill it? Okay, so that is the power of professional referrals.
Cross referrals can be even more powerful. So this is a relationship where the referrals go both ways. And again, with coaches, that's often, other coaches, that's often the way it is. So you find somebody who serves a similar audience to you, has a similar client avatar to you, but who supports those people in a different area of challenge in their life. That can become a really great cross-referral relationship.
So there you wanna get really curious. wanna get on a call with them or meet them and have a conversation about what it is specifically they do as a coach, what problem they help people solve, and then explain to them what problem you help people solve, and then see whether there's an opportunity for cross-referral or even a collaboration. Like these sometimes make the best collaborations in terms of coming up with a program that you coach jointly. I've partnered with a naturopathic doctor.
who is actually now one of my best friends. Anybody who listened to my first podcast, Bite Size Balance, probably knows Dr. Sarah Bailey. So Sarah and I partnered together to create a program called WTF, Women Talking Frankly. And it was all about perimenopause and menopause, but we were talking about the intersection between perimenopause and menopause and burnout for women. And so I provided a lot of coaching and tools around.
stress management and burnout recovery and Sarah came and talked a lot about what was going on for people more on the sort of medical side of things in perimenopause and menopause. So we created a really great joint program there and there were lots of cross referrals that happened between us and they still happen. So I love cross referrals but the real key there is you want overlap in who you serve but not in what you do. That's what you're looking for. Okay.
Here's another little way of looking at it that I find helpful. I am a resource, not a salesperson. So when I'm having these conversations with potential referral sources, whether it's a client, it's another coach, it's a professional, I'm always thinking like, I'm just providing them with the resource. I'm the person who can fill the gap for them. I'm letting them know I'm available. I'm not trying to sell them anything. I'm just offering to fill a gap that they're already struggling with. They're already feeling that gap.
And when I can refer back to them and it's mutual, that shifts the energy too. That makes this all feel so much more mutually beneficial. So starting these conversations is as simple as reaching out. Start the conversation. It might be an online conversation. Maybe you have a Zoom coffee chat, or maybe if there's somebody local, you actually take them out for coffee or lunch to start the conversation and just ask them, stay curious. What do you do? How do you help your clients? Who are the people that you try to help?
and where are you feeling limited? Where is there a gap of some sort? And when you hear the gap, offer a creative solution to help them fill it or brainstorm with them on how you can fill it. I've done webinars, not webinars, but presentations for some of the doctors who have referred to me for their patients in their clinics. I actually worked for a time at Sarah Bailey's, Dr. Sarah Bailey's,
in the practice that she works in and I provided nutritional and food support for the patients of the naturopathic practice. And I did like detailed at the time I was still doing detailed sort of meal plans for people who were struggling with dietary restrictions and that kind of thing. again, that's an example of like a cross-referral relationship. And again, be patient with these things. They take time.
to develop, but they're absolutely worth the investment. Hopefully some of the stories I've told you about referral sources that I have had and still have in my practice will convince you of that. Okay, so what do we actually say when we're asking referrals? Vague language doesn't work. Okay, you have to be really specific. So something like, you know, do you know anyone who might need coaching is just way too broad. You wanna be really specific. You want them to have a clear picture of who you help.
how that person might be feeling what they might be experiencing and so this is you're having a conversation with one of these potential professional referral sources they you need them to be really good look I work with professional women who are starting to feel very burnt out and who are Struggling to cope with that and they're starting to rely too often on unhealthy coping mechanism specifically alcohol So they're starting to feel like they're not in control anymore of alcohol. They're not feeling
Oftentimes they don't identify as alcoholics, they haven't hit a rock bottom, but they just don't like the way they're using alcohol and you don't feel good about it. A lot of the times now this will show up as them being afraid of the health consequences of their drinking. That's how it often shows up in these professional women. So if you have any patients who are using any of that language or you're having those conversations with and you don't feel comfortable supporting them in the way that they...
maybe need to be supported around changing their relationship with alcohol, I really would love it if you would think of me and refer them out to me. I'm always happy to jump on a call with people. I always wanna make sure they're a good fit before we get started. So there's absolutely no sales pitch. It's just, if you can connect those people with me, I can take it from there in terms of the conversation. So you wanna let them know with really a picture, a clear picture.
what these people look like, the types of things they're saying, so that they know whether that person's a good fit for you or not. So sometimes you can do that through an email, like through or through some kind of like written copy for them. You can let them know specifically.
who you're taking, what types of clients you're taking on. So I'm taking on a few new clients right now, I'd love your help. If you know anyone who's in this specific situation and feeling this way, so for example, with the business coaching, might be if you know anybody in the first few years, zero to five, of building a coaching business who's feeling stuck on how to get clients and feeling exhausted with all the hustle that they're doing, I'd be so grateful if you'd pass along my name. Those are the people that I love to work with, right? So giving them specific language so they know.
who it is is really, really important. Okay. Again, just remember if you can make it easier for them, make it easier for them. So if they're saying, well, I know somebody who I think might be a great fit, but I don't know how to tell them what you do, say, hey, you know what, why don't I put it in an email for you? Something that you can just sort of cut and paste and edit as you see fit or something that you can use as the basis of a conversation with that person. Make it easier for them.
Make sure they have your website link. Make sure you send them the direct link to book a call. You can do what I was talking about earlier if that works for you. If it's a client that you know, love, and trust or a professional that you really know, love, and trust. Like I really trust Sarah. She knows me very well. We are very good friends. She knows what kind of work I do and who I love to work with. And so she referred somebody direct to me, I would absolutely not require the application process. I would jump on a call with them right away, right? Okay.
Let's talk about now, so that was professional referral, referral arrangements or relationships. Now let's talk about formal referral programs. So this is when you have much more structure around it. And for some offers, specifically like structured programs, group programs, online programs, or courses, a formal affiliate or a referral program can actually work very well. Now I've only done this once.
But it worked very well when I did it. It adds an incentive layer on top of just the natural desire that people who've had a good experience with you have to refer. So it's just an extra layer of incentive. I did this with the BBB in the first few years of the BBB. That's my business building bootcamp, my community for coaches in the first five years of building their businesses. I...
had a very strong affiliate program in place. When I started building that program and it was a one-year program, was the ticket to join was significant. It was what I would call a high ticket offer. was about $5,000 for the year. It's now a six-month program as opposed to a one-year commitment. And so the ticket price is lower. But when it was that one-year commitment, which did work very well as a structure for that program for the first few years,
I had a really specific affiliate program in place and if a coach who was inside the BBB referred a friend and that friend ended up joining the BBB as a result of coming to an open house or having a conversation with me, I sent a pretty sizable commission to the referring coach as a thank you, along with obviously a thank you. And it worked really well. It gave people, my coaches, an extra reason to share. They were all coaches in the early stages of business. knew...
you know, getting a few hundred dollars from me would be great, would be helpful to them. And it acknowledged their effort in a tangible way and just a way for me to say thank you to them. So I think that those formal programs can work really well in structured online programs.
that have like really clear enrollment process, for example, there's a way to track it. know, ⁓ what I would do when a coach came to an open house for the BBB, there was a little form that they filled out to register. And one of the questions I'd ask is, how did you hear about the BBB? If it was through another coach, I'd love it if you'd share their name, because I'd like the opportunity to thank them. And that's how I would track it. But I also said to my coaches inside the BBB, who I, you know, love, know and trust,
⁓ If someone ends up joining and they didn't put your name on that just reach out and let me know I'm always gonna send you the the commission for that and in a program that has a community component to it and then honestly in the early years I was growing almost entirely through word-of-mouth because I didn't have an established podcast at that point the podcast in the early years wasn't I didn't even start the podcast until I can't remember when it was in the
BBB's timeline that I started the podcast, but it certainly takes a while to grow a following on a podcast as well. So I knew at the time to keep the program going and keep it robust, I was gonna need these referrals. And so it was a really important part of the strategy for me. Those more formal commissions can work really well. You need a way to track it and it can be formal or informal. So some platforms allow for that. So for example, Kajabi.
allows me to pay out and track affiliate commissions through a link so I can give my coaches a link to share with their coach friends. If they join the BBB through that link, that'll automatically note who the referring coach was for me. But you can also do it in a less formal structure. And you can say to people, if you refer a friend, just let me know. If you know somebody who you think might be a good fit for this program and introduce me to that person and then they join, then I'm going to do X for you.
And again, it doesn't need to be cash. I did send a cash commission in the case that I'm talking about, but it could also be like, I'll offer you a complimentary extra, one extra coaching session on our package, right? It could be that. What you need to remember with this is that most of the time people refer because they want to, not because of incentives.
you know, think about all the referrals that you've made to other people. You probably weren't looking for a cash incentive on that. I just thought it was a nice thing to do, honestly, in that situation. And because it was a high ticket offer, it felt right, to be honest to me. And because I was, you know, I love these coaches and I want to see them succeed. And also because I knew they would refer people who are good fit for the program. It was absolutely worth it to me. But a genuine thank you often matters more than a payment.
So even if you do decide to do some kind of structured thing, like what I'm talking about down the road, where you actually do pay out an affiliate commission, I really think it's important to make sure that there is also a genuine personalized thank you that goes with that. Whether it's a WhatsApp voice note or it's a loom video or it's a direct reach out to them, letting them know that you really appreciate the referral can be really helpful. Even like...
Like I said, I used to do handwritten notes all the time when people would refer clients to me. You could also, you know, do like, I've worked, I have referred to coaches who have had a little gift that they send when I refer somebody to them. So I think I can think of one coach who like sent me a Starbucks card online because I referred someone to them. You know, another coach who actually sent me a journal, a really pretty little journal as a thank you for referrals. So the key is just to make people feel
seen and appreciated in this process. That's what's really important here. Okay, the last thing I want to really leave you with here is that it's really important to be paying attention to what's working and what's not working in terms of the referrals that you are asking for and this new system of ⁓ asking for referrals that you're going to start.
building into your business if you don't have it yet, right? Or if you are asking referrals in some of the situations that I was talking about but not in others, you're gonna bring that next piece of the referral puzzle in. And in doing all of that, I want you to pay attention to what leads to referrals and what doesn't. Now, again, you have to be patient with this. This is not something usually that happens overnight. But over time, just pay attention. How many of my clients, for example,
are leading to referrals. So when I'm asking for referrals at the end, how many of those clients actually refer other people to me? Look at the professional relationships that you're trying to develop a referral relationship in. Are you getting referrals from any of those people? Do they need a little follow-up? Do they need a little nurturing? Which ones are sending you the most people? Are you thanking them appropriately? Is there something more you could do to foster that?
Pay attention to the timing of when you're getting referrals, to the timing of when you're asking for referrals, and just refine your approach over time. This is all a beta experiment. Everything in your business is an experiment, and this referral conversation is part of it. And I really, really encourage you, if you haven't sort of with any kind of system in place, formally, a formal system, asking for referrals in all of these areas I've been talking about today,
to start doing that going forward. When was the last time you asked someone for a referral? Not just assume they might give you one, but actually asked them. If it's been a while or maybe it's never happened, what's been getting in the way and what can you do in the next week or so to reach out to a past client with a really genuine check-in and a soft referral ask?
Just let them know, by the way, I have space right now in my practice for another one-on-one client. And I loved working with you so much. I would love working, if there's anyone you know, who, know, given your experience with me, you think would be a great fit, I'm always delighted to receive referrals, right? Like, what could you do next week to start this process going? And then I would really encourage you also to look at the professional referral side of it. Is there somebody that you could reach out to professionally?
Who would be a good fit? Again, someone who is supporting a similar type of client person that you like to coach, but who is supporting them in a different area of challenge. And this could be another coach, in which case it might be a great situation for cross referrals, or it could be a professional, another type of professional, in which case maybe cross referrals are possible, but that's okay. Remember, people do this because it helps them.
You being able to fill a gap that they can't fill is really helpful. We didn't talk about HR professionals, but maybe I'll just leave with a little story on that. Some of my best clients have come from HR professionals. So these are the people inside large corporations and large organizations that manage a lot of employees who are...
looking to support their employees and employees are coming to them regularly with reasons and challenges in their life that are causing them to have to sometimes take lots of time off work, maybe ask for a leave, or just that are affecting their performance and their general happiness at work. If you can fill that gap for an HR professional, if that HR professional now can say, know what, if one of the things that's happening for you right now that's causing you challenges that you're
you're feeling really like you're increasingly burnt out. I know a person who is wonderful at supporting people in, you know, reducing the burnout and the overwhelm without having to quit their job or leave their job. Can I refer you to that person? Right. So you're actually filling a gap. making their life easier. Same thing with alcohol. Trust me. I've had lots of referrals from HR professionals around alcohol. So it's not it's not a sales pitch.
It's actually a resource. You are a resource, not a salesperson with referrals. Okay, that's enough for me today. I hope you found that conversation helpful. Remember that there are four more episodes coming in this series and hopefully they'll all be as helpful to you. We're gonna talk about the networking conversation. What to say when you meet someone who could become a client, a referral source or a potential collaborator. We're gonna talk about what to do when you meet somebody and they are clearly interested in the coaching but not.
quite ready yet, how to keep that door open for later. We're gonna talk about pricing, how to talk about your price with confidence and how to hold your ground around all of that. And we're gonna talk about some of those difficult client conversations, how to address problems in a coaching relationship before they become deal breakers. So all of those conversations are coming in June in the next four episodes.
As always, thank you so much for listening to Coaching Edge. I really appreciate you. If you know a coach who might also love the conversations that happen inside the Coaching Edge, please let them know about this podcast. This is me asking you for a referral. Referrals have been the backbone of my business over the last 15 years and continue to be a really important piece of how I continue to be able to do this job that I love.
and not feel like I'm hustling constantly. So if you know somebody who might enjoy the coaching edge, forward this episode onto them. And as always, if you have any feedback on the podcast itself, or if you're thinking that maybe I might be able to support you somehow in building your coaching business, you can always reach out to me at wendy at wendymcallum.com. Have a great rest of your week. See you next week.
