Being Referable

[i-ventures]

There are some businesses, some products and some people that are just easier to refer. How do you, as a business, make yourself more referable? To answer this question, let’s talk about why you might NOT get referred on:

• You aren’t very good at what you do
• You aren’t reliable
• You are unpredictable
• You aren’t very likable
• You are overpriced

What all of these boil down to is that you might make the referrer look bad in front of their friend or acquaintance. When a person refers someone else they are essentially putting their name to your business and this is a risky thing to do.


So to be more referable you must either reduce that risk or make the pay off big. Here is how you do this

If you can prove yourself to be a success story then you are going to get more referrals. You can do this by:

Doing High Quality Work Every Time
Producing the goods not only for the person who might refer you, but also throughout your portfolio makes you a lot more referable.

Being Really Reliable
If you answer every email within a few hours, pick up the phone when it rings, show up to meetings and deliver when you say you will, you’ll find your refer-ability will skyrocket.

Price Yourself Right
There is a place for really high prices, consistent referrals is not it. If you are aiming to be referred over and over you will either need reasonable prices combined with quality or reliability, OR low enough prices that you’re a steal even if you don’t produce the best work around.

Be Likable
Clients don’t need to love you, but they do need to find you pleasant and easy to deal with. Most people don’t want to refer a freelancer who is patronizing, rude or just offensive. I’d like to say this is probably a life lesson, but if not for everyone, at least curb it for your clients!

[teenbizcoach]

In response to your above statements:

[Doing High Quality Work Every Time
Producing the goods not only for the person who might refer you, but also throughout your portfolio makes you a lot more referable.]

Agreed this is very important in establishing one's credibility.


[Price Yourself Right
There is a place for really high prices, consistent referrals is not it. If you are aiming to be referred over and over you will either need reasonable prices combined with quality or reliability, OR low enough prices that you’re a steal even if you don’t produce the best work around.]

"High Prices" is relative. It is more important to provide a fair value for services and quality of product that will be delivered. You cannot put a price on custom work and speciality work that requires a lot of time/labor. It is not a good thing for building long-term relationships to provide "low enough prices even if it is not your best work." And this also contradicts your earlier tip in which you stated that you should always Do high quality work every time. If the customer thinks your price is too expensive or high then tell them sorry but you don't believe you are a good match for each other. As a business owner you have to live and survive so you are not in the business to give stuff away to get future business because if you devalue yourself in the beginning it will be difficult to raise prices and determine your fair value later. And also you are not in the business to work hard to market, expend resources to obtain new customers only to lose them a short time after bc you did some doo doo quality work.