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Traditional referrals have been in decline for years, eroded by changing buyer habits including internet search, online reviews and social media. But even in this age of digital marketing, referrals remain–and always will remain–a major driver of how professional services firms grow their pipelines and win new business.
It’s pretty commonplace to keep track of active referral sources. But what you may not know is that many referrals come from people you’ve never even met.
Wait! How can that be?
We call these invisible referrals. And they are a happy byproduct of something the best-performing firms make a priority: thought leadership. Here’s how it works:
Someone—let’s call her Sophia—follows you for months, maybe years. She reads your blog posts and books. She attends your webinars. She visits your website to learn all about you. Over time, she begins to trust you and considers you an authority on your area of expertise.
Then one day, something interesting happens. A colleague at another business—we’ll call him Matt—is having lunch with Sophia and asks if she knows of a good firm that solves a particular kind of business problem his company has. Sophia’s face lights up and she says something like, “Well, I’ve never used this firm before, but they have a fantastic reputation. They are leading specialists in that very area.”
Matt thanks her and asks for the firm’s name. When he gets back to the office, he pulls up their website and takes a look around. He sees that they have worked with some reputable clients, reads a few glowing testimonials, then dives into a relevant case study. He checks out the leadership team and heads over to the blog to see what they are writing about. He’s impressed. Sophia may be on to something.
A few weeks pass. At a team meeting, the business problem comes up again. Matt tells the group he actually may have a solution. He describes the company to the group and the team gives Matt the green light to reach out and learn more.
The next day, Matt calls the number on the website and is transferred to a friendly person who handles business development. “Where did you hear about us,” she asks? Matt pauses. Sophia was never a client of this business, so can he say she was a referral? That might be awkward. Instead, he says, “I found you on the web.”
And that’s how an invisible referral can happen.
Invisible referrals are just as powerful as the traditional kind. And they have one big advantage—they have nothing to do with how many clients you have. If you can build a large enough following (and that is a very achievable goal), you can generate as many, or more, invisible referrals as you do regular ones.
Let me call your attention to three ingredients that make invisible referrals possible:
- The firm must have a robust and visible thought leadership program. There must be enough high-quality educational material on your website to build a following and keep them coming back. Your best experts should be actively involved either producing the content or working with professional writers to ensure each piece is insightful, contains a point of view and is accurate. Finally, SEO, promotion on social media and other techniques make your investment visible and accessible to the world.
- Your website has to be appealing, differentiated and well organized. There’s nothing like an uninspired or difficult-to-navigate website to turn off a first-time visitor or discourage a potential referral. Your website has to inspire confidence and provide the kind of experience that makes the person referring you look great.
- Your website must showcase proof that you are who you claim to be. This means testimonials, success statistics, client logos, and well-written case studies. Without these, a new prospect will wonder if you have the experience to deliver success.
What about you? Are you set up to support invisible referrals?
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