5 Great Ways to Find Referrals

5 Great Ways to Find Referrals
While referrals are one of the most important sources of
new clients for therapists and coaches, how to get them
seems to be something of a mystery. Below is a five-step
referral strategy that can switch on your referral faucet,
or turn a trickle into a steady flow.

#1-Focus on Your Ideal Clients   Do you want to work
with men in career transition? People dealing with health
issues? Families in crisis? Females with eating disorders?
Newly retired individuals? You may serve a narrow niche of
clientele, or a broad swath. For example, your market may
be "stay-at-home mothers in their 30s who used to be
corporate executives with six-figure incomes," or you may
help your clients deal with an assortment of issues, such
as: depression, addictions, marital issues, stress and
sexual trauma. It doesn't matter for these purposes. What
does matter is getting clear: Whom do you serve?

#2-Discover Where They Gather   Where do the people
who could benefit from your services gather? If you're a
therapist specializing in grief, for example, think about
mortuaries and churches. People dealing with addiction
issues might be found at AA or other 12-step meetings,
including Al-Anon. If you work with couples in crisis,
consider coffee shops, beauty salons, the offices of family
lawyers and mom groups.

Small business owners might meet at the local Chamber of
Commerce or at professional networking gatherings. People
concerned with their health and fitness might be found at
gyms, day spas or the offices of massage therapists,
personal trainers or holistic practitioners. Retired
people? Think volunteer organizations, travel agencies,
hobby shops, golf courses. Get the picture? When you're
clear about where your ideal clients gather, you can take
the next step, which is to build a relationship with the
professional or person in charge at each of these locations.

#3-Cultivate These Locations as Referral Sources  How
you build these relationships will differ from person to
person and location to location. Face-to-face is usually
best, especially if you're "armed" with a good
leave-behind. Here's one strategy that Laisha Knueven, a
wellness and empowerment coach for women, has used to
develop a lucrative referral source in her small Oregon
town:

Using the newsletter she orders from us (the life coaching
hardcopy newsletter), Laisha has walked through all the
medical center offices in her town. Every office she
enters, she offers the female office workers and nursing
staff one of her newsletters, calling it a community
service newsletter for women on well-being. Invariably, the
staffers are thankful and receptive to conversations about
women's issues and what Laisha does. She points out the
one-page insert she has stuffed into the newsletter, which
lists her workshops, seminar and other events and about her
practice.

#4-Leave Stacks of Newsletters at These Locations
 After establishing a rapport with the women, Laisha
asks if they would like to keep a stack of her newsletters
in the waiting room for their patients to read. Nearly all
have happily agreed.

This is how you leverage these relationships. And when you
do, both of you win.

"When people see my newsletter, it gives the practitioner
instant credibility-and me, too!" Laisha says, noting that
she gives out about 1,500 newsletters every other month.
"This newsletter is probably the best advertising tool I
have."

A newsletter is far more effective than leaving a brochure.
It gives people helpful information for their lives-from
you-whereas a brochure is typically a short sales pitch.
It's the difference between "It's all about you" and "It's
all about me." People are much more likely to pick up and
read a newsletter than a brochure-plus they're left with a
very positive impression of you as the provider of great
information.

Wherever you place the newsletter, don't forget to bring
this "secret weapon": a clear, acrylic literature holder.
Placing your newsletters in this makes them more visible
and keeps the countertop neat, as well.

#5-Follow Up  Make a phone call or a personal visit
periodically to check on whether your newsletter needs
restocking. This is a good opportunity to continue to build
relationship with your referral sources, and it keeps you
abreast of how quickly your newsletters are being snapped
up. When your new issue comes out, add it to the stacks of
existing newsletters. It shows you're a solid professional,
not a flash in the pan.

So the question is: Are you OK with a drop or two in your
cup, or do you want it to "runneth over?" Get your referral
sources on board and you might just find a deluge of new
clients!

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Linda Puig is a newsletter marketing expert, a writer with
nearly 30 years? professional experience and president of
Claire Communications, which provides high-quality,
low-cost articles to busy professionals who don?t have the
time or inclination to write articles.
http://www.articlesforsale.net