Referrals are far and away your best marketing channel, as you own it 100% and no algorithm change, price increase, or influx of competitors is going to diminish its effectiveness.
Best of all, the ROI of referrals exceeds that of all your other marketing investments, for small dollars are all that is needed to fund an effective referral-generating program.
In this series, we outline the 7 steps we use to generate more referrals for lawyers. You can readily use these steps yourself or with your team.
Can you 2x or 3x your referrals?
Begin by analyzing your current referral flow and efforts. How many are you receiving and what are you doing to obtain them?
3-4x scenario
Maybe your volume is low – 10-20% of your new clients are referred by lawyers, allied professionals, and past clients. And you and your team are not spending much time cultivating those referral sources, let alone seeking new sources.
In this situation, we would set aggressive targets: (1) triple your referrals within 18 months and (2) quadruple them in 30 months.
50% increase scenario
At the other end of the growth spectrum are lawyers who receive 50% or more of their new clients by referral, devote material attention to existing referral sources, and periodically seek out new sources.
Because the base number is already large, a 50% increase within two years would add a lot more referrals. But that target would still be achievable, for it is the rare attorney whose team is doing everything possible to maximize referral flow.
Growth plan
Step #2 will outline the specific techniques that we use to increase referrals, and that you can adopt. Subsequent posts will detail each technique, complete with examples.
