My ideal client is your Aunt. How can I get referred to people like her?

Last month I wrote an article (click here to read it) about the importance of being targeted and specific when asking for referrals. We looked at how to do this if you sell your product or service to businesses.

But what if you sell to the general public? In this case, you can’t ask for an individual person. It doesn’t offer the same possibilities that naming someone in a company does.

It wouldn’t tell us anything about them, so we can’t then think about other people similar to them. It would also potentially break client confidentiality to name people we want to speak to – Mrs Baker at 22 Murray Road is too specific.

But, if you are asking for anyone that needs a lawyer, or everyone that needs to complete a tax return – you are not going to be giving your network the tools to promote you effectively.

But there are various ways to be more specific when targeting consumers, principally about defining the demographics of who you are looking to do business with. As with business to business, think of a good current client. Then consider:

·      What stage of life are they at? Are they young or old? Are they married? Are they about to get married? Are they on their second marriage? Do they have children? Are their children young? Have their children left home? Are they drawing a pension?

·      Do they work? Where do they work? Are they in a profession, such as a doctor? Do they run their own business? 

·      Are they homeowners? Or do they rent? A small house? Or a big house, with a driveway or a swimming pool?

·      Do they have a car? Do they have two or more cars in the family? Do they have a certain type of car?

·      Where do they live? As well as it being easier for you to service potential clients, where they live within a given locality can give you clues to your network about the type of person they are. Anyone who lives in that area will know that one side of town, or even a given road is more affluent.

All these questions (and there will be more besides) will put a picture of your ideal client in the minds of your network. Instead of anyone / everyone / someone – they will now be thinking of real people that they could refer.

That said though, we can do even better.

End User or Introducer? 

So far for business to consumer businesses, we have only roughly segmented the population. Let’s say a good current client is in their 50s, they are approaching retirement, they have grown up children, and they tend to have relatively large houses because they need lots of space when the grandkids are over.

While some referral possibilities will come from that information alone, many more referrals can come if we don’t target the end user.

Instead, think about who could introduce us to a person like that? In this case, a financial advisor might be a good start. Approaching retirement, they may have been seeking advice on their finances. Equally, they live in a nice house, so an estate agent may be a good connection. Focusing on their interests, golf courses might be a good way in.

The key is to think of people that will likely know a good number of people in your target market. Then ask for referrals to them instead. There are two benefits of doing this.

Firstly, it becomes a lot easier to be specific. If you decide that estate agents were the best approach, you’ve then just got to ask for one. It’s back to business to business – pick which estate agent, which job title you need to speak to (i.e. the sales manager perhaps) and do some research to get their name.

Secondly, there is the referral potential that comes from promoting yourself in this way. When you go for the end user, you’ve only got one potential client. When you ask for an introducer, how many referrals to end users could they give you? 2? 10? 100?

Going for introducers also works for business to business operators too.

The key thing to remember is that it will never be a short-term strategy. You can’t expect to get a referral to the estate agent, and for them to immediately start giving you referrals to people with big houses.

But, if you take time to build a relationship with them, and try to help them and give them referrals, at some point the estate agent is going to ask how they can help you. Then you can say ‘oh it’s funny you should ask…’


P.S. My first dalliance with AI imagery. I’m not sure, but I thought I’d give it a go!