To boost referrals you need to be crystal clear who you want to be referred to. Do you know their exact profile? Do your colleagues?

Most clients won’t know for sure, and rather than ask they’ll take the easier route of making no referrals whatsoever.

Here’s the test of an ideal client

1. They know that you will solve their problems/fulfil their needs
2. They are profitable and loyal to the business.
3. They are active on social media.  People with the most contacts tend to be better referrers.
4. They trust you to deliver, plus respect your opinion, knowledge and expertise.
5. As advocates they are happy to refer you (if encouraged to do so).
   
   

Define who you ideally don’t want to recruit as a client

Visualise or alternatively create an avatar of your ideal client.

Hang pictures of your ideal clients on the wall

Doing this:

1. Guides your team when they’re describing an ideal client profile to potential referral champion.
2. Allows you to email PDFs or screengrabs to potential referrers.
3. Helps your team to connect with who ultimately pays their salary.
4. Creates a valuable internal training visual tool.

Pareto’s Principle

Pareto’s Principle reminds us that roughly 20% of your customers will generate 80% of your profits. So if you’re looking to grow your business you need to identity this 20% (your ideal customer), profile them, look after them and find more like them.

Create your buyer persona

Examine each segment/niche of your existing customer base.  Concentrate on your most profitable customers.

Pull out the traits that they have in common.

Use these traits to build a fictional picture (persona) of your ideal prospect.  Include as much details as possible.

Build the persona using:

1. These (consumer) segmentation variables:
   
   
   • Demographics (e.g. family lifecycle).
   • Usage.
   • Geographic.
   • Behavioural.
   • Psychographics.

   (Or use these B2B segmentation variables)
   
   

2. A clear understanding of their needs.
   
   
3. LinkedIn

   LinkedIn is a valuable resource for building personas.

   Use it to learn about buyers in their own words. When you look at enough LinkedIn profiles, you start to see commonalities that can help you create a composite sketch of your target persona.

   Use LinkedIn to understand how they talk about their jobs, what they say they are responsible for, and what phrases they use to talk about their work..

   The 'recommendations' section shows how other people describe them and what really defines them as a person.