How to Build Referral Activity Into Your Pricing Conversation

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing recently posted a good tip (in a series) that shows you one way to boost referral activity, a marketing necessity to those in service-oriented industries.

My question -- which you'll see in the comments on John's post - is: What's a good way to present this in a new customer situation?

I've been thinking about it, and it seems like you could make the referral offer contigent on your stellar initial performance, of course. Most of my work pays off after completion, so it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Of course, one of the big issues here is gaining agreement. If you can have your prospective customer verbally or in email commit to a referral or two, you're golden. Most professionals stick to their word, so you'll get the referral in most cases, and you'll have an opportunity to remind them in the future without seeming like you're being a pest. The thing is to make sure you don't gloss over this agreement step. People need formal to semi-formal acknowledgement of the arrangement so they're clear about their committment.