Ask and ye shall receive

Would you like a simple suggestion that can make you thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of dollars?

Let me start by asking a question. How do you spend your workday? Like most of us, you probably spend about half your time working (give or take) and the other half looking for work.

Now let me ask you this: How exactly do you look for work? (Sitting by the telephone doesn’t count because technically, that’s listening for work.)

Again, like most of us, you probably bug your current clients for more work (you do that, right?). And you probably attend all the networking events you can. Be careful here. Choose only events where you can find good prospects. Too many networking events are full of the same kinds of people, all trying to sell, sell, sell not buy, buy, buy.) You may send out a surfeit—ooh, surfeit—of letters or marketing brochures. The brave among you may even pick up the telephone to make shake-in-your-boots cold calls. (Brrr!)

Almost without exception, these are what hockey enthusiasts would call low-percentage shots. Like trying to score from the corner. The chances of burying the puck are slim at best. Unless, of course, you’ve been blessed with a name like Crosby.

What you need is a high-percentage shot.

Ironically, while we spin our wheels with letters and telephone calls to people who’ve never heard of us, a huge source of work is right under our nose.

I’m talking about referrals. People who know people you know. (You read that last sentence twice, maybe three times, didn’t you? I had to read it several more than that to make sure it was right.)

How many times have you heard “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”? It has achieved cliché status for one very good reason: because it’s true.

We often talk about mining that all-important source for jobs: people who have hired you in the past. Assuming you’ve done good work for them in the past, those are pretty easy sales.

But if you expand that thinking a bit, it’s easy to see that this source of work offers much more than just a second and third job from this client. Chances are, this person knows others who are also in a position to hire you.

But how do you approach this current client to find out if they know anyone else who might benefit from your services? Try asking this: “Do you know anyone else who might benefit from my services?”

It’s that easy.

Almost inevitably, you get one or two names. You often get more. (Don’t forget to ask them if you can use their name when you call.)

The best way to warm up a cold call is to start by dropping a name. What better name to drop than that of someone your prospective client knows and trusts?

“Good morning, Susan. It’s Ralph Williams calling from Super Duper Sales and Service. I was just talking to your friend, Joe Schmo, and he suggested I give you a call. Do you have a minute?”

Even if Susan doesn’t have time right now, you will almost certainly be able to lock down a better time to call. After all, they don’t know how well you know Joe Schmo and they certainly don’t want to offend him by dismissing you out of hand.

Say you’ve got 10 clients and each one gives you two names. That’s 20 people who will more than likely listen at least for a minute or two while you bombard them with the benefits of hiring you. If your conversion rate—that’s where you turn them from lookers to bookers—is 25 percent, that’s four more jobs (or “clients for life” as I like to call them) that you didn’t have yesterday.

How much is that one client worth over a year (or a career)? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands? And it all started with one simple question: “Do you know anyone else who might benefit from my services?”