Serve First, Sell Later Marketing

#64 From Referral Plateau to Referral Powerhouse

• Sylvia Garibaldi • Season 1 • Episode 64

Share episode

Send us a text

In this episode of the Serve First, Sell Later Marketing Podcast, founder and CEO Sylvia Garibaldi unveils game-changing strategies for professionals to exponentially grow their referral networks. Sylvia discusses the pitfalls of relying on a small number of referral partners and reveals methods to tap into entire communities of potential referrers. Tune in to learn how to convert referral plateaus into a steady stream of high-quality client inquiries.

 In this episode, we discuss:

  • 01:51 Understanding the Referral Plateau
  • 02:34 Scaling Your Referral Network
  • 05:28 Leveraging LinkedIn for Referrals
  • 06:36 Hosting Effective Webinars
  • 21:15 Strengthening Referral Relationships

Resources: 

Share this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favorite takeaway.


Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
"Love listening and learning from the Serve First, Sell Later Marketing Podcast” If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people -- just like you. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

Sign up for our free LinkedIn newsletter on marketing your professional practice

Connect with me on linkedin

Join our online community

Subscribe to my youtube channel

00:00 - Sylvia (Host)
Hello everyone, and welcome back to episode 64 of the Serve First, sell Later Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, sylvie Garibaldi, and today I'm going to be diving into a game-changing strategy that could double or even triple your client base. Pretty big promise, right? So I want you to think about what it would feel like to wake up to several new client inquiries, all referred by a network of professionals who simply can't wait to send business your way. So in today's episode, I'm going to be covering one of the top problems holding back most professionals, and that is the referral plateau. You know the one right where you've maxed out on your current referral partners and your client flow has hit a frustrating standstill. So it is possible to break through that plateau without spending countless hours on one-to-one networking. So I really want to talk about strategies that will allow you to tap into entire communities of potential referral partners entire communities of potential referral partners. So I'm talking about methods that can exponentially grow your network, and I'm super excited to share them with you. So let's get started. 

02:34
So let's dive into the heart of the matter. If you are a successful divorce mediator and you have a handful of loyal referral partners maybe a financial advisor, a therapist, a real estate agent, and they all send you clients You're grateful and life is good. But then silence, right. The phone stops ringing. Your inbox is eerily empty. So what happened, and this is what I would call the referral roller coaster, and it's a ride that none of us want to be on. 

03:07
So what's the problem? And so you're really relying on too few referral partners, and it's almost like putting all your eggs into one very small basket. So in fact, we teach our clients that it is extremely important to keep building those referral partners so that each month you can have a steady stream of referrals flowing in without having to rely on the same people or only a handful of people. So let me give you a real example. I recently spoke with a family law attorney and she told me. She said you know, I thought I made it with my five go-to referral sources, but when two of them went on extended vacations and then one of them retired, all of a sudden my client pipeline dried up faster than I could have imagined and, quite frankly, I started to panic. 

04:02
So that story I just shared with you is not unique, right? It's a common pitfall in the industry and it's costing professionals like you thousands in potential revenue every single month. But here's the kicker the solution isn't just finding more individual referral partners, because that would sort of be like filling an Olympic-sized pool with a garden hose, okay, so what you need is a fire hose of referrals, and that's where this strategy comes in. So imagine, instead of chasing down individual referral partners one by one, you could tap into entire communities of potential referrers at once, so you could be in front of a room, virtual or physical, full of referral partners all eager to send clients your way. And so this is what we call scaling your referral network, and it's a powerful strategy and can really change the game for you. So, by targeting groups and communities, you can expand your referral base exponentially and really much more efficiently than that traditional one-on-one outreach. Now, I'm not saying that the one-on-one outreach is not a good strategy it is but we want to elevate that strategy, we want to expand it exponentially, and so this is why I'm referring to targeting groups and communities to really scale that referral base. 

05:28
All right, let's look at how to supercharge your referral network using a tool that you probably use every single day without realizing its full potential, and what I'm talking about here is LinkedIn, and I'm about to show you how it can turn into your personal referral generating machine. So you could be sitting in your office sipping your morning coffee and suddenly your phone starts buzzing with notifications, new connection requests, messages from potential referral partners and, yes, even client inquiries. This happens every single day in my business, and it happens with the clients that we work with as well. So it's all because you could have hosted some kind of event and you are posting consistently, and so this is when that referral partner engine starts growing, starts growing. But this works in a way that could pleasantly surprise you, because once you start implementing it, it's like a snowball that keeps rolling in the snow and gets bigger and bigger and bigger. 

06:36
So let's break this down First. If you're looking at hosting a LinkedIn event of some kind either a LinkedIn Live event or scheduling the event on LinkedIn meaning the event does not take place on LinkedIn, but you are scheduling it via the LinkedIn event tool and then you can host it anywhere you like you can host it on Zoom or another platform. So just thinking about those types of events are going to be really, really important. So, keeping to that theme of, let's say, a divorce professional, you could really look at what are the topics that keep your audience up at night and get them to take notice. So, for example, how divorce professionals can build stronger relationships in 2025. And so what we're doing here is trying to build those referral partnerships and creating topics that you know your referral partners would be interested in learning about. Okay, because, remember, we are going after potential referral partners, so we're looking at putting events on for your referral partners. So this isn't just going to be another boring presentation. This is really the secret sauce that's going to have other professionals lining up to work with you. 

07:56
Now here's something that you can do. You could also create a presentation that you know your ideal clients would be interested in, but then you invite your referral partners to it on a consistent basis, because then it gives them ideas about who would be an ideal client for you, but also helps them learn about your process and what they need to be aware of. So it's two different approaches in terms of the topic, but the same process. So let me reiterate that the topic could be how to educate referral partners on key things that you're working on and is really just targeted for the referral partner. Or you could create a topic presentation for your end user, meaning your ideal end client but you invite your referral partners to listen to it because it can spark ideas and it can help them see you as the expert. So you can actually do both if you like and you can interchange them, but it is a very, very powerful tool. I hope that's making sense. So you know, it can be very exhilar, more important than the workshop or presentation itself. 

09:28
Okay, so you can post about it on LinkedIn, but you're not going to stop there, right? You're going to send personal messages to your connections. Maybe you send direct messages to them to invite them to your webinar. You can join professional groups and share it there as well, on LinkedIn. Don't forget about your personalized email list of acquaintances and other people that you think could find it quite interesting. So think about your email list, leverage those professional associations that you belong to and invite them as well. Right? So it's gonna be all about promoting the webinar on LinkedIn. 

10:08
Another key thing to think about is to when you are actually in the workshop or in the webinar itself and running it. It's gonna be really important to encourage interaction, okay, so let your attendees ask questions, share their insights. This isn't a lecture, right? It's a conversation and conversations. What they do is they build relationships and relationships build referrals. So, super important, when we run our workshops and webinars, interaction is a really key thing for us. We wanna make sure that we're keeping the audience engaged, that they're learning and that they see this as time well spent. 

10:48
So let me share another quick example for you of a divorce attorney who decided to host a webinar and then set it up in LinkedIn as an event, and it was all about what to consider when you're considering divorce. And so you know she had a lot of key points in there about what she knew people needed most to know about, and she was nervous, thinking no one would show up. And guess what? Not only did people show up, but the session was buzzing with questions and comments, all because she followed the marketing process that we teach and the result was the next day, she saw several connection requests come in from these referral partners financial advisors, therapists and other attorneys who were really impressed by her expertise. And then, of course, within a week, she had three new referral partner meetings set up. Okay, so this is a very, very powerful tool, and so we see this, with many professionals across the board leveraging LinkedIn for game-changing results, from family law attorneys answering live Q&As to financial advisors discussing the intricacies of divorce finances. So LinkedIn is really becoming the go-to platform. 

12:00
Now let me rephrase that LinkedIn is the go-to platform for building your referral network, and so you need to use it to get the results that you're looking for. So here's my challenge to you Set a date for your first webinar and set it up as a LinkedIn event. Or maybe you want to do a live Q&A on LinkedIn, but choose a topic that showcases your expertise, promote it like crazy and then show up and share your knowledge and think about what are some of the topics that your referral partners really want to learn about, and just dedicate that webinar to referral partners and see what happens. You will see referrals start to come in, and that is just the beginning of the process. It's not an automatic. You're gonna get 10 new referrals, but you're gonna get referral partner meetings set up, and that's gonna be key to building the relationship. So remember that in today's digital age, your next big referral partner could be just a LinkedIn connection away, and I personally, with a business that I'm running at SG Associates, I have seen this time and time again. I have built some powerful referral partners from LinkedIn that have truly amazed me and, quite honestly, a lot of my business is coming from these referral partners who I have met on LinkedIn and have never met them before other than the interactions I've had with them on LinkedIn and we built relationships over time, and some of these referral partnerships are the key ways that I bring in business every single month. So think about how this could work for you and remember people are always watching, people are always listening and they are scrolling on the LinkedIn platform. So you need to be there and you need to start building these relationships. 

13:53
Okay, now I want to talk about the power of newsletters. So your newsletter needs to be a go-to resource for your referral partners. So I'm talking industry tips that make them go wow, I never thought of that or success stories that inspire and showcase your expertise. And please don't forget to sprinkle in those upcoming event announcements. Give them a reason to mark their calendars and connect with you. Okay, so let's talk about how to make these newsletters a reality in your practice. 

14:27
So you will want to start by having some kind of email marketing tool, and you know there are so many on the market and I would do your research, but there are some ones that have been around for a while, like Active Campaign, mailchimp, constant Contact, and really there are some new ones coming onto the scene, so you just need to do your research and see which one is going to work best for you. Alternatively, you could also set up a newsletter on LinkedIn using the LinkedIn newsletter feature, which is easy to use, and the beauty of this one is that it sends it out to people in your network, getting them to subscribe to it. And another powerful thing that LinkedIn does is when you create this newsletter and they get subscribers to your newsletter. Every time you publish a new newsletter, linkedin actually emails these subscribers to say hey, guess what? Sylvia has just published another newsletter, and what happens is you see it in your inbox, right? I'm not talking about your inbox in LinkedIn, I'm talking about your own personal email box. Okay, so that is another way that you could leverage the newsletter tool. 

15:42
So the idea here is to really compile your content, and remember that this isn't about selling. It's about providing value. So share insights from recent cases, discuss new developments maybe new legal developments or offer tips on building a successful practice. The key here is to make your newsletter a must-read resource. So remember we're talking about how to build those referral partners, so you can create a newsletter just for your referral partners. Okay, but here's where it gets really interesting. Don't just blast out your newsletter and call it a day. I want you to encourage feedback and contributions from your recipients, right? So this isn't a one-way street. It's about really creating a sense of community and collaboration. So here's another quick tip At the end of each newsletter, include a call for suggestions or contributions for next topics and invite them to share their own success stories. 

16:43
So the goal here, once again, is to stay top of mind with your referral partners. So by consistently providing value, you're not just another name in their contact list. You're a trusted resource that they're eager to recommend. Okay, by the way, if you're finding this episode valuable, I've covered related topics in past episodes that have been excellent ones that can really help deepen your understanding. So be sure to check it out, and what I'll do is I'll drop the links in the show notes so that you can easily find them and do a deeper dive into referral partners. 

17:21
Okay, so it's going to be very important to track your referrals, and I want to break it down step by step. So tracking is super important and you can make it easy as a spreadsheet, or you can choose a CRM, a customer relationship management system but you need to have something, otherwise you are leaving money on the table. Okay, so you're going to set up your referral tracking system, but how do you do that and what is the information that you should be capturing? So, for example, the referral's name, basic information, the date of the referral, the type of case, the initial consultation date and whether the client retained your services. That's going to be important as well. And then, if you can put some kind of value to the case in terms of dollar value about what you would be charging, that would be great to put that there as well. So you need to make logging referrals a habit, and this is why it's important, because every time you get a new lead from a referral partner, you need to log it immediately, and it will actually just take 30 seconds and save you hours of headaches. 

18:35
Now why is this important to do? Because you need to review your data regularly by, you know, setting a reoccurring calendar appointment with yourself every month to dive into your referral metrics. What you're doing is you're looking for patterns. Okay, so what are these patterns that you're looking for? Who's sending you the most leads? Which referral sources have the highest conversion rates? That's going to be an important one to look at, and are certain types of cases more likely to come from specific referrers? Okay, so I want to share an example with you. 

19:12
So a family law attorney implemented a rigorous referral tracking system and after three months of consistent tracking, what happened was he made a really important discovery. So he found that while a local therapist was sending him the most referrals by volume, they actually had a lower conversion rate of only 20%. Okay, so he made note of that no-transcript. Okay. So, with this important data, what happened was this attorney shifted his referral nurturing strategy. Why? Because he's going to spend more time with those that are sending better leads his way, sharing insights that would be valuable for their mutual clients. So he also created a specialized intake process for clients referred by this advisor, because he knew that they were likely going to be high value cases. Does that make sense? This is why tracking your referrals with those identifiers that I just talked about are going to be super key. So he really invested his time in building and nurturing this relationship based on the stats that he was collecting. And imagine if he continued to really pour into the relationship with the therapist and it wasn't really time well spent and he wouldn't have known that if he didn't track the referrals. Okay, super important. So it's important to really look at how to best track your referrals, because what gets measured gets managed. Okay. 

21:16
So we're also going to be talking about strengthening relationships with your top referral partners and reviving those inactive ones. So what does that look like? So it's not just about sending a fruit basket once a year. It's really just about creating connections so strong that they'll have clients practically lining up at your door. So how do we do this? So these are your top referral partners, they are your MVPs and they really deserve the red carpet treatment. 

21:48
So, just as the example that I identified with the attorney and the financial advisor, you really want to focus on those top referral partners. So the first thing is personalization. So those generic thank you cards don't work. They really have to be handwritten notes, personalized to show that you really care. Okay, so maybe throw in reference to that conversation you had about their kids' soccer game. It's those little touches that will make a big impact. So this is why, when you're in touch with them, often you want to remember those details, but you're not going to just stop there. You can think about organizing exclusive events that'll make your referral partners feel like VIPs, right? So maybe it's a private dinner at a very popular restaurant in town and you're just organizing that for your top referrers, okay. 

22:43
So I want to look at what do you do with those inactive referral partners? You know the ones. They used to send great referrals but lately crickets, right, and you know you may think, well, it's time to reignite those partnerships. And it's important to do that because maybe you know they've been just very busy and just haven't had time to send them your way. So it's super important to try to reignite those partnerships, and a great way to do that is simply to reach out with a personalized message and think about a past case that you worked on together, or congratulate them on a recent achievement that you saw on LinkedIn. It's important to show them that you're still paying attention. Okay, super, super important. 

23:26
Think about proposing a new collaboration with them. This is where you need to get really creative. Maybe it's a joint webinar on the latest divorce law changes, or how about co-authoring an article for a publication? Right, think about potential new collaborations. Get creative so that it gets their attention when you're doing the reach out. Now I know what you're thinking. This all sounds great, but I'm swamped as it is. And here's the beauty of this A little effort goes a long way. So start small. Pick your top three referral partners and your three most promising inactive partners. Reach out to them this week. Set up those dinners, propose those collaborations. Take it one step at a time, because in the world of referrals, relationships are really your key currency here. 

24:19
So we've been talking about hosting events and webinars and I truly believe that this is a game changer and I believe so passionately about this and this can really help you build the know, like and trust factor very quickly with referral partners. I know I just talked about webinars and workshops on LinkedIn, but I really want you to think about your next event, and you know whether it's in person or virtual. You really need to be strategic about this and think about okay, how often and how consistently can I hold these online events or in-person events? I highly recommend you look at online, because that would be a great way to do it consistently with referral partners. And I want to emphasize that promotion is going to be key right. So I've talked about that, that making sure that you are promoting it on every channel possible so that you can really extend your network. So, by hosting these events, you're really positioning yourself as a thought leader and creating opportunities for others. So, in hosting these events, you're really positioning yourself as a thought leader and creating opportunities for others. So, in terms of strategies here, using online workshops and webinars are going to be really, really key. Whether you do it through LinkedIn or on a completely different platform outside of LinkedIn, it is going to work. If you really want to position yourself as that expert, you need to be offering some kind of consistent event every month to help your referral partners see what you can do for them. 

25:50
All right, so I've talked a lot about breaking free from the referral plateau, expanding your network in ways you might not have considered, and really leveraging tools like LinkedIn, newsletters and webinars to create a consistent flow of referrals. But now it's time to turn insight into action. So I want you to take a moment to ask yourself what's one thing from today's episode that you could start implementing this week. So will you reach out to a new potential referral partner? Will you finally set up that LinkedIn event or start tracking your referrals in a more structured way, because here's the truth nothing changes unless you take action. So you can have the best strategies in the world, but if you don't execute, your referral network won't grow and your client base won't expand. It's that simple. 

26:43
So I challenge you commit to one step this week. Just one Small, consistent actions that lead to big results. And if you're ready to go even deeper and you want guidance on putting these strategies into play, let's connect. Reach out, send me a message or join my next workshop. I'm here to help you make this shift so that, instead of chasing referrals, you have a steady stream of them coming to you Until next time. Remember your next big case, your next major referral, your next growth opportunity is just one strategic move away. Thanks for tuning in today. If you found this episode helpful, I'd love to hear from you. Please send me a message or share your biggest takeaway and, if you haven't already, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes packed with actionable strategies to grow your practice. See you in the next episode.