Make the referral ask part of the sale: ask who else you should help at the moment the customer says yes.
Joe Girard sold Chevrolets at Merollis Chevrolet in Eastpointe, Michigan, and won the annual title of the world's number one car salesman from 1966 through 1977 (Automotive News via Crain's Detroit Business, March 2019). He sold 1,425 cars in 1973 and 13,001 over his career (Jalopnik, 12 March 2019).
Referrals were built into the machine. His 1977 book described "birddogs" who sent him buyers for $25 each, business cards handed out by the handful and a habit of sending lots of birthday cards (Kirkus Reviews, 1977), and Automotive News reported that he paid for customer referrals (March 2019). In 2018 Guinness World Records retired the category, keeping him as the historic record holder for 1,425 vehicles in 1973, after a rival claimed to have beaten him and Guinness said no independent body existed to verify such claims (Autoblog, 28 August 2018).
Services, local businesses, coaches, agencies and B2B sellers with a human close.
Referred customers are worth more, and recommending makes the person who refers more loyal too. In a study of a bank's customers, referred customers were at least 16% more valuable than similar customers acquired at the same time (Schmitt, Skiera and Van den Bulte, Journal of Marketing, January 2011). In a field experiment at a global mobile phone company, customers who made a recommendation through its referral programme saw their own defection rate fall from 19% to 7% within a year, and their average monthly revenue grew 11.4% against a matched control group (Garnefeld, Eggert, Helm and Tax, Journal of Marketing, July 2013).
Many referral programmes ask by email weeks later. The moment a customer says yes is when the reason to recommend you is freshest.
Verified. Schmitt, Skiera and Van den Bulte (Journal of Marketing, 2011) and Garnefeld, Eggert, Helm and Tax (Journal of Marketing, 2013). Reported. Joe Girard's sales (Autoblog, August 2018; Jalopnik and Automotive News, 2019). Self-reported. His methods, from his own 1977 book as reviewed by Kirkus Reviews.
Cost to test. A script, some practice, and rewards paid only when a referred friend buys.
Kill it if after two months fewer than one customer in ten asked at the close has named someone, or none of the people named has bought.
Asking before you have delivered anything can feel pushy, so ask at the first win as well as at the sale. Staff skip the ask unless it is scripted and practised. Some sectors restrict paying for referrals: in the US, giving anything of value for referrals of real estate settlement business is generally prohibited (RESPA section 8), and regulated advisers have their own rules. Girard's numbers come from another era, are his own, and no independent body tracks the record any more, so take the method from him, not the scale.
The Review Engine, The Two-Sided Referral, Messaging Commerce
A 30-minute call first. If it fits, two calls in one week and a written growth plan you keep.