As we’ve discussed in our blog posts on referrals (Part I, Part II & Part III), empowering your clients to refer you is both complicated, and very natural, if you think about the right things. Ultimately, to send you referral business, clients need to not only be happy with your service, but also be engaged with your business- to care about it.

So how do we engage clients with our business, empowering them to be advocates for us? One outstandingly impactful way is to develop the practice of asking for advice. When a client contributes an idea to your business, or makes a recommendation, an interesting shift happens. They suddenly have a stake in your business because their idea is a part of it – and they will want to see you succeed to give credit to their contribution. This is in addition to the psychology that once we’ve chosen to help something, we generally care more about it.

The act of asking for input about your business can be beneficial in more ways than one.  REALTORS® get to work with such a diversity of clients, that the ways in which your clients knowledge can benefit your business are far reaching. Maybe a client has a great mind for marketing, or knows a lot about a specific subculture, or has learned a lot about a neighborhood’s history, information you could share with other clients in the future. Whatever their knowledge, by valuing a client’s expertise, and asking them for some advice in some part of your business, you’re engaging them. And when our clients are engaged it will be so much more natural for them to recommend us with warmth and enthusiasm.