How do you ask clients to refer you?
Ask at a moment when the client has just said your work is good, name the kind of person you want to meet, and hand them a short email they can forward. Those three choices do most of the work. A vague let me know if you hear of anyone leaves the client to think of a name, write the intro and pick the moment, so it rarely happens.
Pick the moment from what the client has already done, not from a calendar:
| Moment | Ask now? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| They emailed thanks or praise | Yes, within a few days | They have put in writing that the work is good |
| You delivered a milestone report with a result they confirmed | Yes, at the end of the review | The result is fresh and has numbers on it |
| They renewed or extended | Yes | They have just decided to stay |
| First month, no result yet | Wait | They have nothing to tell a friend yet |
| Open complaint or late delivery | No | Fix it first; the ask will read as tone-deaf |
Then make the request specific. An example: who do you know who runs finance at a 20 to 100 person agency? gives the client a picture to match against their contacts, while do you know anyone? invites a polite no. The author of a 2024 r/Entrepreneur thread on asking every time made the same point, recommending an open question that starts with who do you know rather than a yes-or-no one.
Referrals have a ceiling, because they depend on how many happy clients you have. Our guide to how agencies find clients beyond referrals works through that arithmetic and the channels that fill the gap.
Who should you ask first? What the research says
Ask clients who have been with you a while, pay well and look likely to stay. That is what two studies of one German bank's referral program suggest, with an important caveat: the customers were individual consumers, not businesses.
The first, Referral Programs and Customer Value by Philipp Schmitt, Bernd Skiera and Christophe Van den Bulte (Journal of Marketing, January 2011), tracked 5,181 referred and 4,633 non-referred customers from January 2006 to September 2008, 33 months. Referred customers had a higher contribution margin, though the gap eroded over time, and a higher retention rate, and that gap persisted. After 33 months, 82.0% of referred customers were still active against 79.2% of the others. The authors put the value of a referred customer at least 16% higher than a non-referred customer with similar demographics and time of acquisition. The bank paid the referrer a 25 euro voucher; the authors estimate the six-year value gap at 40 euros, a return of about 60% on the reward. They also found the program was less beneficial when it brought in older or low-margin customers.
The second, a paper by Van den Bulte, Emanuel Bayer, Skiera and Schmitt dated 10 July 2017, looked at 1,799 referrer and referral pairs at the same bank. Referrers with more experience as customers brought in higher-margin referrals, and referred customers churned less only as long as the person who referred them had not churned. The authors' advice to that bank: recruit referrers among customers acquired at least six months ago, with high margins, who are unlikely to churn.
Our reading for a small B2B team, which neither study tested:
- Start with your longest, healthiest accounts. A client in month eight who just renewed matches the referrer the 2017 paper describes better than one in month two.
- Ask for introductions to people like your best clients, not your cheapest ones, since the 2011 study found the program less beneficial when it brought in low-margin customers.
- Keep the referrer happy after the intro. If referred customers stay because their referrer stays, the referrer's account is now worth more to you than its own revenue.
Referral request scripts you can copy
Use these as written, then change the bracketed parts. They are written for a founder or account lead asking a client they know well.
The last line of note 3 asks the friend before sharing your details, which makes it a double opt-in introduction. If they say yes, the client copies you in. For a version that turns a referral into a three-way chat on the spot, see Hormozi's hinge method in our $100M Leads summary for B2B founders.
Close the loop within a week of every intro, whatever happened. For example: Thanks for introducing me to [name]. We spoke on Tuesday and they're going to try [next step]. I'll keep you posted. Reporting back also gives the client a reason to think of you next time.
What practitioners report. We read four threads from 2023 to 2026, in r/Entrepreneur (2023), r/Entrepreneur (2024), r/sales (2025) and r/Entrepreneur (2026). Three patterns came up. First, a warm handoff beats a phone number: in the r/sales thread, one commenter put it as "Don't ask for them to provide you with the referral, ask them to connect you to the referral." Second, don't ask a client to refer their competitors: in the 2023 thread an agency owner described lawyers bristling when asked about other lawyers, and another owner said a startup client's first thought was a competitor. Third, views on asking at all ranged widely, from asking in every meaningful conversation to one r/sales commenter saying referrals hardly work and reek of desperation.
How do you ask for referrals on LinkedIn?
Use LinkedIn search to find the specific people your client knows, then ask your client about those names rather than about anyone at all. A named request is easier to say yes to.
The steps, from LinkedIn's help page on searching for people (last updated seven months before we checked it on 4 November 2026):
Search for the role
Desktop: enter keywords such as a job title in the Search bar at the top of the page and press Enter. Mobile app (the help page has one Mobile tab for iOS and Android): tap the Search bar, enter the keywords and tap Search.
Choose People
Select the People filter at the top of the results page if it isn't already selected.
Open All filters and set Connections of
The help page lists Connections of among the All filters options, alongside Locations, Current company and Industry. Enter your client's name. The page lists the filters in a general tip rather than under the device steps, so if you can't find it in the app, use a desktop browser.
Pick two or three names
Choose people who match your best clients, then message your client. An example: I noticed you're connected to Alex at Contoso. Do you know Alex well enough to introduce us? Happy to draft the note.
If you search a lot of profiles, read our guide to searching LinkedIn profiles without Premium first; it covers which searches count toward LinkedIn's monthly limit on free accounts.
Should you pay for referrals? Rewards and the rules
You can, though a fee isn't always needed, and some professions have to disclose any fee they pay or accept. Choose the reward by who is referring:
| Reward | Fits | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Thanks and a report on what happened | Every client referral | Nothing; it costs only time |
| A gift sent after the intro | Clients who would find cash awkward | Give it for the intro, not for a sale |
| Credit or a free month for both sides | Products with self-serve signup | Pay on activation, as in our breakdown of Dropbox's referral program |
| Cash fee or a share of the first invoice | Partners who refer regularly | Professional rules: AICPA members must disclose referral fees (below) |
| Any reward linked to a public review or post | Rarely worth it | FTC endorsement guidance (below) |
Two rules worth reading before you offer money. The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct (updated through September 2026), in its Commissions and Referral Fees Rule (1.520.001), says any member who accepts a referral fee for recommending a CPA's services, or pays one to get a client, must disclose that to the client. And the FTC's Endorsement Guides FAQ says you can't make an incentive such as a discount depend on a review being positive, and that people who get discount codes to encourage reviews need to disclose them. Your state or professional body may add its own rules; this isn't legal advice.
Worked example (our numbers, swap in yours). A service retainer of $2,000 a month that lasts 12 months brings in $2,000 x 12 = $24,000. At a 50% gross margin that's $12,000 of gross profit. A $500 referral fee is $500 / $24,000 = 2.1% of the revenue, or $500 / $12,000 = 4.2% of the gross profit. The Schmitt study's bank paid 25 euros against an estimated 40 euro value gap, so in that case the reward was smaller than the extra value it bought.
The threads we read reported both styles. One commenter in the 2023 thread said they explain $500 referral payouts during onboarding; another said they mention a fee only if asked and that almost no one asks. In the 2026 thread, one commenter said they charge around 15% of the first month's retainer for each client they refer to coaches.
How do you track referrals in a CRM?
Give every new contact a referral source, the name of the person who sent them, and log the ask itself as well as the outcome. A CRM referral is simply that: a contact whose source is a person rather than a campaign. Without it you can't thank the right person or see which clients refer.
Fields to add, whatever tool you use:
- Referred by (link to the referrer's contact)
- Date asked, and how (call, email, LinkedIn)
- Date introduced
- First meeting date
- Outcome: won, lost or not now
- Thank-you sent, and date you reported back to the referrer
Count four numbers each Friday: asks made, introductions received, first meetings and deals won. If asks are high and introductions low, the request is too vague; go back to named people. A spreadsheet works for the first 20 referrals. Siela's built-in CRM holds contacts and companies in a visual pipeline if you'd rather keep referrals next to the rest of your leads.
This week: list your clients by how long they've been with you, mark the ones who renewed or praised you in the last 90 days, and send the email ask to the top five. Follow up once a week later if they haven't replied, then leave it.
Frequently asked questions
What are the three types of referrals?
Lists vary from source to source. For a B2B business, three kinds cover most of it: client referrals, where a customer introduces you to someone they know; partner referrals, where a firm that serves the same buyers sends work your way; and incentivised referrals, where a program gives a reward for each introduction or sale. Most small teams start with the first and add partners next.
What do you call someone who provides a referral?
The person who makes the introduction is usually called the referrer or referral source. A business or professional who sends you introductions regularly is often called a referral partner. The person being introduced is the referral, or the referred lead once they are in your pipeline. Record the referrer by name so you can thank them and track who sends the best clients.
How do you ask for referrals without sounding pushy?
Ask once, at a good moment, and make it easy to say no. Thank the client for something specific first, describe one kind of person you would like to meet, offer to write the introduction yourself, and add that it is fine if nobody comes to mind. Then follow up once at most. Pushiness usually comes from repeated asks or from asking before you have delivered anything.
How many referrals should you ask a client for?
Ask for one introduction at a time. A request for one named person, or one clear type of person, is easier to act on than a request for a list. If the first introduction goes well and you report back, the client is more likely to offer a second. Spread asks across several clients each month rather than asking the same client repeatedly.
Should I offer clients a referral fee?
It depends on the client and your profession. Many clients are happy to introduce you for free and may find cash awkward, so a thank-you and a report on the outcome often work better. Fees suit regular referral partners. If you are an AICPA member, its code requires you to disclose referral fees you pay or accept to the client, and other professions have their own rules.
Sources
- Schmitt, Skiera and Van den Bulte: Referral Programs and Customer Value, Journal of Marketing (January 2011)
- Van den Bulte, Bayer, Skiera and Schmitt: How Customer Referral Programs Turn Social Capital into Economic Capital (10 July 2017)
- LinkedIn Help: Search for people on LinkedIn (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- AICPA Code of Professional Conduct (PDF) (updated through September 2026; checked 4 Nov 2026)
- FTC: FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- r/Entrepreneur: Do you find people weirded out by asking for referrals? (24 May 2023)
- r/Entrepreneur: Ask for referrals. Every time. (8 Aug 2024)
- r/sales: Asking for referrals (25 May 2025)
- r/Entrepreneur: Getting clients and referrals (29 May 2026)