How to Get Someone to Introduce Their Clients to You: 6 Practical Steps For Professional Services Firms

How to Ask For Introductions Without Feeling Awkward

Getting introduced is often the quickest way to meet new clients. But asking? That can feel awkward. You don’t want to sound needy or salesy. The trick is to make it easy and natural for people to connect you with the right contacts.

For professional services firms, referrals are the holy grail of business development. After all, potential clients who come via recommendation already have a testament about the quality of your services and are open to engaging. That means they cost less to acquire.

At the same time, winning referral work still takes a lot of skill and application - it’s just that you need to be able to activate referrers in the first instance.

So how do you do just that and encourage your colleagues, clients, friends and associates to recommend you without compromising relationships or feeling salesy, pushy or…desperate?

I’ve set out six steps I think every professional should take.

1. Remind Them About What You Do

One of the biggest obstacles to referrals happens when people don’t know how - or when - you can help out. The only way to overcome this is to let them know.

To do this, you need to be talking to them and reminding them about the ‘triggers’ that create a demand for your expertise and what you do. Triggers can be overt, like a regulatory change or shifts in a competitive market - or they can be subtle, personal changes linked to personal assets or temporal landmarks.

By sharing triggers (rather than a shopping list of skills), you provide context - concrete scenarios which are relatable to their contacts.

Tool: Adapt my S.L.A.Y. approach for first client meetings to these conversations.

You should also be writing and speaking about your expertise and sharing that information with potential referrers. So write up a case study showing how you’ve helped a client recently, an opinion about the arguments of looming regulatory change, publish some notes from your firm’s most recent CPD session, or send out that newsletter you’ve been holding off on.

2. Keep Your Message Simple

While we’re on the same topic, it’s not someone else’s fault if they don’t understand what you do. It’s yours. In other words, your work may be complex but your message should never be.

One of the real keys to any form of business communication is to keep it simple and interesting enough for them to want more. The worst thing is to try and be everything to everyone.

One way to slim it down is to write down what you do in 50 words. Then cut it back to 25. Then halve it again. You may even get to a six-word story.

Another part of getting your message across should be to bang the drum repeatedly but not excessively. Some marketers swear by the ‘Rule of 7’ in this regard. This says that anyone - in this case your referrer - needs to hear your message seven times before they take action. Again, your articles, newsletters and seminars - as well as informal chats about what you’re up to - have an enormous role to play here.

Lastly: Listen to author Simon Sinek’s advice and talk about your ‘why’. Let others know why you do what you do, do well.

3. Be Easy To Work With

One of my favourite Harvard Business Review articles was a piece on “Competent Jerks, Loveable Fools and the Formation of Social Networks”. What it reveals is that, while people value partnering with competent professionals, the characteristic that many people value most is likeability.

So, if you’re a smart professional who can be a bit sneering or scornful it’s time to lose the ‘tude.

No matter how good you are at your job, many people will choose to recommend someone who is competent and easy to work with.

4. Do Things In Person

Thanks to social media, messaging apps and email we hear from each other more than ever before. But as far as I can tell, we probably actually see each other less often than ever. And yet, there are so many advantages to seeing someone in the flesh.

When you’re face-to-face you have the chance to read body language; you’re more likely to receive the unfiltered, impromptu, unscripted truth; and you can have a more authentic and meaningful conversation.

Most of all, it’s during these face-to-face meetings - especially ad hoc and informal ones - where knowledge is most often created or shared, according to a study of 3,500 scientists that worked on the Large Hadron Collider. On the other hand, it has been found that relying on channels like intranets and town hall meetings to disseminate information can actually inhibit knowledge.

The moral of the story? If you really want to know people and what they do and have them know you and what you do (an essential for a referral-based relationship), you’re going to have to get out from behind your desk.

5. Practise ‘The Platinum Rule’

We all know the Golden Rule about treating other people the way you want to be treated yourself. To cultivate referrers I think you need to go even one better and practise ‘The Platinum Rule’ - which is to treat other people the way they want to be treated.

This involves putting yourself in their shoes and doing what they want you to do when it comes to the referral relationship, especially after they’ve introduced you to someone.

For me, this means copying them into your emails with any referral they send your way (at least where it’s reasonable - I’m not suggesting you start disclosing a client’s confidential information to them).

I also think it involves picking up the phone or dropping into their office at regular intervals to let them know how any relationship is progressing. If they want to be kept up with what’s happening in the client’s business do this too.

And be on the lookout for any opportunities to send their way too - referrals should always be a two-way street where possible.

You can read more about how the referral relationship should work here (How To Repay A Referral When You Can’t Refer Back).

6. Make The First Move

If there’s one saying that’s wrong from start to finish it’s that “good things come to those who wait”. Good things never have and never will happen to people who sit on the sidelines. Good things come to the proactive.

So, if you really want to turn someone into a source of referrals, it’s incumbent on you to be the one who does it. Go and speak to a potential referrer and make the first move.

Tell them what it is you do, the triggers that create demand, and what you want.

Listen to what it is they do and want. Offer to introduce them to your contacts. Find out how you can help them get to where they want to be.

If it feels uncomfortable, that’s a good thing. Many professionals will be feeling that very same feeling and it will cause them to do nothing. By being bold and taking the initiative you immediately give yourself the upper hand.

Now… go get ‘em, tiger!

Practical FAQs on Client Introductions

What’s the best way to ask for a client introduction?
Be specific. Say who you’d like to meet and why the connection could help them. The clearer you are, the easier it is for someone to say yes.

How do I avoid sounding pushy when asking for an introduction?
Keep it light. Frame the introduction as an option, not an obligation. Offer an easy way out so the request feels comfortable, not pressured.

How do lawyers and advisers get more referrals?
Start by giving value. Share insights, invite people to events, or connect them with useful contacts. Build trust first. Referrals will follow.

Want More?

If you’d like to know how to cultivate referrers for your professional services practice, book a private consultation with Sue-Ella at www.BD45.com.au

If your Firm has a program for Emerging or New Leaders, or you’re looking for practical, strengths-based Business Development content for your 2026 Firm’s business planning retreats, email Sue-Ella sueella@prodonovich.com.au to see how she can help.

2026 schedule: Business Skills For Lawyers workshops

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