Hearsay: A Freelancer’s Dream!
In court, hearing something from someone else is hearsay. And it’s not a legitimate type of evidence. But if you’re a freelancer, hearsay is your golden ticket to business expansion!

Increasing business can be time-consuming as you present your “pitch” to the world of cold prospects. It doesn’t have to be that way. Ask any freelancer who has been in business for 5 or more years and you’ll find that they are marketing less and less. Ask any freelancer who has been at it for 10 or 20 years and you’ll discover that they are marketing very little or not at all.

That’s because, over time, they begin to benefit from referrals. They do one successful project and their happy customer tells his or her peers, “I got the work done by…”. When that peer needs work done, guess who they’ll call! That’s because peer recommendations are one of the most credible purchasing influencers there are.

There’s no reason to wait until you are 5, 10, or 20 years into freelancing before you start getting referrals. You should be actively seeking referrals from the first day you open for business. Here are some tips to help you:

• At the end of every project, ask the customer if they might recommend the name of someone they know who also needs your service.
• Offer your customer a discount or incentive if they refer someone to you and that referral becomes a customer.
• Listen during conversations because they may mention names of peers who you might later be able to ask “do you think they might benefit from the same service you just invested in?”
• When you post valuable information online or send valuable information through email, make sure that you include a “share this” link to encourage your customers to forward the information to others.
• Don’t be afraid to ask or encourage a referral. As you wrap up a project, if you send a thankyou/farewell message, include the line “the biggest compliment you could give me would be to give my name to someone else who might also need my services”.

Most importantly, give amazing service, deliver a flawless product, and stand behind your work. Lavish your customer with great value, endeavor to make a real connection with them, and you may not even have to ask for a referral… it will be a natural reaction from your customer.