How to ask clients for referrals
How to ask clients for referrals: when to ask, what to say, and what a study of 523 service firms found about who refers them and why referred buyers walk away.
How do you ask clients for referrals?
Ask soon after a result the client can see, name the kind of person you help, and make the ask easy to decline. In Hinge's research on professional services buyers, 69 percent of clients said they were willing to refer their provider, and the most common reason they had not was that nobody asked.
What professional services firms and their clients told Hinge
Willing to refer, and never asked
Not asked
72%
said nobody asked, the top reason they had not referred
Willing
69%
of clients say they are willing to refer their provider
Not clients
81.5%
of firms got a referral from someone who was never a client
Hinge sells marketing to these firms, and the survey is from 2015. We found no newer study of the same questions.
Hinge Research Institute, Referral Marketing for Professional Services Firms, 523 firms, 2015, read 10 November 2026.
When is the best time to ask a client for a referral?
Right after a result the client can name: a launch that went well, a number that moved, a thank-you email. The result is fresh, so the ask reads as part of the work. Ask again at a natural point, such as the end of a project or a renewal, never on a timer.
What should you say when you ask a client for a referral?
Three things: thanks for the specific result, the kind of company you help, and an easy way out. Naming the kind of company matters most, because a client cannot think of everyone they know, only of someone who fits a picture. Here is an invented example of the whole message.
Glad the new checkout is live, and that drop-offs fell in the first week. A quick ask: we do our best work for software companies of 20 to 100 people whose sign-up is leaking. If someone like that comes to mind, I would be glad of an introduction. If not, no reply needed.
Who refers a service firm?
Often people who never hired it. In Hinge's survey of 523 professional services firms, 81.5 percent had been referred by someone who was not a client. Asked how they knew the firm, those people split almost evenly between its expertise, at 48.1 percent, and its reputation, at 46.4 percent. Only 5.5 percent knew someone there.
How people who never hired a firm came to know its expertise
Speaking, articles and social media came first
| Label | Value |
|---|---|
| Heard them speak | 30% |
| Read their articles or blog posts | 20% |
| Interacted with them on social media | 17% |
| Read a book they wrote | 15% |
| Saw an impressive website | 8% |
| Found them in a search | 5% |
| Read positive reviews | 5% |
Hinge Research Institute, Referral Marketing for Professional Services Firms, 2015, read 10 November 2026.
How do you get referrals from people who are not clients?
Let them see what you know. In Hinge's survey, people who referred a firm for its expertise had most often heard someone from it speak, read its articles, or traded comments with it on social media. A weekly LinkedIn post about your client work covers the last two in one place.
Should you ask for a LinkedIn recommendation as well?
Yes, from a client who would rather not make an introduction. LinkedIn's help page says you can request one from a connection's profile, under More, and it shows on your profile where a referred buyer will look. How to ask, and what makes one worth having, is in how to ask for a LinkedIn recommendation.
Why do referred buyers still walk away?
Because they look you up first, and do not like what they find. In Hinge's survey, 51.9 percent of buyers had ruled out a referred firm before ever speaking to it. The top reason, given by 43.6 percent, was that they could not understand how the firm could help them.
Why buyers ruled out a firm they had been referred to, before speaking to it
Unclear came first, salesy second
| Label | Value |
|---|---|
| Could not see how they could help | 43.6% |
| More about selling than helping | 32.9% |
| Not a good cultural fit | 30.9% |
| Unimpressive website | 29.6% |
| Poor reputation | 27.6% |
| Poor quality content | 23.5% |
Hinge Research Institute, Referral Marketing for Professional Services Firms, 2015, top six of fourteen reasons, read 10 November 2026.
What should a referred buyer find when they look you up?
What you do, who you do it for, and proof you did it lately. The report's earlier research found that more than 80 percent of buyers look at a firm's website to check it out. A founder's LinkedIn profile is the other place they go, and recent posts about real client work answer all three questions at once.
How do you stay easy to refer between projects?
Post about the work every week, so the people who might refer you remember what you do, and a referred buyer finds it when they check. innernote turns this week's client work into posts in your voice, or the firm's, and posts them on the days you pick. You read each one first.
innernote is the #1 tool for service firms that want to stay easy to refer, with a post about real client work every week.
Say what happened on a project, and innernote writes the post. Name the client only with their OK, or describe them by kind and size, and put the case study link in the first comment. See how it works for firms: innernote for service firms.
Type one thing that happened on a client project this week, in two or three rough sentences. See the post innernote writes from it.
Start for free. Sign in with Google and your note is waiting in your composer.
Quick answers
No, if the work went well and the ask is easy to decline. A client who is glad of the work often wants to help, and an ask gives them a way to. A short, specific ask after a good result reads as confidence, and a client who says no has lost nothing.
Keep reading
Stay easy to refer
innernote turns this week's client work into posts in your voice, or your firm's, on the days you pick. You read each one first.
See it for service firms