What if the best way to get new clients wasn’t about asking at all? In this episode, I share a big lesson I learned from a conversation with marketing legend Dean Jackson. We talk about why most referral strategies feel awkward — and how you can flip the script. You'll learn about the three simple (but crucial) things that need to happen for referrals to flow naturally, and how a simple nine-step business growth framework can make it easy for people to refer you — without the weirdness. If you’re tired of chasing clients and want a smarter, more genuine approach, this episode is for you.
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00:00 Introduction: The Invisible Gates of Referrals
00:10 The Mindset Shift: Stop Asking for Clients
01:56 The Insight from Dean Jackson
02:30 The Three Invisible Gates
03:04 The Nine Step Business Growth Framework
04:46 Conclusion: Sharing the Framework and Final Thoughts
Ash Roy's Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
There are three invisible gates that every referral must pass through, and failure to pass through these gates results in the most common mistakes that kill your referrals, but more on that later.
What if I told you the best way to get new clients is to stop asking for them? It sounds crazy, right? But this idea completely flipped the way I approach referrals.
And the idea came from a conversation I had with a legendary marketer, Dean Jackson, whose insights have transformed the way I think about referrals and about emails. You have to get over the mindset. Somebody referring you is doing it as a favor to you. That's so often the thing that blocks people from.
Really orchestrating referrals in their business. You see, most business owners think that asking for referrals is asking for a favor, and in a sense that is true. You are asking someone to go out of their way for you, right? But here's what Dean Jackson said that really hit me hard. The reality is the reason that we refer anything.
Is because it makes us feel good. Yes, that one insight unlocked everything for me. You know, I used to dread even mentioning referrals. I felt like I was begging asking for charity like I was imposing on the other person. But once I realized that I was actually giving that person a chance to feel helpful because the service that I was offering was valuable and that they would get a status boost from referring my services, everything shifted.
Referrals aren't just about fulfilling your needs. They're also about the identity of the person referring your services on. You're not just asking them to promote you. You're giving them an opportunity to be a hero in someone else's story. But there is a catch. Even when someone wants to refer you, they usually don't.
Why is that? Because they don't know how to act in the moment. Here's how Dean Jackson explained it all referrals. Happen as a [00:02:00] result of conversation. Somebody's in a conversation and they, there's three things that have to happen if the notice that the conversation. Is about real estate or yoga or chiropractic or coaching or whatever it is that you do.
Yep. They have to think about you and they have to introduce you to the person that they're having the conversation with. There are three invisible gates that every referral must pass through and failure to pass through these gates results in the most common mistakes that kill your referrals. The gates are as follows.
The conversation in which you are going to be referred must be relevant to what you do. The services you provide. The second gate is that the person making the referral must remember to think of you in that moment. And the third gate is they must know how to make the introduction effectively. If any of these three conditions aren't satisfied, I.
The referral dies. People only get to feel like a hero when they successfully complete all these [00:03:00] three steps. You've got to have something to hand over to the next person. So here's what I started doing. Instead of awkwardly saying, Hey, do you know anybody who needs help? I now say, if someone ever mentions that they're stuck in their business, here's a nine step business growth framework that you can pass along to them.
It's a free PDF and there's no opt-in required. And I give them the simple link to a one page PDF, which is my nine step business growth framework, and I'll link to that in the description below. Now, what this nine step framework does is it allows them to see a logical flow around how they can grow their business.
It covers everything from the mission to understanding their target audience, to understanding the buyer's journey, to making a few sales manually, and understanding the key levers, the metrics, and then building a content system that. Creates that flywheel, and the best part is the person receiving that nine step framework doesn't even have to opt in with an email address.
However, inside that PDF is a circle that they [00:04:00] can click on that gives them the option to opt into a free email course for which they do need to give me their email address if they choose to. So this is a Trojan horse in a good way. It delivers value on the surface. It acts as a referral mechanism, but it also allows the person, if they choose to, to opt in to a free nine day email course.
This referral tool, which is the Nine Step Business Growths framework, is specific. It's easy to share, and now the person making the referral is not just thinking of me. They're actually equipped to pass something useful on to this other person to whom they're making the referral. One of my clients told me, this makes it so much easier.
I want to share this nine step framework with other people. And the best part is I don't have to have an awkward conversation begging for referrals. Now, if you've found this valuable so far, there is so much more depth I. In the full conversation I had with Dean Jackson where we unpack how to build your referral baton or your referral engine, how to fix the three common mistakes [00:05:00] that kill your referrals, how to turn your happy clients into your most powerful source of leads without ever having to pitch.
And as a bonus, we also talked about his nine word email that allows you to reactivate leads. That you haven't spoken to for a long time. Now, if you'd like a copy of that nine Step Business Growth Framework, drop a comment below telling me a little bit about your business, and I'll get a copy of that framework to you.
This is the exact framework I share with my private clients, and I'd love to get it into your hands today. And if this hits home for you, then don't just like and subscribe, but share this episode with somebody else who needs to hear this, because chances are you just gave them a dopamine hit too. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you on the next one.