Make yourself easy to refer
How to get more client opportunities through the network you already have
Your next client might already be closer than you think
Think about your last few good client opportunities. Where did they come from?
For many independent professionals, the answer is some version of: through someone I already knew.
A former client recommended you. A colleague introduced you to someone. A peer thought of you for a collaboration. Someone heard about a challenge in a conversation and your name came to mind.
Yet when work gets quiet, it's easy to assume we need to expand our reach. We start thinking about posting more, going to more events, meeting more people or somehow becoming more visible.
Meanwhile, there may already be plenty of people in your network who would happily open doors for you.
The question is whether they know which doors to open.
That's what this workshop is about.
Over the last few years, working with hundreds of consultants, freelancers and other independents through IMMA Collective, I've noticed four places where referrals tend to get stuck:
Clarity — Can people picture the kind of person or organisation you can genuinely help?
Situation — Do they recognise the moments when your work becomes relevant?
Proof — Do they understand the change your work creates well enough to recommend you with confidence?
Ease — If someone wants to introduce you, have you made it simple for them to do so?
Together, I call these the Referability Framework.
What we'll do
This is a 90-minute working session, so come ready to work on your own business.
We'll start by looking at where your opportunities have actually come from and how much of a role relationships already play in your business.
Then you'll assess your own referability across the four areas above and identify where things may currently be getting stuck.
We'll spend most of our working time on one particularly important piece: when should someone think of you?
You'll develop a referral trigger based on the real situations and problems your clients experience, and you'll have a chance to test whether another person can actually recognise and remember it.
The aim isn't to leave with perfect positioning. It's to leave knowing where you need to focus and with something useful you can start testing straight away.
You'll leave with
A clearer picture of how opportunities currently find their way into your business
Your own referability snapshot across clarity, situation, proof and ease
An understanding of where referrals may currently be getting stuck
A referral trigger you can test with people in your network
A clear next area to work on if you want your network to create more opportunities for you
This session is for you if
You're a consultant, freelancer, fractional leader, founder or independent expert whose work is built on expertise and trust.
Especially if:
A lot of your best work has come through referrals, introductions or existing relationships
You have a decent network, but referrals from it are unpredictable
People know what you do, but you're not convinced they would know when to recommend you
You've heard "I'll definitely keep you in mind" more times than you've received an actual introduction
You'd like to create more opportunities from the relationships you've already built
Who's leading it
Lilli Graf Founder of IMMA Collective
IMMA brings together purpose-driven independents and helps them build the relationships, practices and business-development systems through which opportunities are created.
Through IMMA, Lilli has worked with hundreds of independent professionals on becoming clearer about the work they want to be known for, making that work easier for others to understand and creating more opportunities through the relationships around them.