How do you encourage your clients to give you referrals?

When we started our business, we heard over and over how word of mouth is the best form of advertising. Even though we had success with our clients, we found that word of mouth just didn't kick in for us. Then we realized we had been relying on passive word of mouth so we needed to get more active word of mouth happening! To encourage more referrals we began a Christmastime promotion. We mail two complimentary 30-minute personal training session passes to our clients to give as Christmas presents. We include a letter saying “Congratulations on receiving such great results! We would love to see your friends and family feeling as fit and vibrant as you.” The comp passes have an expiration date of March 31 to give a sense of urgency and are in color and laminated to give a sense of value. We have tried this promotion twice. The first time the letter that accompa- nied the passes was fun, friendly and casual, and we got approximately five new clients. We conducted the promo- tion again one year later, but this time the letter was a little more formal. We did not get one new client! We will try again this year, going back to our origi- nal fun writing style, but will change the look of the letter and passes to keep the promotion fresh. We also receive referrals by encouraging current clients to directly refer people. After clients have been training with us for several sessions, we ask them if they have any friends or coworkers who might enjoy a compli- mentary session. We usually ask for referrals at the end of a session during stretching so that we can chat without feeling like the session is being side- tracked. We normally mention it in a very casual way-generally when the opportunity presents itself, rather than pushing it on the client. For example, the client may mention how much he is enjoying the training. I might then say, “That's marvelous! You know the best way to thank me is to tell your friends about us! I am more than happy to give your friends or colleagues a comp ses- sion so that they can see what we do. By the way, Dave, for every friend who starts training with us I will give you a free session. Why don't you think about anyone who might be interested in a session and let me know?” I generally then follow up with an e- mail in the next couple of days asking for possible names and e-mail addresses or phone numbers. If the client doesn't seem keen at the initial stages, I just let it slide. Some people are natural net- workers and will tell everyone they know and others won't tell a soul-no matter how happy they are! Frequently clients will say, “Actually I do have someone in mind.” I have yet to experience any real negativity with prompts-but of course I use a soft approach when applicable! As our client base grows (at present we have 140 active members across two clubs), word of mouth is happening a lot more. We gain two or three new members a month via word of mouth alone.