Cross-selling and referrals – Listen, Focus and Proximity

March 17, 2025|Accountants, Kim's Blog, Lawyers, Marketing|

I thought you might appreciate some highlights from the recent PM Forum workshop “Cross-selling and referrer management accelerator”. Delegates represented real estate, litigation, social housing, accountancy and insolvency teams. They variously targeted commercial organisations, professional practices and private client markets – some internationally. Some had sophisticated and established referral programmes whilst others were just setting out. This article supplements the session resources. Cross-selling and referrals – Listen, Focus and Proximity

Listen to your referrers

Data – or the lack of it – emerged again as a key challenge for both internal and external referral programmes. Many noted that fee-earners were often reluctant or too busy to keep the firm’s CRM up to date. This means that our usual data-driven approach to identifying trends, opportunities, gaps and follow ups was impaired. Some had deployed automation and AI to alleviate the problem.

It was noted that whilst most firms had client listening programmes, fewer had referrer listening programmes. We considered case studies where legal, accounting and other professional firms had introduced an element of referrer listening as part of their brand or relationship strategies e.g. Case studies: Marketing and Business Development at law and Professional services marketing/BD case studies

This led to the need to create or expand referrer listening programmes. We need to understand how referrers currently perceive us. And to investigate the reasons why they do (and do not) refer you to their clients. With a better understanding of how you are perceived, you are better equipped to tailor marketing and sales communications to position your people, teams and firm appropriately.

We need to listen internally as to why cross-selling doesn’t happen too. Part of a strategy of addressing the barriers in addition to promoting the benefits to cross-selling. A frequent reason for a failure to cross-sell, is a perception that colleagues’ services were expensive. Dispelling such perceptions, through the use of case studies and client testimonials, might provide the uplift in cross-referrals you seek.

Focus your referral efforts

External and internal referral programmes can be at many levels. Delegates had experienced firm-wide, divisional, sector, service, geography and individual fee-earners referral ambitions and programmes.

Broader programmes often require changes in culture and infrastructure which can take time. And wide-ranging programmes that attempt to engage a lot of front line and back-office staff – and promote attitudinal and behavioural change – rarely gain the traction they need.

We explored a variety of ways to bring focus to referral programmes:

Conduct research (often within a sector programme) to identify what’s coming down the line. And to learn who will be impacted and how. And what might be done proactively to grasp opportunities or avoid risks. Many thought leadership projects serve this purpose. They produce content to drive marketing communications campaigns. And guide fee-earners during sales conversations. Referrer management – Grading, Research, Discipline, Storytelling

Set objectives. Be really specific in what you hope to achieve and with whom and by when in your referral programme. Not only will this motivate people to invest their time and effort but it will be easier to focus resources and measure success. We looked at many different OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) that would focus energy in different directions and prompt the relevant actions.

Segment your audience. Whether you segment your internal audience for cross-selling initiatives. Or segmenting your external audience depending on shared characteristics. Then the approach and messages can be tailored more precisely. And activity is more focused.

Identify who’s most likely to recommend. Most firms will have NPS scores for individuals within their major clients and referrers. By identifying those who scored 9 or 10 you can then prepare for and promote conversations on how to leverage those opportunities. Client satisfaction benchmarks – How do you measure up?

Identify specific targets. This might be targeting a specific external referrer or client – and aligning all those internally who have knowledge and relationships with that referrer. And focusing resources on gaining the desired referrals from that one organisation. Major clients can also be targeted too – for the introduction of particular services when certain criteria are reached. Sales Targeting Toolbox for Professional Services Firms

Produce a gap analysis. Dig deep to learn about a particular client – it’s past relationship with the firm and the operational and strategic challenges it will face in the future. Use both analytical and strategic skills to identify gaps in the services they use. Then develop a detailed plan on how to exploit and close each gap.

Support a specific fee-earner. Another approach is to work with a particular fee-earner to learn what referrals they have received in the past. And what referrals they want in the future. And then provide training and coaching support on a one-to-one basis to help them craft and implement a plan to achieve their goals. The best practice ideas and success story can then be used to replicate the process with others.

Integrate Trip Reports. Too often fee-earners return from international trips and provide a detailed trip report and then fail to follow up on the opportunities. We can extract the information and integrate it into CRM systems and fee-earners’ schedules so that those actions and behaviours become embedded and monitored.

Harness reviews and recommendations. Most firms will spend time encouraging clients and referrers to write reviews on platforms such as TrustPilot or Google Reviews. They will also invest time in crafting and approving client case studies and testimonials. We can look at each recommendation and identify which client (or referrer) to share it with in order to promote a conversation on the topic.

Target a super-referrer. Trade and Professional bodies often have thousands of members. Some firms will aim to develop deep relationships with those bodies with their eye on the downstream potential of generating a significant and sustainable flow of referrals in the future from the membership.

Promote proximity

Both internal and external referrals rely on communication and relationships. And both are enhanced by proximity. It’s easier to develop trust with someone who is sitting in front of you – rather than at the other end of a Zoom or Teams call.

Remote working and Working From Home (WFH) mean that people spend little time in the office. This lack of shared space means that the impromptu “water cooler” conversations rarely take place. So it is harder to learn about what your colleagues do. And even harder to develop sufficient trust so you would feel inclined to introduce them to one of your valued clients or referrals.

So instead of thinking about internal communication in the traditional way explore ways to promote “proximity marketing”. Create time and space for people from disparate teams to come together and talk in an informal way.

We heard some remarkable stories about creative ways to create the proximity that supports conversations, knowledge and trust. There were, of course, stories of roundtables of high-profile people held in exclusive and exciting venues for external referrers.

And then there were various internal initiatives using gamification. We loved the sound of “Collaboration Bingo” which prompted regular face-to-face coffee meetings. And also an App with a competition to “Find a referral”. And I shared my experiences of an exhibition style “speed dating” event where client or referrer teams presented their clients and the rotating visitor groups had to find a cross-selling opportunity.

Key delegate takeaways and actions

Broad cross-selling aims and projects may be too broad to be effective
Don’t try to do too much at once
Drill down and focus cross-selling campaigns by segmenting
Learn more about my non-lawyer referrers
Look into what client listening initiatives we are already doing and how we can improve
Build into my intermediary listening the question: “What are your aims and strategies?”
Break things down and focus so that small wins can be made
Aim for in-person meetings (face-to-face contact up to 34x more fruitful)
Consider individual referrer plans rather than attempting to implement firmwide strategies