Cross-selling and referrer management – Past, present and future

September 13, 2025|Accountants, Kim's Blog, Lawyers, Marketing, Relationship Management, Selling, Strategy|

Having worked in professional services marketing (at legal, accountancy, property and consultancy firms) for almost three decades I have spent a lot of time working on cross-selling and referrer (referral) management initiatives. This includes internal referrals (cross-selling) and external referrals (both from existing clients and third party intermediaries). A recent edition of PM Magazine (member access only) devoted an entire issue to the subject and I have extracted its key messages below. But it prompted me to do my own recap on the topic in the past, highlight the current issues and try to glimpse the future. To provide you with some inspiration for crafting and implementing your own cross-selling and referrer management strategies. Cross-selling and referrer management – Past, present and future

Topics:

Referrer management and cross-selling are core strategies
Cross-selling emerges in the large accountancy firms
Cross-selling dilemma and risk
Client listening and account management to support cross-selling
Provide the right inducement for cross-selling
Referral management gathers pace in international networks
Events: Roundtables and networking activities
Top-down or bottom-up referral management strategies?
Cross-selling easier in a small firm?
Referrals data is always a challenge
Some services are more reliant on referrals
Referral management as a market entry strategy
Collaborative marketing with referrers
Cross-selling: Current focus on training and internal communications
Referrals: A critical element of the business development plan
Referrals: Dedicated managers of the referrer channel
The secret ingredient for cross-selling and referrals
PM Magazine edition on cross-selling and referrer management
Related articles on cross-selling and referrer management

Referrer management and cross-selling are core strategies

From a strategic point of view, we have two main options to grow a firm organically. Either we can generate more revenue and profit by attracting new clients (new business development). And we can do this directly using digital marketing and relationship management. And we can do this indirectly – through referrals.

Or we can try to generate more revenue and profit from existing clients. We see various strategies for developing existing clients – key account management (KAM) and account based marketing (ABM) being two prominent examples. And in most of these strategies we consider whether clients might benefit from other services in the firm (i.e. cross-selling).

The return on investment is often greater when we cultivate referrers (whether clients or third party intermediaries) as they are often a source of multiple referrals. So we benefit from the multiplier effect.

The business case or rationale for referrer management strategies is explored further here: Referrer Management Strategies – Rationale and Challenges

Furthermore, research indicates that those fee-earners who are most successful at business development split their time equally between generating new clients and supporting existing clients. We also know that these leaders are also more effective at cross-selling. Rainmaking best practice in professional services firms (Selling)

Cross-selling emerges in the large accountancy firms

I started my professional services career – three decades ago – within a big four accountancy firm. In those days, the audit department ruled. It “owned” the biggest (in size and revenue terms) and most prestigious client relationships.

I was marketing management consultancy services and a close colleague marketed the corporate finance team. We eyed the client base of the audit team jealously. We knew our lives would be so much easier if we could promote our services through the audit partners to the audit clients!

Yet the audit partners “guarded” their clients closely – fearing that the involvement of other teams and services could jeopardise those relationships. Breaking down silos and working collaboratively with the audit partners – in the clients’ best interests – was the focus of our work.

It’s interesting to observe that now those accountancy firms are limited by regulations in what services they can provide to audit clients. This 2010 ICAEW paper explores the pros and cons of providing non-audit services to clients Provision of non- audit services to audit clients | ICAEW. This May 2025 paper shows the current position Provision of non-assurance services to an audit client | ICAEW

Cross-selling dilemma and risk

At the heart of the cross-selling challenge is an underlying dilemma for many fee-earners. Professional rules require them to act in the best interests of the client. So do we refer them to the acknowledged expert in the field (possibly at another firm) or to our colleagues in the firm? Loyalty to the client or loyalty to the firm?

There’s another risk element as well. If we refer them to a colleague in another division and things don’t go as hoped – we risk harming the client’s relationship with us and our firm overall. However, if we refer the client to another firm that would limit damage to our firm’s relationship if things go wrong. Although our credibility in referring them to an ineffective other firm may be impaired.

Loss aversion refers to people’s tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. Most studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains. So the dice are loaded against cross-selling gains – and this is heightened by the general risk adverse nature of most professionals.

Client listening and account management to support cross-selling

Some of my early consulting projects included in-depth, face-to-face client interviews.

As well as extending the knowledge base about critical clients these interviews would assess client perceptions and satisfaction. Naturally, if a client wasn’t entirely happy with the service it wouldn’t be sensible to try to promote other services.

The widely-adopted Net Promoter Score (NPS) – as well as assessing client satisfaction – actually measures a client’s propensity to refer your firm. Client satisfaction benchmarks – How do you measure up? So these systems can help identify where there are opportunities to obtain referrals from clients.

Sometimes, in those interviews, clients would mention inappropriate “pushy” cross-selling approaches from their advisers to promote the firm’s other services (I particularly remember a large UK manufacturer being irritated by having a firm’s international treasury and currency services). Obviously, these firms should have taken greater care with training their advisers rather than simply commanding “Thou shalt cross-sell”.

Often these client interviews formed the basis of a key client management strategy. Key Account Management (KAM) – Start small, Be strategic. Where the relationship, service and cross-selling opportunities could be analysed and planned with more focus and sensitivity.

If a strong relationship was formed (and the right consultative sales approach adopted), those interviews would also provide an excellent opportunity to take a wider view about the clients’ short and long term opportunities and challenges. And these, in turn, would reveal a rich source of ideas for future collaboration and cross-selling opportunities – strictly from a client-focused approach.

Provide the right inducement for cross-selling

Partners have long recognised the value to the firm’s profitability of cross-selling and generally need little motivation to do so. However, there was an early realisation that fee-earners needed inducement to take time from their busy days to seek and share cross-selling opportunities. Often as their targets focused purely on billable time for their professional advice.

In 2015, I wrote about how Keystone Law provided strong financial incentives to its lawyers who promoted their colleagues to clients Legal marketing case study – Cross selling and referrer management

Paying for external referrals is regulated in some sectors. It is common practice in the property sector. The Personal Injury sector was severely disrupted when firms relied on buying leads from companies who specialised in digital marketing and then significantly increased the cost of those leads.

Referral management gathers pace in international networks

Another early brush with referral management many years ago was when I worked with the international networks of legal and accountancy firms. These were groups of independent national firms who came together to refer international work to each other – to protect clients from being lured away by the global firms.

So the referral strategy became more complex – select the best practice in the target geography or go to the approved member firm in that territory? A similar challenge to those referring to their internal colleagues – send it to the people who are the acknowledged experts or to the person in your network?

These networks invested in many techniques such as directories, internal briefings, secure web sites and even referral fees. What I learned here was that the most effective intervention involved flying people around the world so that they could spend time together building personal connections and trust. The real relationships spurred international referrals better than anything else.

International referrals have developed – many offshore law firms are reliant on referrals from those in different jurisdictions. It’s interesting that most of them invest a huge amount in travel – to forge those valuable relationships on the ground through conferences, networking events and personal relationships.

Events: Roundtables and networking activities

An early memory was organising “five-a-side” meetings. Not in the football sense though. The MBD team would organise an event where we would invite two or three people who we knew at a referrer organisation to join us for an end of day event. We’d encourage the firm to bring along two or three other colleagues we hadn’t met.

Then we’d do a lot of research about our own and the other firm’s spheres of operation and their past interactions and collaborations. We’d try to identify areas for future collaboration and potential opportunities in advance.

We’d arrange for the home team – again, a mixture of those who knew the referrer and those who didn’t – to do a short, informal presentation about their services. And include stories of how they had helped clients. We’d ask the visiting team to do the same. Then we would get down to considering lists of mutual clients and contemplating what we could do together to increase awareness and relationship opportunities for each other.

These events usually ended with drinks and social interaction – to strengthen trust and relationships. Similar initiatives involved junior professionals – I remember organising events where 10 junior fee-earners each from legal, accountancy, property and banking organisations were invited to an event with a guest speaker and then encouraged to socialise over a few glasses of wine. Establishing referrer relationships at the start of professional careers proved an effective long term strategy – and I was often surprised that these relationships would generate referrals quite soon after the “young professionals” networking event.

Top-down or bottom-up referral management strategies?

Firms need to decide whether they want to manage referrer relationships for the firm overall or for particular divisions or teams. This is explored further here: Referrer Management Strategies – Planning for the firm, teams

Having made this decision, the firm will then need to develop a strategy for referrer management Referrer management: Diagnosis, Aims, Strategies and Action. That strategy will be dependent on their capacity and capability Referrer Management – Capacity and Capability

Cross-selling easier in a small firm?

In a smaller firm, cross-selling isn’t so much of a challenge. There are a few partners who communicate regularly. They have strong relationships with all the other partners. They know what each other does and who they do it for. More importantly, they trust each other and converse regularly.

So when a client indicates a need for another service, the partner can easily ask a colleague about it when they next cross paths. So the cross-selling works easily and smoothly.

The cross-selling problem becomes more complicated when the firm expands into thousands of partners, across multiple offices. The silos come more sharply into view as there is a lack of regular interaction, mutual understanding and strong relationships. So even those “one firm” philosophies can find it hard to convert intention into action.

Referrals data is always a challenge

I remember the early days – before sophisticated CRM systems – where I would try to manage referrer and referrals data in a spreadsheet.

There were numerous challenges in structuring the data.

First, there was the simple challenge of managing complex many-to-many relationships. We might have several fee-earners who maintained relationships with multiple contacts at the referrer organisation. Answering the simplest question such as “Who knows who” could be a challenge. Analysing the depth of relationship and frequency of contact added to the headache.

Second, how much data did you keep about referrals? Did you register just the initial referral or how that later expanded across other service lines for the referred client? How long did you monitor the data – a year, three years, the entire client life time?

Attribution was a challenge even then – to what extent did the referral generate the assignment compared to other factors such as general promotional activity, events and the actions of your own fee-earners?

Third, tracking inbound referrals from individuals and/or their firms was complex. Often this information was reliant on the various fee-earners sharing the information about the source of the new client. Which they rarely had the appetite or time to do. Tracking outbound referrals – to monitor reciprocity – posed similar issues (referrer management in professional service firms). Maintaining links when individuals switched firms was tricky too.

Furthermore, when tracking data about the volume and value of referrals – did you count those referrals that didn’t actually translate into assignments and revenue? The relative importance of different referrals was important too – Were we more interested in a regular flow of small referrals or the once-in-a-blue moon really chunky transaction?

Managing such complex data did mean that we were in a better position to be able to segment our referrer market though. Referrer management: Diagnosis, Aims, Strategies and Action

Now we have sophisticated systems to help manage the huge volume of data tracking each web visit, email open, event attendance or breakfast/lunch appearance. Some data can be automatically scraped from analytics, email, calendar and social media systems. But we still need fee-earners to add narrative and qualitative data and planned next steps. Some firms capture this information in sophisticated sales management systems such as Salesforce.

The same data and principles that are used to develop critical client relationships are being applied to the most important or potentially most important referral relationships.

Some services are more reliant on referrals

There are some professional services that are more reliant on referrals than others. Insolvency, litigation and transactional teams such as corporate finance are good examples. Private client and family teams also rely heavily on both internal and external referrals.

And some sectors are more reliant on referrals. Many property and real estate services rely on referrals. Take, for example, party wall surveys – they are mostly driven by recommendations from architects. Planning is often dependent on architects, agency teams and development consultants.

This can be seen on internal referrals too. Some firms adapt their cross-selling strategies depending on whether a division or team is a net giver or net receiver of internal referrals.

Referral management as a market entry strategy

I recall various examples where referral management was used as a market entry strategy. Before opening an office in a new territory, we would carefully analyse the key referrers and intermediaries in the area.

We would then embark on a comprehensive “charm offensive” where we would go out to meet those referrers. We would learn about them and their clients and aims, and we would share information about our aims. We would categorise them into influencers and referrers.

And then we would manage “watch lists” and “coffee lists” which ensured we bumped into or shared a coffee with those referrers on a regular basis. At launch time, we would invite them to events (taking care not to mix those who were perceived as competitors) and organise collaborative events as we started to grow.

Collaborative marketing with referrers

Some firms focus on a few key referrer relationships rather than adopting a strategy of trying to encourage referrals from a wide range of referrers. Some firms “spread their nets wide” to cultivate multiple referrer relationships but risk “spreading themselves too thinly” as a result. It’s a strategic decision – hopefully based on careful data analysis.

Usually, firms will pursue some form of collaborative marketing and sales initiatives with critical referrers. This might include regular meetings, shared articles and joint events. Some may have collaborative web and social media accounts. Although reciprocity is a common challenge: referrer management in professional service firms

Some firms adopt a tiered approach to managing referrer relationships – where they categorise (or segment) their referrers according to importance: Structured programmes for Referrer Relationships – workshop

Cross-selling: Current focus on training and internal communications

One of my current clients has cross-selling as a strategic initiative for it its vision for 2030. There’s a realisation that it’s about individual mindset which, in turn, is shaped by organisational culture.

We’ve come at the challenge from a variety of perspectives:

There is a financial reward system to encourage all staff to identify and pass on cross-selling opportunities. Simple vouchers for small referrals, percentage fees for chunkier ones

They have invested in systems so they have rich and accurate information about their clients, their business and assets, their markets, the people within them and the services they use. As well as tracking client web site visits, emails, day-to-day conversations and events attended. Although encouraging people to contribute and verify information remains a challenge

Senior people across all divisions have adopted the role of “Cross-selling ambassador” to provide a point of contact, reference and support. And these champions spearhead initiatives designed to dismantle barriers and forge better conversations across the firm

They have appointed senior partners to be responsible for managing the firm’s most valuable major clients and allocated responsibility for cross-selling in those key accounts

They have invested in client journey mapping to see where there are gaps and opportunities in services provided to clients. And they have developed protocols to cover all eventualities Mapping the client journey in professional services – Kim Tasso

They have invested significantly in internal communication – at onboarding, induction into new teams, at regular team meetings and all manner of other internal “proximity” events where colleagues can talk. They recognise that internal communication, internal relationships and constant engagement with colleagues is vital to create the understanding and trust that underpins cross-selling effectiveness

Their current focus is on training and skills development to prompt individual mindset and firm-wide cultural change. Younger professionals are supported in learning about the many different services that the firm provides. They are encouraged to visit other offices and to forge relationships with colleagues in different divisions. More senior professionals learn how best to support their teams and to take a more strategic view of business development with key client and referrer relationships in their division.

Referrals: A critical element of the business development plan

I’ve worked with several firms where the marketing and business development plans have a significant element dedicated to referrer management.

Those plans include detailed analyses of referral relationships in the past. They list those existing referrers that are critical to business success. They tailor strategies and tactics to enhance existing referrer relationships and generate new ones. And they allocate responsibility for key referrer relationships to specific partners. And then set SMART objectives and KPIs for developing those relationships.

Having identified the target referrers with whom they wish to establish a relationship, they have plans that involve years of careful effort. I once worked with a professional firm that found a significant proportion of its work flowed from three main referrers. Its future strategy focused on forging and developing two further such relationships. The firm – after a couple of years – achieved profit growth in excess of 150%.

The marketing team may also consider how to communicate with the “influencers” within the referrer community of their general marketing programmes. A strategy where they see external referrers more in their awareness and influence role rather than as direct recommendations. Influencer marketing in professional services

Referrals: Dedicated managers of the referrer channel

Some professional service firms have recently created dedicated roles within their marketing and business development teams to manage referrer relationships. This was a successful approach adopted by banks for hundreds of years – where “relationship managers” first appeared.

These people devote their entire careers to identifying, nurturing and deepening the firm’s relationships with referrers. For example, I’ve spoken to MBD executives in mid-sized and offshore law firms who focus on referrer relationships.

And I’ve seen the incredible work of an individual at a smaller law firm focusing on real estate and property referrer relationships. It’s essentially an account management role focusing on relationship management and sales.

In some firms – e.g. Davitt Jones Bould | The Real Estate Law Specialists | United Kingdom – they have taken things a step further. The lawyers focus entirely on legal work and all prospect, existing client and referral relationships are managed by business development account managers.

The secret ingredient for cross-selling and referrals

After decades of helping clients with cross-selling and external referrals, and navigating challenges of data and systems and policies and training – I believe it comes down to one thing. Trust.

Do you trust the person to whom you are referring your client? Whether they are within your firm (cross-selling), at an existing client (recommendations) or at another firm (referrer management).

And trust comes down to relationships.

So whether you are seeking to improve cross-selling or external referral management, you need to focus on establishing and strengthening the right relationships. Of course, you need the data and systems to support this behaviour. And you need your people to be confident, informed and equipped with the very best communication and sales techniques.

Cross-selling and referrer management are long term investment of fee-earner time. It is unlikely to generate immediate, short-term results. Referrals management is a long game. But it promises to deliver extraordinary benefits to your firm, to your clients and to you. Better Business Relationships book by Kim Tasso (Bloomsbury)

PM Magazine edition on cross-selling and referrer management

The July/August 2025 edition of Magazine – PM Forum (member access only) focused on referrer relationships. I’ve extracted some of the key points covered:

A survey in June by Passle suggests millions in revenue is being lost because lawyers are reluctant to refer work to their colleagues. Its survey suggests that firms could achieve a 12% increase in revenues through a solid internal referral programme (cross-selling)
- Cross-selling is the biggest missed opportunity, according to three-quarters of senior law firm marketers (150 MBD heads – split equally between UK and US fims). 49% claim that lawyers don’t try because they don’t want to appear “too pushy”
- Lack of interest or incentives was an issue for a third (33%) and 28% said their fee-earners preferred to refer work to contacts outside the firm

At a recent seminar, Passle suggested a variety of activities including creating internal content digests to identify relevant colleagues and spark collaboration. Though manual today, this mirrors the approach of tools like Passle’s CrossPitch AI

Consultants Alix Partners reported that 30% – 40% of revenues can come from referrals and intermediaries in some practice areas. Recommendations and referrals come from law firms, investment banks and others. As much as 70% if you count private equity. Many referrals to smaller firms may dry up as they grow and become perceived as rivals.

A key challenge in encouraging cross-selling (or internal cross-referrals) is around breaking down internal silos through internal communications

Advice from law firm TLT in Bristol was to treat referrers as clients. These valuable relationships need to be nurtured and developed properly and not left to chance

The international intellectual property (IP) industry is global in nature and is very much driven by international (especially transatlantic referrals for European firms) referrals.

Law firm Spencer West (350 partners and 100 other fee-earners) thinks referrals are so important it based its business model on them. They believe their approach to internal and external referrals is revolutionary. It combines the independence of a barristers chambers with the collaborative nature of a full service law firm. Silos are overcome by using a revenue share model – so they take home more than they are billing (I wrote about Keystone using this model back in 2015 Legal marketing case study – Cross selling and referrer management)

There’s a deep dive into the referral programme at Mills & Reeve lawyers. The MBD team acts as a referral engine for their firm. A centralised approach to tracking and mapping a multitude of relationships doesn’t necessarily mean that there is responsibility and accountability. While there’s no “one size fits all” approach to tracking data, it is important to identify where to invest time (ROR – Return on Relationships). The firm has created working groups with representatives from every office. They have gamified the approach. They organised an inaugural cross-selling week – a social media exercise generated 600 engagement points, 90 ideas to help improve referrals and almost 65 referrals. They focus on consistent internal and external relationship activity. The MBD team supports visibility within and beyond the firm and bring structure to tracking, reporting and follow up activities.

Consultant Thomas Coles describes a research-based approach to referral management. “Research shows that more than 80% of satisfied clients are willing to recommend a firm but less than 30% do so without being asked”. He advocates using networking to find referrals rather than direct clients. He notes that referrals are 70% more likely to convert than any other lead source. He cites research from the Growth Consultancy Network that 48% of all new revenue in professional services is generated by referrals but only 12% of those firms have a systematic referral strategy. 82% of B2B buyers start looking for a new provider by asking their network for recommendations – so without referrals you are effectively targeting only 18% of available client spend. He suggests that any referrer will be willing to give you 10 referrals throughout your professional relationship. Three techniques advocated:

- Prepare for meetings using LinkedIn to identify possible opportunities
- Asking for specific referrals in a way that enables them to identify a name (but ask in person not digitally)
- Reciprocating and offering referrals so there is mutual value

Referrer management and cross-selling are core strategies