Referrer Management: Improve knowledge of your referrers

September 29, 2025|Accountants, Kim's Blog, Lawyers, Marketing, Relationship Management, Selling|

A recent MBL workshop on referrer management was attended by fee-earners and business development professionals from law and accountancy firms. The over-arching theme to emerge was to improve the knowledge we have about our referrer relationships. Considering the data, research, systems and habits we need for referrer relationships prompted one delegate to comment “It reminds me of the gala scene in The Devil Wears Prada – where the assistant stands behind Miranda whispering everything she needs to know about each guest”. Referrer Management: Improve knowledge of your referrers – Your “Devil wears Prada” gala briefing moment.

Reasons for a referrer management strategy (and challenges when creating one)

I recently published a long article covering a variety of topics on referrer management: Cross-selling and referrer management – Past, present and future. That article sets the context for many of the ideas at the session.

An early discussion explored the reasons delegates were keen to develop a referrer management strategy. And also some of the challenges they have encountered in doing so.

Reasons for a referrer management strategy	Challenges in creating and implementing referrer management strategies
Growth	Lack of time
Sustainability of the business	How to ensure focus
Measure success through a structured approach	Knowing where to start
Grow market share of specific case types	How to structure an effective programme – it has happened really organically
Save time – ensure we are targeting the right people in the right way	Little experience from other people in firm
It’s a successful approach and the main source of opportunities for transactions	Measuring success
To maximise this potential source of work	Engagement of other firms where there would be real value for them
Referrals happen but not in a strategic way in our firm	Successful agreements not then leading to case referrals
To preserve and strengthen the relationships we already have with referrers	We need to see our clients as firm clients and not department clients
Expand the work we do for new clients	Getting buy-in (getting visibility of the connections is challenging)
Improve our referral process – increase efficiency and effectiveness	Measuring the relationship and the value but also adding value (as the BD function)
Maintain our existing referrer relationships	Finding the right point of contact at the referrer organisation
	Internal communication – knowing who does what and being confident about recommending them to others (for cross-selling)
	“Godfather” issues – where our own people and clients are unaware of the various services we provide
	Diverse referrer groups: lawyers (within and outside our jurisdiction), property agents, banks, accountancy firms, trade unions
	Ensuring accountability amongst those who are tasked with developing referrer relationships

Improve knowledge of your referrers

We explored many ideas to improve internal referrals (cross-selling) and external referrer and intermediary management.

But a constant theme was the need to know more about our referrers – as individuals and about their teams and firms. We need to encourage everyone to develop their knowledge of referrers:

Before we target them
When planning to connect with them
As we meet them
Following up from our initial contact
Developing a plan to strengthen relationships
Co-ordinating activity as the relationship grows
Introducing juniors (NextGen) into the relationship
Identifying opportunities for referrals
Knowing how to add value or reciprocate

Various exercises revealed that we had huge gaps in our knowledge about both potential and existing referrers. All good strategies – for the firm, teams and individuals – are underpinned by great data and knowledge. And it is no different for referrer management strategies.

The way to improve knowledge of our referrers involves several activities:

CRM – Most firms maintain information about referrer organisations in a central database or CRM. Technology helps scrape data and populate these systems. The challenge is to encourage behaviour to use and update the information. We need our people to sense check the data, to fill the gaps, to note recent contacts and plan future action. One delegate mentioned #1 Relationship Intelligence Platform | Introhive – saying that it was powerful – particularly its relationship maps.

Financial systems integration – It is often in financial systems where we record the source of clients and new work matters. So the relevant referrer information might be separate from the CRM. We need mechanisms to ensure accuracy when this information is recorded (are people aware of how to note the involvement of external referrers and why it is important?). And find ways to integrate contact and financial referral information. To measure the success of a referrer management programme we need to show success. Our systems need to track the volume and value of referrals.

Listening research programmes – Many firms have client listening programmes. But few extend these programmes to having deep conversations and a structured approach to knowledge acquisition about referrers. Assessing how referrers perceive us, and their satisfaction with our services in important information to shape our referrer management strategies. Some firms organise de-briefs once a referrer has referred a client or piece of work – to assess perceptions and reasons, and to organise an appropriate way to thank the referrer.

Referrer profiles and plans – Whatever systems are used, firms need a mechanism to record and centralise information about specific referrers. And make this information available as a resource for all in the firm who need to know about those referrers. A profile might contain an overview of the referrer organisation and its history with the firm. And the web of interconnecting relationships. The plan holds more dynamic information about what we are trying to learn and our objectives for the relationship and opportunities for referrals in the short and long term.

Internal communications – Many firms have multiple teams and individuals interacting with referrers. There needs to be constant communication and co-ordination to bring all these strands together so that the firm is unified in its approach. Internal communication is particularly important to support internal referrers (cross-selling). Both to ensure we know about each others’ services and to build trust between internal teams.

Team updates – There are often multiple people within the firm who have relationships with referrers. And strategically important referrer relationships usually require a team-wide (sometimes a firm-wide) approach. So regular conversations within the team are needed where knowledge is pooled, priorities set and actions allocated for referrers.

Sales systems – Some firms deploy smart systems to support their relationship management. This includes sophisticated CRM systems such as SalesForce. And social media paid services like LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator. Increasingly, firms are using AI support tools to make research into individuals and organisations more efficient and effective.

Meeting preparation – We looked at a variety of ways to learn more about referrers before meeting them. This spanned simple desk research (web sites and annual reports) to regularly scanning news and sector media. Social media is valuable for keeping up to date with the latest news and developments of referrers. One delegate remarked that it reminded her of a scene from the film “The Devil Wears Prada” where an assistant was deployed to ensure that the main character was fully briefed on each delegate – their role, their organisation, their spouse and recent updates. This would ensure that things got off to a good start and that the conversation was appropriately focused.

Personalisation – Most firms invest significantly in a variety of communications programmes – through events, emails and social media. However, to maximise effectiveness these communications need to be tailored to the different audiences. Data drives segmentation and targeting programmes. And data and research will enable messages to be personalised to groups and individuals.

Day to day conversations – Most referrer management strategies involve creating opportunities to get people from your own firm together with those from the referrer organisations – usually in a face-to-face environment. But being clear about what questions to ask to fill knowledge gaps is rarely part of the planning process. Referrer conversations are effectively sales conversations – to build and deepen the relationship, to develop trust, to explore needs and to identify mutually attracted opportunities. All these conversations need information and research to inform them and make them productive.

Delegates enjoyed the session, their comments including:

” Kim was very engaging, responsive and interesting to listen to.”

“Thank you for the session it has been really valuable”

“Thank you Kim, much appreciated. It’s been a really informative day”

“Super valuable session – Thank you. Highly relevant to my role – as I am about to kick off our Referrer KAMs at the moment. Thank you Kim!”

Delegate feedback

The session was attended by equal numbers of fee-earners and business development professionals from law and accountancy firms. They provided a wide range of professional services (tax advice, personal injury, disputes, employment law etc) across a number of sectors (sports, tech, financial services, professional services, commercial property, high net worth, family offices).

Delegate aims

Best way to approach referrers
Improve the way referrals are generated
Large proportion of our instructions comes through referrals
Better encourage fee-earners to engage in the process
Lots of contact with intermediaries – how do we put our reach past them and encourage their clients to connect with us
Increase buy in to the referrer management process
Promote our offering to referrers more effectively
Learn how to get the most from referrers

Incentives for referrals?

There was an early debate about incentives for staff to increase referrals. Some felt it would motivate people to dedicate time to developing referrer relationships. Some considered setting targets for referrers. Others felt it was difficult as their staff were either not in a position to generate referrals or all providing similar services – so it might be divisive. A compromise appeared to be to recognise referrer management effort and results in appraisals.

What do you want people seeking referrals from you to know about your firm

As an empathy exercise, we put the shoe on the other foot. And considered what we would like other firms to know about us before seeking referrals from us. We can then put this into practice by ensuring we don’t make the same mistakes others do when approaching our referrers!

Understand our client base
Know what we do and don’t do and how we price
Our areas of specialism
Breadth of services we offer
Our deep sector knowledge and market expertise
When they have no idea of how fees are calculated

In terms of the irritating behaviour we experience from those seeking referrals from us:

Co-ordinate rather than contact 12 different fee-earners and arranging separate meetings
Non specialist lawyers do some DIY work and raise their clients expectations in cases where prospects are low
Unrealistic expectations of what work we can refer back

Delegate Takeaways

Declining client loyalty over the years and projected to decline further
Be curious What is curiosity and why is it important in business relationships? (Video)
Ask all the questions Why are questions so important? (Questioning skills)
Change the team mindset to think about what’s important to the referrer
Make conversations about the referrers – not us
Play to your strengths and work on weakness
Grow relationships organically – without the need for a hard sales pitch
KAM is becoming more important Key Account Management (KAM) – Start small, Be strategic
A successful referrer programme has lots of moving parts – data, internal alignment, using systems better, learning more about referrers and changing culture

Delegate planned actions

Strategy
- Set time aside to work on referrer relationships
- Agree a plan
Systems
- Use CRM more
- Track and referrers and referrals more effectively
- Share information about referrers – to encourage collaboration
- Proactive tracking of referrals
- Develop easier ways to analyss success
- Align processes (client and referrer KAMs)
Extend research
- Complete referrer profiles
- Engage referrers in client listening programme
- Focus attention on referrer listening – understand more about their needs/pain points
- Conduct more research
- Create a referrer map across the firm
Internal communications
- Focus attention on buy in across the firm via messaging and comms
- Develop understanding and cross collaboration with colleagues
- Discuss referral opportunities with the team
- Collaborate across teams
- Communicate – internally and consider how to best communicate externally
Networking
- Suggest new ways to network
- Explore how to reciprocate
Revisit the KAM programme
- Use the basic KAM system we have
- Use the campaign template
- Extend our KAM to accommodate referrers
Training and motivation
- Adopt the partner/junior mentoring and buddying programme
- Positively build momentum
- Reward fee-earners for involvement
- Maintain momentum by dedicating time

Delegate poll results

Your role

50% Delivering services to clients (fee-earning)
50 % Marketing, business development and selling

Your sector

80% Legal
20% Accountancy

Which topic is of most interest?

30% Key Account Management (KAM)
20% Strategy and planning
20% Working with external referrers
20% Psychology of selling
10% Cross-selling to existing clients
0% Sales process

Approach to selling/business development mostly:

33% Cast the net wide – connect with lots of people
67% Targeted – aimed at specific organisations and individuals

Amount of work generated by internal and external referrals?

9% Less than 20%
18% 20% – 50% of our work
27% 50% – 80% of our work
18% Over 80% of our work
27% Don’t know

Main focus for a referrer management strategy

50% The firm
50% A particular team

Our systems and information for referral management are:

64% Average
27% Inadequate
9% Non-existent

Main reasons cross-selling doesn’t work well:

89% Everyone too busy/no time
44% We are in silos
44% Lack of information about other services
44% No incentive
11% Lack of trust between departments
11% Client resistance
22% Something else

Digital activities most effective for building relationships with referrers?

33% Social media
22% Emails and newsletters
11% Zoom/Teams meetings
11% Webinars
22% Something else

Use of social media in referrer relationship management?

100% Connecting after meeting
100% Researching individuals and organisations
78% Sharing our content
78% Liking and sharing their content
67% Monitoring/listening to their accounts
33% Approaching referrers in LinkedIn groups
22% Collaborative social media campaigns
11% Endorsements and recommendations
11% Sharing joint content
11% Other

How do you feel about selling?

33% Uncomfortable
50% Neither uncomfortable or comfortable
17% Comfortable

How much time do you spend selling?

56% 0-10% of my time
0% 10-40% of my time
11% About 50% of my time
33% 50% – 80% of my time
0% Almost 100% of my time

How well do you understand the psychology of business relationships?

10% Not at all well
20% Not well
60% OK
10% Well

What is your personality type? Adapting to dog, cat and bear personalities – Better business relationships (kimtasso.com)

90% Dog
10% Cat

Do you have a Key Account Management (KAM) programme at your firm? Key Account Management (KAM) programme (kimtasso.com)

14% No
43% Yes, but it isn’t working very well
43% Yes, some teams work well with it