The advocate you have not noticed is already sending you work

4 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Introduction

Somewhere in most small businesses there is a person who has recommended it several times and has never been thanked, because nobody joined the enquiries up. The referrals arrived as searches for the business name, or as calls from people who said a friend suggested it, and the friend was never identified.

This matters for two reasons. The obvious one is courtesy. The more practical one is that an unacknowledged advocate eventually stops, having received no evidence that any of it was noticed, and the channel closes without anybody understanding why.

Finding these people takes very little work and is the most reliable growth available to a small business. An afternoon with your own records is the whole exercise.

1. The advocate you have not noticed is visible in your enquiry records

The first place to look.

Anywhere a source was recorded as a recommendation, there is a person behind it. Go back through a year. Names appear more often than expected. Even partial records are worth reading.

2. Ask new customers who mentioned you

The forward-looking method.

Not just how they heard of you, but who specifically. This one extra question identifies advocates in real time. It is also the field most enquiry forms omit. Add it today.

3. Look for geographical clusters

The pattern.

Several customers from the same street, estate or village usually trace back to one person. Sort your customer list by area. The cluster is the clue. Ask the most recent one who suggested you.

4. Look for occupational clusters

The professional version.

Several customers in the same trade or workplace often share a source, frequently somebody who advises them all. That person may not be a customer at all. They are worth identifying regardless. An adviser can be a larger source than any client.

5. Ask your existing customers directly

The simplest approach.

A conversation with a long-standing customer often reveals they have been recommending you for years. Nothing in your records would have shown it. Ask ten and you will find one. Ask it as a question about them rather than about you.

6. Check who your suppliers send

The overlooked source.

Suppliers, subcontractors and adjacent trades refer constantly and are rarely counted as advocates. Their referrals arrive looking like ordinary enquiries. Ask them. Reciprocate where the work genuinely fits.

7. Look at who leaves reviews unprompted

The public signal.

Somebody who wrote about you without being asked is almost certainly recommending you privately as well. The review is the visible fraction. Follow it up personally. A short thank you is enough.

8. Thank them properly once found

The essential step.

An acknowledgement of everything they have sent, even years late, repairs the omission and usually produces more. Be specific about what you know. The lateness matters less than you would think. Say how much of the work traces back to them.

9. Keep the list from now on

The prevention.

One field recording who sent each enquiry prevents this situation recurring. It is the whole fix. Everything in this article is a workaround for not having it. Add the field before you start the search.

Be careful about approaching somebody who does not think of themselves as an advocate. A single casual mention is not a referral relationship, and treating it as one can feel presumptuous rather than appreciative.

Conclusion

Go looking for the people who have been recommending you unnoticed.

Search a year of enquiry records for recommendation sources, ask every new customer who specifically mentioned you, sort your customers by area and by occupation to find clusters that share a source, ask long-standing customers directly, check what your suppliers and adjacent trades send you, follow up anybody who reviewed you unprompted, thank the people you find even if the acknowledgement is years late, and record the source of every enquiry from now on.