Ask most people what makes for a good referral and they’ll likely tell you, “Need”.  Well, maybe.

If a need is clearly obvious, that’s good.  You just crashed your car?  I know a good auto-body repair shop you can trust. Your grass is too high?  I know a kid that’ll cut it for you.  Those match-ups are no-brainers.

The problem is, ‘need’ is not always a current issue.  Nor is it always visible to others.

Why do hunters sit in trees near deer runs in the woods?  Why do fishermen cast lines near a reef in the ocean or sunken trees in a lake?  Why do cats sit outside mouse holes?  Why did John Dillinger rob banks and not bakeries?

Because what they want to find is more likely to found there than anywhere else!

So What Can You do To Help Others Refer You, Effectively?
One suggestion?  Use CVS factors.  No, not CVS the pharmacy chain.  The acronym stands for factors or characteristics that a good person to meet might be able to satisfy.  E.G.:

• C . . . ommon
  what factors are common to your best or ‘better’ clients?
• V . . . isible
  what factors can be easily identified without having to be psychic?
• S . . . ituations
  what situations suggest a likely need for the benefit/s you offer?

One of my first clients, a financial planner in CT asked people, “Do you know someone who owns a boat — 42′ or bigger — that they dock in a marina on Long Island Sound?”.

That one factor correlated so positively with the kind of person he could serve well that asking this question of people he met,  led him to some excellent clients and a highly productive practice.

POINT:
Ask to meet people who have CVS characteristics that correlate highly with the kind of person who can best understand, value, desire and afford your services.

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