Referral etiquette

Question from a client: Can you ask for a referral from someone you never worked with?

The short answer to your question is yes, you can certainly ask for a referral from someone you haven't actually worked with. In fact, Peleg says most of the people who spontaneously pass his name along have never been actual clients. If you've been communicating with them over time, they probably have a strong sense of your work and you as a business person. You may however, want to finesse the language a bit. For example, you can ask them to pass your name along rather than cough up names of actual prospects.

Comments

[Calvin]

I have gotten a few good clients as referrals from the HOW Design forum without asking. I have been posting on there for awhile now. I'm part of the community. People know my work and trust me to pass along work they may not have time to work on.