The Kresge meetup that flipped my whole referral approach
I hit a Detroit Business Networking event at the Kresge building last month, maybe 25 people there. One older guy, runs a commercial HVAC outfit, told me he lands 80 percent of his work from a single former client who refers him twice a quarter. He said, and I quote, "Stop chasing room energy and start mining your oldest ten customers." I came home and wrote handwritten notes to my ten longest tree service clients, no ask, just checking in. Two of them already sent me leads this week, which is more than I got from three months of general mixers. Anyone else found that one loyal source beats a hundred weak connections?
That "mining your oldest ten customers" thing hits different when you flip it around, like what if the guy referring you is doing it because YOU were that loyal client to someone else once? I got two regulars who send me folks and I've never asked them once, we just stayed in touch after jobs. Makes me wonder if the whole mixer scene is just people hunting for what they should be building slowly instead.