Okay, so you know a lot of people. You’ve got their names and contact information in a database or contact management system, along with some notes about what they do. You suspect that many of these people are able to send you referrals or otherwise help you build your practice.

But most of them don’t.

In fact, you never hear from most of them. Why is that? Because [. . .drum roll. . .] they never hear from you.

Yeah, it’s that simple. They might be willing to send you business. The primary reason many of them don’t is that they don’t think about you.

But that’s easy to change. If you do nothing more than commit to regularly staying in touch with your business contacts, you’ll go a long way towards activating a fair percentage of them and turning passive contacts into active referral sources.

Staying in touch allows you keep your name in front of your contacts. When they have someone who needs your services, that alone might earn you a referral.

I say “might” because there are a lot of other reasons why someone might not refer. You can go a long way towards further increasing the odds of getting them to do something for you if you do something for them first.

That “something” doesn’t have to be a referral. It might be sharing information with them about a prospective client, news about their target market or industry, marketing ideas you think they could use, or even a personal favor.

How do you know what you can do to help them?

You ask.

In addition to staying in touch with your business and professional network, en mass, through email primarily, you should also call at least one member of your network each week.

Get re-acquainted. Ask how they are doing, and how you can help. What are they working on? What do they need? What do their clients need? If it’s not something you can help them with directly, you might know someone who can.

Are they looking for a software solution? Websites in their niche that accept advertising or guest posts? Are they working too many hours because they don’t know how to find and hire a virtual assistant? Do they simply need a word of encouragement?

No matter how busy you are, you can call one business contact each week. Do that, ask them how you can help them, and watch how many ask how they can help you.

For more ways to turn lawyers and other professionals into referral sources, get this