By showing them what they stand to gain from giving you the referral!

I would suggest that you have a conversation with your customer, when you have just confirmed that they are happy with your product, along the following lines:

• What specifically did you like about our products?
• Why did you choose us in the end?
• What did our solution enable you to really achieve?
• How do you believe you would put a value on that?
• And what precisely would that value be?
• How long did it take you to get that value?
• Who are the first three friends that come to your mind when you think about people who could benefit from this service in the same way as you did?
• Would they be happy if you told them about us?

Even though partnerships are even less predictable than advertising or direct mail, try to outline your expectations beforehand.

Remember, although you probably won’t spend much money on sourcing profitable partners, it will definitely cost you a lot of your time and effort. That’s why it’s important to put down what you expect to achieve from it.

Now make sure you start building your list and let the whole magic of profitable partnerships happen.