This is Part 5 of our series on 5 Surefire Ways to Attract More Referrals. (Click to read parts 1, 2, 3, or 4.)

Ask for referrals: Yes, this is a no-brainer, but boy, do 90% of the remodelers I talk with do a poor job of this. This tip is about being proactive when it comes to generating referrals. So often we are reactive or passive. Referrals come to us, which is great, but we don’t do anything to generate more of them.

As just one example of how to be more proactive with generating referrals, try this line that John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing taught me many years back: When you are presenting your quote to a prospect, say something like this: “My expectation is that you are going to be so thrilled with the work we do for you, whether at the end of the job, three months from now, or three years from now, that you are going to happily refer us to your friends and family.”

Now, what did you accomplish by saying that? You are setting the “expectation” that the homeowners are going to be thrilled with the work you are going to do for them. Not only are they going to be thrilled, but — at some point in the future — they are going to happily refer you.

There are so many ways we can be more proactive in generating referrals — but I wanted to focus this tip on just one aspect of your referral marketing system, which is simply to ask for referrals. Make it an expectation of doing business with you as we did in the above example.

Other practical ideas: Mention it in your email signatures and on the bottom of your invoices; in your Thank You cards to clients; in your client newsletter; on your website. You get the point!

Just set the tone in your company that referrals are important. Thank everyone who sends you a referral (whether that referral turns into a job or not). Don’t sit back and wait for referrals to happen — be proactive and make it an expectation of doing business with your remodeling company. When you do it respectfully, it doesn’t come off as “desperate” or “begging” — it comes off as professional and is very effective.

—Kyle Hunt is the owner of Remodel Your Marketing and creator of The Excellence Club. Contact him at 517.548.7140; email him at[email protected]; find him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/KyleHunt.