If you’re like 90 percent of personal trainers out there you probably get most of your business from word-of-mouth referrals. That is great and you never want to push referral marketing out the door as a long-term and ongoing source of clients.

However, you still want to make sure you are doing as much as you can to maximize referral-generating behavior:

Referral-generating behavior are the ideas you put in place that make their clients want to talk about you.

Think of the common way a word-of-mouth referral is initiated:

You are at a BBQ with friends, the topic of the host’s beautiful grass comes up, someone asks how he does it and he tells them about the company that comes out and sprays twice a month. Boom. Word-of-mouth referral for the lawn company.

The host doesn’t walk around telling everyone about the lawn care company, it just sort of came up in conversation. But he might mention the lawn care company if they incentivized him with some kind of reward.

Lucky for you, you don’t have to wait for the BBQ to get a referral. You can create referral-generating behavior on your own.

In your personal training business referrals are a bit easier to come by because the results of speak for themselves. Incentivize your clients to get their friends in to see you by letting them know that their referral will result in something free for them and their friend.

In a study conducted on referrals it was shown that the person who gave the referral was more interested in helping out one of their friends than they were helping themselves to the reward for the referral.

In other words, provide an incentive for both sides of the referral – the referrer and referee – that will make both of them happy. One free personal trainer session for each is always a good idea but you can get more creative if you want.

To take it a step further, make the process of referring that much easier. Sure you can tell your clients about your referral incentive program and see what happens.

Or, you can draft some kind of document or email that can easily be shared with the friend. This way your client has something tangible to pass on – like a card or an email – and the recipient has the card to bring in or the email in which to redeem with you.

It is perfectly fine to ask your clients for referrals on a weekly or monthly basis. Just don’t look desperate – give your clients the perception that you are really busy by saying something like “My schedule just opened up and I can take on new clients. If you know anyone that is interested please let them know I have some slots available.” Reinforce your verbal message with the tangible email referral they can forward to their friend or the referral card.

Hint: If you really are busy, don’t give your clients the impression that you are not. A busy personal trainer is looked at as a good personal trainer. Pick your times that you want to ask for referrals discerningly so you don’t look desperate. The email approach works here because it is a bit softer than the verbal ask.