I wrote yesterday about the "flip" - the moment when you can see that the person you're talking to trusts you and acknowledges your expertise in this field.

One of the best ways to get their is to get referrals from people. Because a referral is borrowing trust from someone else.

A few weeks ago, I received a referral from someone I used to work with. He had a client who needed some software work that was way beyond his needs, so he asked me to speak to her. We met at her house and while she was making me a cup of tea, she says "so you used to work with A then?". I replied "yeah, we both worked for this company, where I built a system that did X, Y and Z and effectively ran their entire business". She looked down and away and I realised that she was convinced, less than two minutes into our meeting.

Because she trusted A so much, when I turned up on A's recommendation, she was waiting for me to say the right thing so that she could proceed.

Take action: What system do you have in place to get referrals?