Do Your Clients Actually Like You? The Secret to Referrals

Today on the podcast, we're going to look at how to get more clients. Now, the case study that we're going to use is what will I put it now? OK, electrician, let's just put it that way. So we're going to be using an electrician as a case study. And the reason why was because the question came from an electrician. There's not an electrician who listens to the podcast but rather someone who catches my radio show which is live every single Tuesday on Radio Maria 91.3 FM, Abuja.

However, if you're just listening to this particular podcast episode and you live in Abuja and you tune into the radio show because you know you don't want to see, you want to catch the radio vibes, you won't catch me this week. And that's because I'm actually in Benue Estate. I travelled to spend the Christmas with Mumsy and of course the kids, you know, they like seeing their cousins. So yeah, it's just a nice way to go and chill at home and then ride out into the new year.

And oh, by the way, apologies, making today's recording at home. It's late in the night and everybody has slept because you know how it is now, as in when I'm in Abuja is busy enough now I'm here, Mumsy's here, cousins are here, everybody's here. So it's a full house. So I had to wait until everybody went to bed so I can have some peace and quiet just so I can mention this recording. So anyway, what I was trying to say is if you're trying to catch me live in Abuja, you won't because I'm not in Abuja.

So the episode that is going live is something that has been pre recorded just in case you say let me catch this guy, it's pre recorded. But anyway, that's not a problem. I leave instructions on the radio show for how people are supposed to get in touch. But for those of you who are not going to listen to the radio show and you would like to get in touch with me here, I always give my personal phone number. My name is Tavishima Aidi.

I'm a former lawyer turned business consultant. Sorry. Excuse me. My time is really rough in this place. So what was that? Yeah, so former lawyer to our business consultant. If you'd like to reach out, then you can call, send me a text message or send me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Then I'm also on LinkedIn if in case you'd like to reach out to me on socials. I'm not on any other social media then of course, if you love these sorts of things, how do you get more clients?

How do you close deals? You like these sorts of stuff, then subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your choice. Now let's get back to the question for today. How do you get more clients, especially if you're an electrician? But like I say on the podcast, it doesn't matter who or what we use as a case study, whether we use oil and gas or real estate or electrician or Carpenter or mechanic or whatever, The principles apply.

So every single time you hear electrician, but what you do is maybe you sell car financing services, just remove, excuse me, just remove electrician and then insert car financing services. You will see that the principles, the practices, the tactics apply. Even if you know to apply, then just ask yourself, OK, how can I squeeze it and kind of make it work? This is how we improve ourselves. All right, now the fellows have been the question, how do I get more clients?

I'm an electrician and I'll tackle the question. But of course, I let the folks know on the radio that these kind of questions, you know, you know, to help all these general, general questions because the problem with these general questions is we can be asking, you know, we can be given idea, idea, idea from now on till eternity, but we might not hit the spot. So it helps when you can be much more particular. So if you say I'm an electrician, I'm based in Lago state, I've been doing this thing for 22 years.

This is how I built my business. It was OK, I put my children through school. However, my children are saying, Daddy, you suppose tap into this online thing and I'm wondering online, where do I even start? Is it possible for me Now, that kind of question now is fairly specific. I now have a sense of who you are. I have a sense of your trading history. I have a sense of what you've tried and I have a sense of where it is that you're looking forward to, to try and grow the business.

Now I can start dropping some ideas and then we'll try and reason it and see how we can make progress. So if you're going to send me some questions, I already give my phone number at the top of the episode. The more specific you can make it, the better for me, because honestly, boring. I say boring questions. In fact, yes, boring questions, all these open, open questions. How can I find more clients? They get boring after a while.

I've done 1300 episodes, You know, that's a lot of episodes. If you're going to give the same old boring question that everybody asks, it's, you know, been there, done that. So be more specific, give some more context. It will help me, let me work on some creative problems, especially since you guys are not paying me, and then it will help you. The broadcast episode that I make will now be particular to you. You will listen and then bam,

the thing will hit you in your chest and you now know, OK, this is what I need to now try next. Speaking of hitting people in the chest, my partners and I are coming up with the training on the 12th of January 2026 and it's on how to sell using the phone. So if you're a consultant, if you are an electrician, anybody who wants to improve their sales and you think you can do that by using the phone, by calling people, by haggling on the phone, by negotiating on the phone, by making a presentation on the phone, by doing whatever on the phone, then this training is for you.

If you're interested, I've already given my contact details 0806466 2140 Reach out, let's chat. When you reach out, I will ask you a couple of questions. Because I want to know about you. I want to know about your history, I want to know about your vision, your goals. I want to know where you're heading. Because I want to be sure that this program can indeed help you. Because I love money and if you dash me money, I'll collect it.

But I do not want to be a fraud. I only want to collect money from people that I know that I can help. And honestly speaking, if I can't help you, I will tell you. Now bro, you know what Madam? You know what I'll for? Like take your money. But honestly, what you need to do is work on this, work on this, work on this, or go and check this person instead. I can't help you if I will convince you and I'll confuse you. Reach out to me, you'll be surprised.

But there are Nigerians like that who will tell you straight to your face that you know what, I can do that. Speaking of that, I was talking with my sister-in-law today because she, I just found out that my sister-in-law can drive. Can't imagine. And I was wondering, all these years, I didn't know she could drive. I could have been putting her to good use, like, oh, I beg. I mean, they're blind, you know, go and pick up the kids from school, that kind of thing.

But I had no idea Anyway So just the day I knew she could drive so she dropped me and my family at the park when we travelled. So where are we now? So my sister-in-law is a Baker now and so she said somebody contacted her for dummy cake 100% and then nothing just blew my mind. I said what do you mean? She said dummy cake. Now the whole thing. Now see I used to be in the event space as a wedding photographer and some couples used to do this thing.

And please, if you're one of these couples, why are you forming? Stick to your own level. If what you can't afford is 1 level cake, just do one level cake and leave you be. How can you make one level is cake? The remaining 2 levels of cake is plastic or Styrofoam to deceive who you will now tell people that you had a three Level 3 tier cake. Meanwhile, your cake is only the topmost level that is cake the other two is plastic is Styrofoam.

Anyway, so I've known about this for a while, but then my sister-in-law, she blew my mind. She told me that somebody called her today and they say for their own wedding they want to do whole thing. The four levels everything should be Styrofoam. I say. What she say yes that everything should be Styrofoam. I say not even one single grain of of sand or nothing will be a dual cake. She said no, that everything will be Styrofoam.

And they say why do people do this? And she said my sister-in-law said the country is hard now and people want to represent, people want to flex. So you just make that massive thing there and you think almost see this cake, 7 layers. Meanwhile the whole thing is plastic. How did I get here? Well, hey, I was talking about Nigerians who say no. So my sister-in-law said that, well, yeah, that people do it. But what she told the person was, you know what?

I know this other Baker who already has this thing prefigured, as in she already has the model set already there in the shop. So what you do is you just call up, tell her that I sent you. You will just rent the model. There's no need to pay me to sculpt something brand new. I looked at my sister-in-law and I said OK I will use her real name. I say sis. She said. I said I think that he did is wise. She said why is he wise?

I said because somebody who saw that in Nigerian is being honest like this. In the future when there's something she'll call you up because she knows that this babe, I can trust this babe. And then my sister-in-law gave me high 5. She said exactly, that's what I was going for and I said, sister, it is not flesh and blood that reveal this name to you. It is the Holy Spirit that told you this is the way to go. So yes, the Nigerians who say no and if you're one of those people, continue.

You will not see the benefit now, but in the future, you know, some business will come your way and you now find out somehow, somehow that's because you told somebody no before. People are like, I can trust this guy, I can trust this babe so that later on when there's something good, something substantial, they'll say call this guy. This guy is straightforward. Call this babe. This baby is straightforward. So we should learn how to say no.

How did I get here? I was saying that this training January 12th, 2026, learn how to sell using the phone. If I can't help you, I'll tell you that I can't help you. So reach out. Don't be scared. I'm not going to forcefully strong and collect your money. Who is this cost for? It's for different people. There's somebody who's reached out to me who is a account manager in Auto Check. Auto Check. What they do is they sell car financing.

So you want to buy a car, you want to put some money down and then you pay a small, small, small when your salary comes in and that's what Auto Check does. One of their managers has reached out to me. There's another entrepreneur who is in the skin space, in skin care space in Lagos and she's reached out, although she's thinking of the job opportunity at the end of the training because there is a job opportunity. Who else?

Another person has reached out to me. He's a voice actor. He runs his own production company and of course, he also consults in the voice acting space. They reached out and then who again? Who again? There are plenty, but you can see that people are coming from different walks of life, from different spheres of life, because they know that selling on the phone be a useful skill. The voice over guy, voice agency, voice acting, he knows that selling on the phone will be a useful skill.

The skin care artist, not artist, skin care, you know, beautician, consultant, she knows this thing will be a useful skill. The car financing guy who works in auto check, even though he's already hitting his quota, he knows that selling on the phone is a useful skill. All these people are reaching out because they know be a useful skill. So reach out let's talk If I can help you, we'll go ahead if I can't, I'll tell you, you know,

keep your money and maybe walk on one or two things instead or maybe check out this guy instead. OK so anyway, let's get straight into it because we don't have 13 minutes. I haven't even answered the question. Sorry about that. If this is your first time listening to the podcast, you know, this is how sometimes we we get off track, but don't worry, we always land the plane and I'll make it worth it. So for the electrician, I made a couple of assumptions from the way the guy sent the question.

I assume that the guy no to go school. That's my own assumption. So in this case, I said let's keep you simple. Now let's look at three things. Number one, we'll look at referrals #2 we'll look at inbound strategy #3 we'll look at outbound strategy. So excuse me. So I repeat, this was how I decided to tackle it with the guy. And #1 we'll look at referrals #2 inbounds #3 about now. This sounds like big grammar, so let's break it down.

What does referral mean? Referral is a big word, but in Nigeria, referral just means introduction. If you come and talk to me, you say I'm interested in this January 12th training. This is what I want to achieve in my business. And then we talk and I see that I can't help you. And I say, you know what? Called is my guy, he can help you out. Me saying called is my guy, he can help you out. That's an introduction. So therefore it is a referral.

If you are in business, you're a cake person. You make cakes. You made a wonderful cake for somebody last year in 2025. Now it's 2026 and maybe that person's younger sister is getting married and the person tells the younger sister call this babe, she's my cake person that call this person. That's an introduction, is it not? So therefore that is a referral. So every time on this podcast or in Nigeria, you hear anybody say referral, just substitute referral for introduction and you understand the game that is being played.

If you understand it, key in you are supposed to be playing that game too. So this is what you do, whether you're a cake person, you work in car financing or you work as an electrician, you gas to be getting referrals. In fact, for me, that's how I started taking my sales game seriously because as a young wedding photographer, I'd already showed a couple of weddings, not too many, you know, 10, maybe 20. And then one of my clients called me up to say, oh, I gave you a number to so and so, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, she will call you after the call ended. And I thought to myself, I said, Tavish, man, there's a problem. I said, how can I be in the game? Yeah, for this number of years, I've shot this number of people, and only one person is calling me to say, what's up, my girl is getting married. I told her that she should give you a call. It was then I said, Tavi Schumer, there's a problem. I started to look at my life,

well, my business life, not my personal life. Do you think my life that truly, truly, truly there's a problem. All you want a referral. So we should be reaching out to our past clients to try and get introductions. But the problem is lots of you reach out to your past clients and you say, you know, support your boy, you know, blah, blah, blah. Your boys are loyal, You know, all that kind of talk. But The thing is, you don't bother to find out first whether they weren't happy with you or not.

So when you call someone you're trying to get referrals, the first thing you should do is a debrief and try and figure out if they're happy. Are they happy with your product or your service? But I'm so, so, so and so. This is corny. I'm the guy who worked on your electrical panel last week. I'm just calling to be sure that everything is OK. That conversation goes a very long way. It's one of my wife's colleagues who needed somebody to fix that AC.

And my wife asked me, do you know somebody? I say, yeah, let me send that Amos. Amos is one of my guys. So I say, Amos, I beg. He's my wife's person. Take good care of her. So Amos went there, fixed the AC. One week later, Amos called. The lady didn't store the number, so she answered say hello, this is Amos. Who Amos? I'm the guy who fixed your AC last week. I just wanted to be sure if everything is OK. You don't believe him.

My wife's colleague also tripped. She was telling everybody that story. And then of course, when the time came to refer, who did she call was Amos? Because since then born that my wife's colleague, there is no hand work person, no electrician, no mechanic, no whatever. Since that woman was born, there's nobody that has called her to say nothing that I fixed for you last week. How far is it still working? That was the first time it had only happened to her.

Now in other places, you know, in the West, I guess maybe they do it a lot. But in Nigeria, small, small things like this, you stand out because you will do to some people, 456 people, it has never happened to them before and you will stand out, call people up. But I'm listening that I fixed for you this project that I worked on for you. How far is this still OK? Is it still working? That noise has the noise stop, That leaking, that linkage, that leakage has the thing stop.

Ask when people are happy and there's no problem, then you can now say abegma. I'll appreciate if you can help me move my ministry. If you can introduce me to anyone or two people it is then you can ask for a referral. If you ask for a referral, A referral before. If you ask for a referral prematurely, meanwhile they're angry with you. Meanwhile, The thing is not really too working. You'll be annoying some people, you'll be an irritant.

So the first thing we do is when I reach out to past clients, we debrief how far? Nothing that I fixed. Is he OK? Is everything cool? Everything kosher, everything on point. Then when it comes to asking for the introduction, don't keep it on a general level. Don't say Madam, who do you know that needs an electrician that's too broad. You need to keep it specific to what it is that you did for the person. So like now in a most case, you don't say, Madam, do you know anybody who needs an electrician that's too broad?

Anybody can need electrician that's too broad. And because it's too broad, the person will say, you know what? Let me think about it. If anybody asks, I will get back to you. So we keep the ass specific in this case, you have an electrician, you have fixed electrical panel or you have fixed AC. You ask the question Madam, do you know any of your colleagues who thinks they might be having a problem with their electrical panel?

Now, now that kind of 1 is very specific. They might not think of anyone. But The thing is, if you go around asking 20 people this kind of specific questions, you know, how know how two or three people will say, Oh yes, I was talking to chief so, so, so and so I was talking to Madam so, so, so, so and she mentioned that this this, this. I'm not sure if it's that kind of problem. Then from there's OK, Madam, can I have their number as I do it be specific if it's ACU fix for them.

Madam, is there anybody else in this estate, especially now we don't enter hammer time everywhere hot. Do you know anybody in this estate who you think is having problems with the AC? Now, one is fairly specific. She might not. But The thing is, if she has been gossiping with her neighbors, ah, this heat. OK, well, that one is not gossip. Ah, this heat, this AC. Oh my. She Nah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, she'll remember.

I said, oh, that's true. My Marisika, just two houses down. This is her phone number. If I wait, let me call her for you. So that is how he asked for the introduction for the referral. Keep it specific. OK, 20 minutes. I'm wondering whether I should continue or just bring you down to a close. OK, let me continue Now that's one leg. Referrals #2 inbound and outbound. Now inbound and outbound, they're just two faces of the same coin.

Inbound just means we try and structure our business, structure our marketing, structure our sales in such a way that people are chasing us. They'll be coming in to us. That is why it's called inbound. Then outbound is when we structure our business, our marketing so that everything is oriented outwards. We are going out to chase for people. So that is outbound. Now, which is better? No one is better. It depends who are you, what's your industry, what's your experience, what's your goals?

Either way, everybody should be doing both, but then you get to a certain level where you will crank one up or you will peel one back, but everybody should be doing it. Now, this is the example that I gave when I discussed this on the radio show. The example I gave was Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is everywhere. It's in my father's village. It's in your father's village. If you need Coke in the Sahara Desert, you will find it.

If you need Coke in the North Pole, it will get to you. They're everywhere. It just remaining for them to land on the moon. That's all. Coke is everywhere. But guess what? Coke is still advertising till today. As we entered, Michael D now sat in my mom's house, kids put on the TV. What do you I mean what? What do you know? Coca-Cola advertisement came on TVI was tripped. I said Coca-Cola and I still advertise. Before I was born they were advertising.

When I was born, they were advertising in my primary school. They were advertising secondary school, the advertising. Now I have my own children, the advertising, and guess what? When my children have children, Coca-Cola will still be advertising that is inbound. Let people see us, let them feel us. Let them remember us. Then that damn good, they rush us inbound. Then of course, outbound Coca-Cola, it's distribution LED.

So that was looking for new distributors. So they will always be looking for distributors, come and be a distributor for us and then distributors will be going out into the market. So advertising on one end, Coca-Cola is doing it, distributors on another end, Coca-Cola is doing it. But you can see even for the big boys, they don't pick one. They say let's only do inbound or let's only do outbound. Even the big boys, the big girls, they are playing both.

If Coca-Cola is doing both, who are you? Who are you? Do both do both right? So for inbound, some of the ideas that we played with for the electrician, Google My Business because there are some people who search for these things online. The first way is that somebody will go and ask your neighbor, say neighbor, I beg, my TV is misbehaving. Do you know anybody who can fix TV, who can fix their TV? Yes, that's the primary way, but there are some people who go online and if they go online,

you want to make sure that you'll be easy to to be found. So you should have optimized your profile if you're an electrician. I know some of you says hi bro, but please just allow me because how do I put it? You know, some of these are people who are like the no go school and they are like on one level. We should not keep consigning them to be on the same level forever. We should get them to dream them, let them let them scale up to let them clean up, let them to shop, let them refine small.

You can't keep being on the same level forever. So it's not too big. We can't say that Google is is more than them. Also, what's the time right now? So let me see because I'm supposed to. Oh, it's ready after I never. OK, let me wrap it up here. So I spoke about Google My Business, how you can optimize, how they can optimize the Google My Business listening. Make sure that your name is there, the business name is there a nice picture, photos of jobs that you have completed because it lends credibility opening times there.

If you have websites, put if you don't have websites, no problem, address on Google Maps. It helps if somebody wants to be able to drive directly to your shop in Area 3 or whatever. That's for those of you who are based in Abuja, which are addressed there. So that some people, because you know, there's some people who want the security of this guy has a physical office so that if there's anything we bundle police or military to go and carry that guy.

So yeah, put it there so that people can click on Google My Business profile and it leads you directly to their shop, then to your shop. Then of course, good reviews from past clients, you know, those sorts of things. Then we've already made lots of podcast episodes where we talk about optimizing WhatsApp business page. We've also spoken about advertising in the past. So you can see that this is, these are different ideas where you are trying to set things up so that people will find you and that damn would they rush you.

That is inbound. Then our bound is, you know, of course you're running out. Then I give examples about how that's through the referral angle. Let's say you fix Omar's DB or you fix Omar's AC and you think, man, this estate looks nice. It'd be like say you know, these people have some money because not all estates are created equal at all. Because those one time I had to pick up a, a delivery for my wife and it was in, was it in Sun City?

I think Sun City in Gala, Dimama, also in Abuja. And I drove in and normally when I drive in, I follow that center Rd. And you know those people on that center Rd. now, you know, they live like the rest of us, you know, just everyday ordinary people, you know, maybe middle class. But then for this delivery, now I had to turn to the right. I need to know there's a road on the right as I turned right now. Now I see Blvd. everywhere, nice trees, manicured lawns, you know, pavement, interlocking tires.

I say as a man come and see houses as this is Abuja that I'm looking at ABI, Saudi Arabia. And then as I was driving all the houses, all the houses, solar panel everywhere, decked out, nice, nice cars, choice cars and all of them had these fancy balconies that have chandelier on top. You know, as I know you're in a rich neighborhood. You know, people don't use their lighting anymore with chandelier. So all of them have chandelier hanging outside.

I see. I see, man. See money, see money, good money. So you're an electrician, You fix somebody's AC in that kind of place and everywhere you look, you're just seeing money, money, money. You can do some outbound. You can say, mommy, the AC is working, OK, blah, blah, blah. Mommy, I'd appreciate if our next estate meeting, is it possible for me to Joshua, you know, 5 minutes, maybe just make small presentation. Maybe it's even possible.

I can do work for some other people. You can do those kind of things. Now I didn't come up with this idea on my own. I didn't. I was actually selling the estate one day. That's my own estate now, not that kind of, I don't live in that kind of estate yet, but God willing, I will soon. So as our security guard came knock on my GIT. So who is it? I say it's me, Raymond. I say, Raymond, what's up now? So somebody wants to see you.

I say, I say who? I say is this guy. And then the guy came. It turned out the guy was a sales Rep from a company that sells Internet fiber, fiber optic, Something, something, something, you know, I don't know the technology, but basically they lay cables in their estate and they're supposed to get high speed Internet. So the guy said that he had been talking to the security guard and he wanted to see the chairman. So they just thought I was chairman.

You know, when you see me, I'm, if I'm bored, my skin is smooth and I have pot belly. So everybody just assumes I'm chairman. So I say I know I'm not the chairman. No, I'm not the chairman. I told him, OK, go and ask for so, so. So now that's actually the chairman. He lives in House 6. And yeah, he might be able to get you a presentation so you can come in and talk during the next meeting. But I told the guy, but look, to be honest, right now, as far as I know, all of us have, you know, private Internet services.

And something, something, something the guy said no problem, that he will try his luck. And as he left, I thought to myself, man, that's a good move. That is a very good move. You roll up to an estate, you get cool with the security officials and say I beg of AIC chairman, if it's possible during the next meeting, then make a presentation. Now I don't live in that old neighborhood anymore, but I'm sure that young man eventually pulled it off.

I don't know if he was able to get any business but The thing is, imagine if he has maybe like 1020 estates on his list. Let me try this tactic. You don't think it's possible that one estate, the thing might work and in that one estate he might get 2-3 clients. It's possible. Small presentation. Thank you for having me here. Not going to take up too much of your time. I'm also also company. This is what we do. Have you been having so so and so problems with your Internet right now?

Because recently it's been in the news Globe is having so so so issue MTN they get this kind of problem. Airtel is not only is not available in you know, XYZ states of the federation. If you want reliable high speed Internet, something that blah blah blah blah blah, This Is Us. These are our packages and this is how it works. Optical high speed will dig the cable direct to your house. You get the Internet directly from us at something, something megabytes.

You know, you Internet people now you know how you can talk. You do that kind of presentation. You never know. Excuse me. So for our bound ideas, it's not a bad idea. And if Internet people, optical people can try this thing, who says electricians can try this too? Think about it. Give it a shot. It's worth a try. It is. But what do you think is a good idea? It's not a bad idea. What I'm just trying to get you to understand.

Is this whatever business you're into? Yeah. Fiber optic, cable, Internet. What else? Car leasing, wedding photographer, wedding video, wedding planner, cake maker. These are easy things anybody can try. Referrals. Inbound outbound, if you've been hearing some of these things for the first time, don't worry, don't be confused after you're done listening to this, you know, listen to it again and not don't just listen or try and do something.

So thank you very much for listening and remember January 12th, 2026, fresh cohort, new faces, new program focuses, learning how to sell using the phone. The phone is an important tool. It's not just for TikTok and for Instagram, it is also for learning how to get business, learning how to talk to customers better, learning how to negotiate better, learning how to present better, learning how to build relationships better over the phone.

So that's the focus. If you are interested. It's going to last two weeks. It will start on the 12th of January and it will last until the 23rd of January, but not every single day. It's going to be Monday to Friday. Reach out 0806466 2140 call, send a text message or WhatsApp message. I'd like to get to know you more, know more about your business, know what your goals are. Reach out to me. Let's see if we can make it happen.

And don't worry, I won't try and collect your money by force. If I can't help you, I will tell you that I can help you. What's up? Reach out, let's have a chat. So that's it, I'll catch you all some other time.