If Your Marketing Plan Is to “Get More Referrals,” You Don’t Have a Marketing Plan. Read This.

Let’s be honest.

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If your answer to “what’s your marketing strategy?” is “referrals,” then the truth is… you don’t have a marketing strategy. What you have is a legacy of trust—and while that’s valuable, it’s not the same thing as intentional, sustainable, scalable marketing.

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I’ve sat across the table from CEOs of large, successful firms—firms with decades of hard-won credibility—who genuinely cannot wrap their minds around why they’d need a marketing plan.

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To them, marketing is simple:

“We do good work. People refer us. It’s free. It works. Why would we do anything else?”

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And I get it. You’ve built your business on handshakes, cold calls, and a stellar reputation. That model did work. For a long time. But here’s the thing…

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The way of the past is not the way of the future.

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Referrals Aren’t a Strategy—They’re a Byproduct

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Referrals are not bad. In fact, they’re an incredible byproduct of great service, and they’re not going anywhere in our industries. But they are not a marketing strategy. They are a reaction.

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When you rely solely on referrals:

• You’re depending on clients to do your marketing.
• You have little control over who comes to you.
• You’re reactive, not proactive.
• Your growth is capped by someone else’s memory and motivation.

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Why CEOs of Service Firms Don’t Trust Marketing

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Here’s the other truth: many CEOs don’t believe in marketing because what they’ve seen hasn’t worked.

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They’ve hired an intern to post on social. They’ve asked “Patty from admin” to make some flyers. They’ve spent a few thousand on a pretty website—and then nothing happened. No leads. No growth. No ROI.

So they assume marketing just doesn’t work for firms like theirs.

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But here’s the truth: tactics without a strategy are a waste of time and money.

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You can’t expect results from a brand that isn’t differentiated. You can’t launch campaigns if you don’t know who you’re trying to reach. You can’t delegate marketing if no one at the firm actually understands what the brand stands for.

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If you don’t have a marketing foundation, no tactic will move the needle. And you’ll continue to have to rely on referrals to grow your business. 

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The Bottom Line

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If you’re a CEO still relying on referrals to grow your firm, here’s your wake-up call: the game is changing. And while you may not have needed a marketing plan to get here, you will need one to go further.

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You don’t need marketing just because it’s trendy.

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You need it because it gives you control.

Control of your message.

Control of your audience.

Control of your future.

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The firms that embrace this shift will be the ones that stay relevant, grow on purpose, and thrive in the next era of client service.

The others? They’ll wonder why referrals started slowing down—and why no one new is coming in.