Six People, Most of Your Work: Running a Proper Referral Audit

Every January I sit down with a spreadsheet and a slightly strong coffee and do something deeply unglamorous: I work out where the last two years of work actually came from. Not where I think it came from. Not where the brand deck says it came from. Where it came from.

The first time I did this, I was convinced my portfolio was doing the work. My site was tidy, the case studies were sharp, the enquiries were steady. Then I counted honestly and found that 71% of paid jobs had come from six people. Six. None of whom I had spoken to in the previous fortnight.

The portfolio mattered, obviously — it was doing the job of not embarrassing me once the introduction had been made. But it was not the engine. It was the shop window. The engine was a handful of people who kept putting my name into conversations I was not in.

Start with the invoices, not the vibes

Pull up every paid job from the last 24 months. Two years is the right window — long enough to show a pattern, short enough that you can still remember who introduced you.

For each one, write down four things. Client. Value. Date. And the source, in plain language: 'Rob at the agency emailed me out of nowhere' or 'met at the Leeds thing, followed up in March' or 'client from 2021 came back'. If you genuinely cannot remember, put 'unknown' — that is a finding in itself.

You will end up with a long, slightly embarrassing list of 'unknowns'. That is normal. The exercise is meant to puncture the story you tell about yourself.

Score the referrers

Now group the sources. You will probably find between four and ten names carrying most of the weight. Score each of them out of five on three things:

What you are scoring	1 means	5 means
Volume	one job ever	regular, reliable
Quality	awkward, slow payment, scope creep	clean briefs, pays on time
Reach	only ever introduces you to themselves	introduces you to new clients

Add them up. Anything over 12 gets a note in the diary to speak to that person this quarter. Anything under 6 gets a polite nod and fewer favours.

This is the part people skip, because it feels transactional. It is not. It is just noticing. A contact who sends you one low-value job every three years and needs an hour of unpaid advice each time is not a referral source. They are a hobby.

The dormant list is the money

While you are in there, make a second list: people who have sent you work before, but not in the last 12 months. Normally this list is longer than the first one and it is the one that makes me feel slightly sick.

Life happens. People move agency, go in-house, have kids, get made redundant, change sector. None of them have stopped liking you. They have simply stopped being in a position to think about you, which is not the same thing.

Pick five. Not fifty, five. Send them something that requires no reply.

The script — short, British, no drama

Here is the version I use. It works because it asks for nothing.

Hi Rob — bit of a random one. I was clearing out my own admin and your name came up, which sounds worse than it is. I am not pitching you anything. I just wanted to say the thing we did back in 2024 is still one of my favourite jobs, and I still use it in my portfolio. Hope the move went well. T.

That is it. No calendar link, no 'let me know if anything comes up'. The no-ask is the whole point. About a third will reply with a friendly line. One in ten will reply with a job. The rest will remember you exist, which is worth more than you think.

Say thank you properly

British creatives are terrible at this in a very specific way: we send a slightly over-effusive email, feel awkward, and never mention it again.

Do it differently. When someone refers you, tell them what happened. 'That job came off, by the way — they were good to work with, and I owe you a pint.' Then, a few weeks after the work lands, send the referrer something small and real. Not a hamper. Not a branded notebook nobody asked for. A voucher for the pub near their studio, a book you genuinely think they would like, a bag of decent coffee with a two-line note.

And if the referral was big — a retainer, a proper chunk of your year — be generous in a way that is proportionate. A case of wine is not a bribe. It is bookkeeping.

What to do with the answers

The audit usually produces three uncomfortable facts: your best referrers are people you barely speak to, your most active network is not the one sending work, and your portfolio is doing less than you assumed.

None of that is bad news. It just means your effort has been going to the wrong place. Spend less time polishing the shop window this year and more time on the six people who keep putting your name into rooms you are not in. Water the relationships that already work, and let the rest be quiet.