The growth channel hiding in plain sight...

Intro

My team and I recently spent time mapping our client journey from first call to project wrap up. Somewhere between debating the value of “Sprint Zero” and laughing about how my dog proudly dragged a dead squirrel into the living room (true story), something clicked. The best growth engine we have isn’t cold outreach. It isn’t LinkedIn posts. And it isn’t partnerships that promise warm leads but never deliver. It’s our clients (shocker).

When they refer us, the conversations are warmer, the sales cycles are shorter, the projects are larger, and trust is already built-in. But that doesn’t happen by accident. Referrals aren’t just the natural result of “doing good work.” They’re the outcome of how you deliver. Which is where SOPs come in.

The messy truth about referrals.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been pitched on referral partnerships. A dev shop will say, “We’ll send you clients who need strategy, you send us clients who need development.” On paper, it sounds perfect. In reality, it rarely works. The referrals usually end up being low quality. They’re often folks with no budget or leaders who want order-takers/butts-in-seats vendors, not true strategic partners. And when they’re just trying to make a quick handoff, there’s no real trust transferred. You’re back to square one.

Client-driven referrals are completely different. For example, when a CMO introduces us to another marketing exec that person knows they’re not just passing along a name. They’re saying, “These are the people who made my life easier. I trust them and you should too.” That’s priceless.

One client once said to me after a project wrapped, “You took something that was messy and made it simple. I knew exactly what was happening at every step. I wish more partners worked this way.” That’s the kind of experience that gets people talking. And the more I look at it, the more obvious it becomes. Referrals don’t come from asking, they come from earning.

Well-defined processes & referrals feed each other.

I've been facilitating workshops for years, many are focused on mapping out a customer journeys and process mapping. Pretty consistently someone chimes in at some point and says something along the lines of.. “Do we really need to document every step? Do we really need to spell out the process like this? Doesn’t that just slow us down?” I get it, I hate process for process sake (aka “work about work.”). It’s the worst and truthfully I typically avoid creating a ton of process with my teams.

Process often gets a bad rap especially when it comes to innovation. For many companies, standard operating procedures (SOPs) feel like bureaucracy and red tape. But the truth is SOPs aren’t about us, they’re about the customer.

Think about customer onboarding for example.. Without a clear process, it’s chaos and leads to missing expectations, everyone scrambling to get started, poor communication, and confusion. The customer feels that stress. It makes them second-guess whether they picked the right partner. With an SOP, it’s different. Everyone knows what’s needed from the 1st moment. Roles are clear and comms are proactive. The customer feels taken care of.

Customers don’t refer you because you delivered a thing. They refer you because of how it felt to work with you. SOPs/process helps shape that feeling. They create consistency and consistency builds trust.

During our internal workshop we started really connecting the dots and our path to sustained/continued growth became pretty obvious:

1. Clear, consistent process make clients feel cared for.

2. Which creates trust.

3. That trust turns into referrals.

4. New clients arrive with trust already built in.

5. Consistency through process repeats the cycle.

It’s not flashy or complicated, but it’s powerful. The companies that scale quietly and sustainably are the ones who nail this. They don’t have to chase every new growth hack. Their customers are the ones fueling the pipeline.

Wrapping up

Most companies right now are chasing growth through pursuing the noise. Things like ads, SEO, new partnerships, new channels, new tools, shiny objects.. The quiet truth is that your happiest clients are already your best marketers and if you design a great experience, they’ll do the work for you.

Referrals aren’t a tactic, they’re a really important trust signal. And trust is built (or lost) in every handoff, every touchpoint, every message. Companies will win not by shouting louder but by designing better experiences. SOPs and referral flywheels are part of the same game, creating momentum through trust.

Here are 3 things you can do to put this into action for your company:

1. Design the closeout moment

If you’re part of a service company, don’t let projects fizzle out. Too many teams just send the final invoice and move on. Instead, try building out a standard closeout sequence. When you normalize this it doesn’t feel “salesy,” it feels natural. Here’s what we’re aiming to start doing at StealthX:

• A celebratory debrief (what worked, what we learned).

• A short case study or impact summary.

• A structured referral ask, woven in as part of the process.

Audit your last few projects. Did you end with a moment that built momentum? Or did it just quietly fade out? If you’re not ending strong, you’re leaving your best growth engine untapped.

2. Offer referral incentives that deepen the relationship

Points, rewards, or gift cards can feel transactional (depending on your business model). The better move is to offer something that strengthens the customer’s relationship with you. Now you’re not just rewarding them, you’re creating another touchpoint. A couple quick examples:

• Credits toward future projects

• A free workshop to bring clarity and drive alignment

• Offer to host quarterly strategy sessions with their team

3. Bake into your process

Referrals and loyalty shouldn’t depend on your memory or charm. They should live in your process. Document the steps, train your team, make referral conversations routine. Capture and make it clear/obvious in your CRM and project management tools. Don’t leave it up to chance. Make sure everyone knows and understands how to nurture referrals at all levels.

Onward & upward,
Drew