Continue to stay in contact with your target in meaningful and constructive ways that are beneficial to both parties and not one-sided.

Email relevant, well-researched, industry-related articles to the referral source with your comments and thoughts about how the information affects your shared customers and your businesses.

Email your company newsletters as a demonstration of how your agency is an expert in the community and in the industry.

Organize an in-service and ask the referral source to speak to your employees on an important training topic that centers on his or her area of expertise. For example, have a local hospice provider speak to your staff about how hospice services can benefit home care clients and families or when hospice is an appropriate referral to make.

Seek out the referral contact at public meetings and networking events for friendly, agenda-free conversation.

Follow the referral source’s company social media pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and other platforms where they have a company page presence. Connect with the referral source personally on LinkedIn only after you’ve met in person first.

Take time to hand-write personal notes to acknowledge a work anniversary, birthday, a personal challenge that the target might be experiencing, etc. This demonstrates thoughtfulness on your part and helps strengthen your relationship.

Organize community outreach and joint sales opportunities with your target, and attend all of the events hosted by the referral source.

Ask to be introduced to key employees within their business, especially when new employees come to their organization.

Be sure that all your engagements and top of mind activities do not lose the fact that you would like referrals. If that message is lost, the referrals will not come.

Once a referral has been made to your agency, send a handwritten thank-you note and make appointments to update the referral source on the patient’s progress as necessary and appropriate.

Avoid unproductive meetings just to get face-to-face time with the referral source. Salespeople often think that face time is the most important interaction, and they pursue it doggedly. However, making up excuses just to drop by and chat can become an annoyance. Be mindful of in-person interactions so that they don’t disrupt the work of the referral source.

Don’t just bring and drop off more brochures. If your only reason for visiting a referral target is to bring more literature, that’s not a good enough reason. It’s not new information, and it’s not helpful unless they’ve asked for it.

Don’t shower your target with gifts, brownies, tchotchkes, and cleverly messaged marketing gimmicks. Save gifts of this nature for meaningful opportunities to thank the referral source when an exchange takes place, like a referral or when they take time to come and educate your team.

Don’t make face-to-face meetings only about personal chitchat. It is important to know about your targets and engage with them on a personal level, but if all of your personal meetings revolve around the personal matters, you’re missing good sales opportunities.