Ed Forteau writes about helping consultants and other professional-service businesses win clients through stronger referral relationships. The posts focus on making it easier for others to recognize who to refer, when to make an introduction, and why the meeting should happen.
Most useful for making referral relationships more deliberate and referral conversations clearer for professional-service firms.
Best for
A mid-sized accounting or advisory firm wanting a referral workshop and co-created content.
Not for
A B2B software vendor seeking enterprise IT demo requests and cost per lead.
Key takeaways
A client praised a fractional CFO but could not explain what she helps with.
A referral can arrive before the prospect is ready to act.
Who is likely to encounter the problem may matter more than network size.
Check first: Confirm scope, lead time, price, audience analytics, and recent comparable post performance.
Main ideas
Build a system around the referral channel that already works · Who is positioned to refer you matters more than how many people you know · Trust is not the missing piece — usable language is
Audience
12,753 LinkedIn followers · 8 LinkedIn posts published between 9 June 2025 and 8 September 2026 Reviewed post sample
Other posts show referrals arriving before a prospect is ready, an operational problem mistaken for a financial one, and the reason for an introduction lost in a vague handoff.
Forteau also urges businesses to look beyond the size of their network: who is likely to encounter the problem may matter more than how many contacts they have.
His scenario-led posts offer practical ways to make referrals more relevant and useful.
Forteau turns referral strategy into recognizable business situations, then pinpoints where the connection breaks.
These stories distinguish a plausible introduction from a well-timed, well-matched one.
Forteau also examines the mechanics around the meeting: a specialist’s name may not come up if a former client rarely meets people with the relevant problem, and a warm introduction can fall flat if its reason gets lost.
The takeaway is practical: identify the people who regularly encounter the problem, help them recognize when to make an introduction, and preserve that context in the handoff.
Ed Forteau writes from many angles about one subject: why referrals, which most B2B professional-services firms depend on, quietly stop working and what to do about it.
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The through-line is that referrals are not luck.
They argue a firm can control who is positioned to refer it, whether those people can explain whom the firm helps, whether the introduction gives a reason, and whether the prospect is ready to hear it.
The recurring failures involve language, timing, and handoff, not weak trust.
Forteau pairs each point with a short scene — a founder, a fractional CFO, an accountant, a banker — and often ends by pointing readers to fuller analysis in a newsletter called Get Better Referrals.
Build a system around the referral channel that already works
Forteau starts with a familiar sequence: a B2B business grows through referrals, referrals slow down, and the owner concludes that the answer is ads, cold outreach, or content marketing.
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They think that skips a question worth asking first: if referrals already produced much of the business, why treat them as something that has to happen by accident?
The argument is not that referrals can be forced.
You cannot force someone to refer you, Forteau says, but you can be more deliberate about who is positioned to refer you, whether they understand whom they should introduce, and how well you stay connected.
That makes referral generation a designed channel, with its own operating decisions, rather than a happy side effect of good work.
Forteau lays out the trap directly: referrals slow down, the assumption becomes "I need ads, cold outreach, content marketing, or some other way to bring in clients consistently," and the working channel is left to chance. The suggested move is to put a system around the channel already producing clients before spending heavily on a new one.
Trust is not the missing piece — usable language is
Forteau shows clients who trust a specialist and would recommend them without hesitation, yet cannot find the words when someone else describes the problem.
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The listener has to recognize their own situation in the explanation.
"Finance.
Forecasting.
They help me think through decisions.
Honestly, they do a lot" gives the listener nothing to match against.
Forteau also shows the reverse: the client remembers the result, but when the same problem surfaces in different words, the specialist's name never comes up.
The window closes in seconds.
Six months after a fractional CFO helped a founder avoid a cash crunch, the founder hears an agency owner describe the same pressure in new words: "Revenue is up, but I still don't know what we can safely spend.
I'm afraid to hire, but the team is stretched thin."
The founder nods, and the conversation moves on.
The CFO who solved that exact problem is never mentioned.
"The referral opportunity was there for a few seconds.
A referral can arrive before the prospect is ready to act
Forteau treats timing as a referral skill in its own right.
Read more
A prospect can know the problem exists and is real, yet have gotten used to it.
That changes the purpose of the first meeting: instead of solving the problem, the specialist spends the time helping the prospect decide whether it is worth addressing.
The referral can be sound — the right specialist, a trusted introducer — and still arrive too early to be useful.
A founder tells a fractional CFO, "I know our numbers are a mess," then adds, "I'm just not sure this is something we need to fix right now."
The introduction came from the founder's accountant, who knew the CFO's work and believed the two should talk.
The founder had lived with bad reporting and unclear client profitability for about a year.
Forteau's judgment: the accountant made a good referral, just too early.
The words a client uses can point to the wrong specialist
Another failure mode: referrers hear a real complaint and route it to the specialist whose subject area it sounds like, rather than the one who solves the actual problem.
Read more
Forteau describes hearing something genuine and naming it too soon, a natural mistake when someone is trying to help. The specialist then spends the first meeting discovering the client was routed into the wrong lane.
A founder tells his attorney, "I don't think I can afford to hire anyone else right now."
The attorney introduces a fractional CFO.
The company turns out to have cash and healthy margins; the founder's real concern is operational: every new hire sends more questions and approvals back to the owner.
Forteau sums it up: "The sentence sounded financial.
A warm introduction opens a door, but Forteau argues it still needs to give someone a reason to walk through it.
Read more
When the introducer recognizes the problem but leaves out the explanation before sending the email, both sides take the call on trust alone, and the founder arrives without knowing why the specialist is there. A referral is more than a connection: it needs to state the problem so the reason survives the handoff.
A banker introduces a fractional CFO to a founder with one line: "You two should meet."
Both take the call because they trust the banker.
But the founder does not know why the CFO has been brought in.
"The banker had recognized the problem.
The reason for the meeting did not survive the handoff."
Attraction over chasing: fix how you are perceived before the ask
In a longer piece, Forteau contrasts hunting for clients with creating pull.
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They list the standard advice — send more messages, follow up more, make more offers — and argue that the difference lies in how the person is perceived, not in the volume of outreach.
If you have to convince someone of your value, you have already lost them; if people only see you when you are selling, you are invisible the rest of the time; if every conversation starts with an ask, you are seen as a taker.
The alternative is positioning built on trust before anyone is asked for anything.
The hunting image is concrete: "Firing off cold DMs like shots in the dark," throwing out bait, hovering over prospects to nurture them into saying yes — and "Nobody likes being hunted." Forteau ends by asking readers to name a business person they respect and say what makes that person magnetic.
Why should a referral-driven business fix its existing channel before chasing new ones?
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Start here for the overarching argument.
Forteau starts with a common pattern: many B2B businesses grow through referrals, then treat them as accidental once growth slows.
The post asks why a business would spend heavily on ads, cold outreach or content marketing before systemizing the channel already producing clients.
Its central line: “You can’t force someone to refer you.
But you can be far more deliberate about who is in a position to refer you, whether they understand who they should introduce, and how well you stay connected with them.”
The frame is clear: design referral strategy rather than leave it to luck.
For brands planning a campaign
Useful as an opening frame for a workshop or content collaboration: audit existing referral sources before shifting budget, then build an operating cadence around who can refer, what they understand and how the relationship stays active.
Why does chasing clients feel exhausting, and what should replace it?
Read more
Start here for the shift from volume outreach to pull.
This longer post contrasts hunting for clients with creating pull.
It lists the usual advice—“Send more messages,” “Follow up more,” “Make more offers”—then argues that the real difference is “how they’re being perceived.”
It makes the hunting image concrete: “Firing off cold DMs like shots in the dark,” and “Nobody likes being hunted.”
The closing turn asks readers to think of a respected business person and comment on what makes them magnetic.
The piece makes the case for positioning and trust before the ask, not another outreach tactic.
For brands planning a campaign
Works as a talk or campaign piece on moving a professional-services firm from outreach volume to positioning. For a workshop, it opens plainly on why trust and perception shape referral behavior before anyone chooses a script or channel.
Why can a satisfied client praise someone but still fail to make a useful referral?
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Start here for the gap between liking the person and naming the problem.
A founder introduces a fractional CFO named Lisa to another business owner.
The founder starts strong—“Lisa has been great for us.
I trust her completely.”—but stalls when asked what Lisa helps with: “Finance.
Forecasting.
She helps me think through decisions.
Honestly, she does a lot.”
The other owner nods and the conversation moves on.
Forteau’s point: the client has plenty to say about Lisa but cannot explain the situation that should prompt someone else to call.
The listener needs to recognize themselves in the explanation.
For brands planning a campaign
Useful for a workshop module on turning client praise into problem language. A content collaboration could show firms how to collect clients’ own words and shape them into a referral-ready explanation.
Why don’t happy clients mention a specialist when the problem appears again?
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Start here for the trigger-language gap.
Six months after a fractional CFO helped a founder avoid a cash crunch, the founder sits across from an agency owner.
The founder describes the same kind of pressure in different words: “Revenue is up, but I still don’t know what we can safely spend.
I’m afraid to hire, but the team is stretched thin.”
The founder nods but never mentions the CFO.
Forteau notes that the founder trusted her and would have recommended her without hesitation, yet did not connect the new conversation to the person who solved the problem.
The sharp line is: “The referral opportunity was there for a few seconds.
Then it was gone.”
The post shows how clients can remember a result but miss the trigger when the problem is rephrased.
For brands planning a campaign
Helps shape training on trigger phrases and client recall prompts. A campaign angle could teach firms how to remind past clients which words, situations and symptoms should bring the specialist to mind.
When does a referral arrive before the prospect is ready to act?
Read more
Start here for timing, problem awareness and readiness.
A founder tells a fractional CFO, “I know our numbers are a mess.”
Then the founder pauses: “I’m just not sure this is something we need to fix right now.”
The introduction came from the founder’s accountant, who knew the CFO’s work and thought the two should talk.
The founder had dealt with the problem for about a year—bad reporting and no clear view of which clients were profitable—and had gotten used to it.
The CFO now has to spend the first meeting helping the founder decide whether the problem is worth acting on.
Forteau’s judgment is direct: the accountant made a good referral, just too early.
For brands planning a campaign
Strong source for a workshop segment on qualifying referral readiness rather than referral quantity. A content collaboration could build a short diagnostic for referrers to use before making an introduction.
How can a well-intentioned referral send someone to the wrong specialist?
Read more
Start here for the difference between a symptom and the underlying problem.
A founder tells an attorney, “I don’t think I can afford to hire anyone else right now.”
The attorney knows a good fractional CFO, so an introduction follows.
When the CFO starts asking questions, the company turns out to have cash and healthy margins.
The founder’s real concern is operational: every new person creates more questions, approvals and work for the owner.
Forteau frames it this way: “The sentence sounded financial.
The problem was operational.”
The referrer heard something real but named it too soon, sending the client into the wrong lane; the specialist spends the first meeting finding that out.
For brands planning a campaign
Useful for content on diagnosis before referral and a workshop exercise that separates the client’s words from the problem a referrer should route. It supports a practical segment on avoiding mismatched introductions.
This post explains the handoff context behind why “you two should meet” isn’t enough.
A founder tells a banker, “We keep landing work, but cash is still tight and I can’t tell where the margin is going.”
The banker knows a fractional CFO who handles that kind of problem and makes the introduction: “You two should meet.”
Both take the call because they trust the banker, but the founder doesn’t know why the CFO has been brought in.
Forteau says the banker recognized the problem, but “the reason for the meeting did not survive the handoff.”
A warm introduction can open a door; it still needs to explain why to walk through it.
For brands planning a campaign
Directly relevant to a template or workshop on referral handoff notes and introduction emails. A campaign piece could show the difference between a connection and a referral that states the problem, reason and next step.
This post makes the case for network position over network size.
Forteau contrasts a former client who thinks you’re terrific with another professional whose work regularly puts them around the problem you solve.
The former client may rarely meet anyone dealing with that problem; the other professional may not know you as well but keeps hearing the relevant conversations.
The post’s clarifying line is: “You can know 500 people.
If very few of them regularly run into the problem you solve, 500 may not be as impressive as it sounds.”
It offers a simple research question: “Think about the person who sent your last good referral.
What do they do for a living?”
The piece shifts attention from contact count to referral proximity.
For brands planning a campaign
Useful for a workshop on mapping referral sources by how often they encounter the problem, not by how well they know the firm. A content collaboration could turn this into a simple referral-source mapping exercise.
Treat referral generation as a system, not an accident2
Referral partners matter more than contact volume2
The reason for the meeting gets lost in the handoff2
Clients cannot explain what you do1
Referral timing changes the meeting1
Hear the symptom, miss the problem1
Treat referral generation as a system, not an accident
Forteau argues that B2B professional-service firms often grow through referrals, then turn to ads, cold outreach, or content marketing when growth slows instead of deliberately managing the channel that already works.
Read more
They say you cannot force someone to refer you, but you can control who is positioned to do so, whether they know whom to introduce, and how well you stay connected.
For brands planning a campaign
A collaboration focused on auditing and systematizing an existing referral network will land better than a generic demand-generation pitch. A workshop could help a firm map its current referral sources before spending on new channels.
Several posts distinguish people who would recommend you from those who actually encounter your problem.
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A satisfied former client may trust your work completely and still rarely meet anyone dealing with the issue you solve.
Professionals whose daily work brings them into contact with that problem, such as accountants, attorneys, bankers, or consultants, may know you less well but be far better positioned to make an introduction.
Forteau tests this by asking readers to name the profession of the person who sent their last good referral.
Invites readers to answer one concrete question in the comments, surfacing real examples and keeping the thread active.
For brands planning a campaign
Outreach and content for referring professions—not just end clients—are a natural fit. A brand could sponsor or co-create material that helps attorneys, accountants, and bankers recognize situations worth referring.
A recurring close-reading piece describes a founder introducing a fractional CFO and stalling when asked what she helps with: finance, forecasting, thinking through decisions, a lot.
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The client trusts the specialist and knows what changed, but cannot name the problem that should prompt a stranger to call. Forteau argues that the listener has to recognize their own situation in the explanation.
Opens with a short dialogue, names the pattern, then ends with the question the client failed to answer.
For brands planning a campaign
Content that gives clients and referral partners plain language for the problem—not just the service category—is a strong collaboration angle. A campaign could produce a short referral script or a one-page problem description a client could repeat.
One post describes an accountant referring a founder to a fractional CFO too early.
Read more
The founder knew his reporting was messy and had grown used to it, so the CFO spent the first meeting convincing him the problem was worth addressing rather than solving it. The referral was good; the timing was wrong.
For brands planning a campaign
Material on qualifying readiness—such as signals that suggest a prospect is ready to act—gives referral partners something practical to use before making an introduction.
A founder tells his attorney he cannot afford to hire anyone else.
Read more
The real issue is operational: every new hire sends more questions and approvals back to the owner.
The sentence sounded financial, so the referral went to a financial specialist, and the first meeting had to uncover the mismatch.
Forteau uses the example to show how referrers can name a problem too soon.
The post uses a failed referral rather than a successful method, making it a useful cautionary example for partner education.
For brands planning a campaign
Training or content on distinguishing stated symptoms from underlying problems suits a firm that depends on referral quality. A brand could create a diagnostic checklist for referrers.
The reason for the meeting gets lost in the handoff
A banker recognizes a cash-and-margin problem and introduces a fractional CFO, saying the two should meet.
Read more
Both sides take the call because they trust the banker, but the founder arrives without knowing why the CFO was brought in. Forteau's point: a warm introduction opens the door, but still needs a reason to walk through it.
For brands planning a campaign
A campaign asset giving referral partners ready-made introduction language—including the problem and expected outcome—addresses a gap Forteau repeatedly identifies.
Forteau publishes short narrative posts built around a client or colleague scenario, usually ending with a lesson and a question for readers.
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Several posts point to a fuller piece in a newsletter called Get Better Referrals, with Thursday named as the day the deeper analysis appears. The material is written for consultants, advisors, agency owners, accountants, coaches, and attorneys, and favors named people and specific conversations over jargon.
Some posts are short teasers linking to external articles. Ask for examples of the full articles before assessing the depth of the material.
For brands planning a campaign
The consistent weekly format and newsletter audience make a recurring content collaboration straightforward to plan, such as a sponsored series or guest workshop tied to a Thursday theme.
The posts identify one entity that belongs to Ed Forteau rather than to a client or sponsor: the Get Better Referrals newsletter, presented in their own voice as a weekly look at referral problems.
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The posts identify no sponsor, affiliate, named client, employer or investment.
Other businesses and roles that appear—fractional CFO, attorney, accountant, banker and agency owner—are occupations in referral anecdotes, not named companies Forteau works with.
Ask about any relevant affiliations before a campaign.
Get Better Referrals
Owned business
Forteau's posts point readers to “this week's Get Better Referrals” and an issue of the “Get Better Referrals Newsletter,” written in first person.
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They work through one referral problem at a time: a referral made too early, a handoff that loses the reason for the meeting, or why referral flow deserves a system before a new acquisition channel.
The posts use #GetBetterReferrals alongside #Referrals and #BusinessDevelopment.
They do not identify a company, sponsor or partner behind the newsletter; ask who operates or funds it before considering a sponsorship.
Ed Forteau writes short, scene-first posts about referrals in B2B professional services: a founder introducing a fractional CFO, an accountant making an introduction, a banker sending two people to a meeting.
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Each post shows something going wrong—the client cannot explain what the specialist does, the prospect is not ready to act, or the reason for the meeting does not survive the handoff—and ends with a question or a pointer to fuller analysis in a newsletter called Get Better Referrals, published on Thursdays.
Read two or three scenes back to back to see how often the failure comes down to language, timing, or a dropped explanation rather than weak trust.
For the argument, follow the newsletter pointers; for the pattern, start with posts about who is positioned to refer you and what makes an introduction work.
Herman writes from inside the referral relationships Forteau examines.
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They share a first-person account of an advisor meeting framed around whether referrals would flow both ways, and a story about building a tax practice by presenting to local bookkeeper groups who then sent clients. Both treat who sends whom work as the subject, not a side note.
Herman's posts are practical, experience-led accounting stories: what worked when building a practice, how a referral conversation actually went. Forteau isolates specific referral failures into repeatable patterns and points readers to a newsletter for the longer argument.
Wallace works on the same problem Forteau describes: skilled B2B providers whose offer is valuable but whose message does not land, so prospects nod, smile, and disappear.
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They argue the cause is usually the communication around the work rather than the work itself, and both build posts around named client situations and outcomes.
Wallace focuses on outbound messaging and paid teaching.
They describe a 90-minute session where a script is rewritten live, with case examples from financial services, manufacturing, and software.
Forteau, by contrast, focuses on referrals, introducer behaviour, and what happens before anyone pitches.
Tom starts from the same premise as Forteau: referral-led firms grow because the right people find them, referrals are the best leads they get, and you cannot schedule one.
Read more
Both write for owner-led B2B service firms and argue for a smaller, more deliberate approach rather than volume.
Tom's answer is outbound.
They tell owners to write down why their best client bought and find companies with the same shape, or let AI run the outbound machinery while a person decides what to target.
Forteau takes the opposite direction, putting a system around the referral channel already producing clients.
For a campaign aimed at improving referral-based client acquisition, Ed Forteau’s content speaks to the people who make referrals happen: fractional CFOs, accountants, attorneys, bankers, agency owners and other advisors who encounter problems a specialist can solve.
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The posts also speak to professionals who depend on referrals, making a workshop or content collaboration on referral strategy a natural fit for an audience that already thinks about introductions, referral timing and handoffs.
The only measured audience figure provided is a LinkedIn follower count of 12,753, observed on 9 October 2026.
No platform demographics, engagement counts, impressions or audience survey data are provided, so geographic concentration, seniority, job function, company size and industry mix are unknown.
Before placing budget, ask for LinkedIn audience analytics covering follower geography, industry and seniority, or an audience survey if professional attributes matter to the campaign.
Also ask for recent results on comparable referral-strategy posts to compare reach and engagement on the topics you would commission.
If the campaign requires proof that senior decision-makers in professional services are in the audience, ask for that evidence; the posts do not establish it.
Ed Forteau's eight LinkedIn posts about referral strategy, published between June 2025 and September 2026, do not mention a partnership or sponsorship offer.
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Their calls to action are to read that week's issue of the Get Better Referrals newsletter or answer a research question in the comments.
The posts name no sponsor, price a placement, describe a media kit, or link to a booking or inquiry form.
They show the collaboration's subject matter and how the audience is engaged, which can help shape a proposal.
Get Better Referrals is described as a recurring newsletter, making a newsletter sponsorship or co-authored issue the most obvious format to ask about.
Ask Ed Forteau directly about current availability, commercial terms, deliverables, and lead time before committing budget.
A mid-sized accounting or advisory firm that gets most of its new business through referrals wants to make that channel more deliberate. It asks for a workshop and a short run of co-created content that partners and referral sources can use, aimed at improving referral conversations rather than generating raw reach.
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Reasons
The firm's referral problem is exactly what Ed Forteau writes about. One post argues that firms grow through referrals, then abandon the channel for ads or cold outreach as soon as growth slows: “You can’t force someone to refer you. But you can be far more deliberate about who is in a position to refer you, whether they understand who they should introduce, and how well you stay connected with them.” That gives the workshop a ready-made opening.
Forteau writes for the audience the firm wants in the room: accountants, attorneys, bankers, fractional CFOs and agency owners — professionals who encounter client problems and decide whether to make an introduction. A workshop on referral strategy speaks their language, rather than asking them to translate a general marketing pitch.
The material lends itself to practical exercises. One post asks readers to name the profession of the person who sent their last good referral, a prompt for mapping referral sources. Another asks what triggers should bring a specialist to mind when a problem resurfaces in different words. Both can become workshop worksheets.
Forteau's publishing rhythm suits a content collaboration. They write short scenario posts and point to a deeper weekly piece called Get Better Referrals, with Thursday named as the day the fuller analysis appears. A sponsored series or guest issue could fit an existing format.
Gaps to close
The posts publish no rate card, media kit, deliverables list or booking route. Negotiate scope, lead time and price directly.
The posts publish no audience analytics. Before budgeting to reach a specific seniority or industry segment, ask for follower geography, industry and seniority data, or recent performance on comparable referral-strategy posts.
Verdict
Strong fit on subject matter and teaching approach; confirm commercial terms.
What to commission
A 60–90 minute workshop for partners and referral partners on mapping existing referral sources by how often they encounter the client problem, not by how well they know the firm.
A co-created piece on referral handoffs: what an introduction email must contain to preserve the reason for the meeting. Forteau identifies this gap repeatedly across several posts.
A short diagnostic partners can use before making an introduction, separating a client's words from the problem worth routing.
When to choose a specialist
A B2B software vendor selling to enterprise IT and engineering leaders wants a demand-generation campaign that measures tracked demo requests and cost per qualified lead, delivered within a few weeks.
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Reasons
The subject matter points elsewhere. Forteau's posts cover how professional-services firms win work through introductions: referral timing, referral partners and handoff language. They do not address software selection, technical evaluation or IT buying, so ask for evidence that the material reaches or persuades this buyer group.
The content addresses different buying decisions. It is written for accountants, attorneys, bankers, fractional CFOs and agency owners deciding whom to introduce. A vendor seeking demo requests from IT leaders is asking a different audience to take a different action.
The format is not built for a fast conversion push. Visible calls to action invite readers to read the week's newsletter issue or answer a research question in the comments. The posts publish no sponsored-placement product or lead-capture mechanism, and show no tracked conversion performance.
The published evidence cannot support a measurement promise. The only audience figure available here is a LinkedIn follower count of 12,753 observed on 9 October 2026. No engagement counts, impressions, click data or past campaign results are published, so ask for campaign evidence before treating cost per qualified lead as a forecast.
Verdict
Poor fit as scoped: audience, format and measurement.
What would have to change
A campaign prioritizing credibility and referral-partner education over immediate lead capture could work. A short-cycle performance campaign cannot be made to fit without promising more than the posts show.
A newsletter sponsorship or co-authored issue is the one plausible commercial option, but the posts publish no format, price or deadline. Ask for those details.
If the vendor's real problem is that its referral partners cannot explain what it does, the brief shifts toward the good-fit column and Forteau becomes relevant again.
A worked campaign example
Angle
Fund a short series on referral readiness, positioned internally as a way to fix the channel that already works before adding a new one. Pair one workshop with three co-created newsletter issues, each built around a scenario Forteau already uses: a client who cannot explain what the specialist helps with, a referral that arrives before the prospect is ready, and an introduction email that loses its purpose in the handoff.
First steps
Agree who the workshop is for: partners, external referral sources or both.
Commission the first issue on trigger language: coaching clients to recognize the situation, not the service category, when a problem resurfaces.
Make the readiness diagnostic the workshop takeaway, then publish a blank version readers can fill in.
Confirm the newsletter's commercial terms, deliverables and delivery date before public promotion.
What success looks like
Referral partners can describe the situation that should prompt an introduction, and the firm has a written list of who is positioned to send referrals, measured by partner self-report and the number of new referral conversations started.
Why it works
Each scenario ends with a decision the firm's partners or referral partners can act on: who is positioned to refer, what a referrer should say, and when an introduction should wait. That makes it useful partner education, not a brand-awareness post. It also matches the teaching style visible in the posts: a short named dialogue, the pattern named, and a question back to the reader.
Choose Jamie Herman when the firm wants a working accountant who built a referral-fed practice and can explain the mechanics from the inside, rather than someone who teaches referral thinking as a subject.
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In one post, they describe offering tax-planning sessions to local bookkeeping chapters years ago for the price of dinner, with no fee.
They fielded technical questions afterwards and used the rooms to practise presenting and meet bookkeepers.
Those relationships became referrals.
The post puts the result at roughly $300,000 of recurring year-end and tax work over three years, earned in their late twenties.
For an accounting or advisory firm, that makes for a partner-education session built on firsthand experience: which rooms to be in, what to teach without charging, and how referral volume follows from being the person other professionals call with a hard technical question.
Two posts, one recalling a single route tried about 14 years ago, offer a credible model but little structure for mapping a firm's referral sources or scripting an introduction.
There is no published workshop format, deliverables list or booking route, so scope, lead time and price would need to be negotiated directly.
The approach also assumes the firm sells something where technical expertise itself draws referrals; it fits less well when clients cannot articulate what the firm does.
Choose Steve Wallace when referral conversations start but the message does not land — prospects nod, agree and go quiet.
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The posts tackle that failure.
One describes messaging results across financial services, manufacturing, roofing, promotions, marketing, tech and software, and names specific cases: an email that got a small unknown company in front of Goodyear, a financial advisor's rewritten outreach that landed a $100,000-a-year client, and a call that created a $50,000 deal for a five-person startup.
The advertised offer is a $500, 90-minute session that rewrites the participant's own language and provides a reusable framework, with examples drawn from messaging taught at Guardian, MaverickApp and B2B Rev Co.
For an advisory firm, this is the sharper choice when partners and referral sources can get the meeting but not the follow-through.
This is a message-conversion engagement, not a referral-system engagement.
It improves what the firm says once a conversation exists; it does not identify potential referrers, build a referral partner network or fix an introduction that arrives too early.
The examples are largely outbound and pitch-driven, so warm introductions are not the focus.
The format shown is a paid one-to-one session rather than partner education.
The two posts include no media kit, sponsorship terms or booking process, and publish no performance data beyond the named anecdotes.
Choose Tom B. when referral flow is steady but too slow, and the firm wants a named list of prospects shaped like its best client rather than deeper referral relationships.
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One post argues that referral-led firms can name their best client in two seconds but not ten more like them.
The fix, it says, is finding companies with the same shape — the trigger that made the best client look, the title of the person who signed, the problem they could not solve alone — not the same industry label.
Three close matches beat three hundred loose ones, and the resulting message should read like a referral from someone who understands the business.
The offer is a free exchange: send the best client's name and get back three similar companies, who to contact and what to say.
A workshop or co-created content piece would extend that logic into the firm's own pipeline.
The work is outbound prospecting, not referral strategy.
It does not address introductions between a firm and the professionals closest to its clients' problems, which is central to building a referral system.
The second post argues that AI assistants will become the control layer for outbound — useful for understanding where the channel is heading, but not evidence of a proven list or tested campaign.
The free offer's conversion mechanics and commercial terms are not stated; ask for them before committing.
This profile is built from eight LinkedIn posts by Ed Forteau on referral strategy, referral introductions, referral timing and client acquisition, read in full rather than summarised from headlines.
The same review also read two posts each from three creators considered as alternatives, to judge how Forteau's approach differs from other writers working on referral and B2B client-acquisition problems.
A LinkedIn follower count of 12,753, observed on 9 October 2026, is the only audience figure available.
The posts themselves do not display publication dates; where the collected material places them, they span roughly June 2025 to September 2026, so the page does not treat this as a complete record of Forteau's work over that period.
Several posts are short scenarios that point to a fuller article in the Get Better Referrals newsletter without reproducing it, so claims about those articles are limited to what the posts say about them.
No media kit, rate card, sponsorship terms, booking route, audience demographics, engagement figures or past campaign results were available.
Those gaps are stated where they affect a decision rather than treated as evidence in either direction.
