I say referrals are earned. Not asked for. And the ones telling you they are asked for are usually FOS marketers that never got a referral if they ever worked in the field.
Do a good job for your clients, answer your phone and provide good customer service and they will refer you to others.
And beware of any clown that wants to send you advice through PM's.
You asked on an open forum. If they can't reply on an open forum it's because it can't stand the light.
You will learn that most of the posters here are not producers.
Over time the real producers here stand out. There should be an asterisk by all the marketers so a new agent can know to avoid them.
Pretty much nailed it. When I first started in the business we were told to ask questions like, who do you know that just bought a home, had a baby, got married, etc (this was when all I did was life insurance). And if you were given a name(s) they called that a referral. I'm of the belief that's just a name with slightly more information than you had. Can that name be worked and cultivated into a sale? Of course. But that isn't a referral.
Here's what my referrals sound like.
My phone rings and I answer "Hello, this is Scott".
Caller - "Hi Scott. This is Jane Thompson. I was talking to Mary Smith about Medicare stuff and she said I should talk to you and you'd help me understand all of this mess and get me set up on the right plan."
There are a few variations of that phone call, but that's a referral.
With that said, we can certainly do things to increase the chances of us getting referrals. JD hit the nail on the head with this statement:
Do a good job for your clients, answer your phone and provide good customer service and they will refer you to others.
That's really almost all it takes. You can do little things like sending birthday cards, thank you notes, etc. Be proactive at AEP (if you work the Medicare market). And definitely let them know you welcome referrals if they feel you've done a good job for them.
If somebody is selling me something and they ask me for names of other people, I simply tell them if I appreciate the job you do for me AND I come across someone in need of your services then I will recommend you. But I'm not giving you the names and numbers of family and friends so that you can call them.