[Guides](https://defrostmail.com/blog) # How B2B service firms get clients: what the surveys found Updated November 9, 2026 B2B service firms get most of their new clients through referrals. In a 2025 survey of content agencies, referrals came out at 67% among sources of new business, and in one study 57% of consultants get at least 60% of theirs that way. Among consulting firms, the fastest-growing get a smaller share from referrals. Hinge, which ran that survey, reads this as their other sources producing more. ## What do the surveys say? | Survey | Who was asked | What it found | | Hinge Research Institute, 2026 High Growth Study (January 2026) | 495 professional-services firms with almost $85 billion in combined revenue | Referrals and direct human outreach together account for nearly two-thirds of new business. The free material doesn’t separate the two. | | Hinge, consulting breakout (February 2026) | Consulting firms. Number not stated. | Firms with no growth get almost half their business from referrals. High-growth firms get 37.7%. | | Consulting Success, Marketing for Consultants Study (titled 2024, data from 2022 and 2023) | Sent to more than 50,000 consultants. Number who answered not stated. | 57% get at least 60% of new business from referrals. Asked for their single top way of getting clients, 16% named phone calls, 14% networking and 8% referrals. | | Content Marketing Association, Pulse 2025 | Content agencies, through a community of more than 9,000. Number who answered not stated. | Sources of new business: referrals 67% (61% in the previous wave), marketing that brings inquiries in 13%, marketing sent out to new companies 13%, lapsed clients 7%. | | SparkToro and Paddy Moogan, State of Digital Agencies 2025 (published February 2026) | Digital agencies. Sample not stated on the page. | Referrals from existing and past clients are by far the biggest driver of new business. No percentage is given. Partner referrals were the top driver for 15%. | Each row is from the publisher’s own page, read on November 9, 2026. Only the first says how many firms took part. Links are under Sources. ## How far can you trust these numbers? Enough to see the pattern. Not enough to take one figure as the truth for your kind of firm. Each survey asked a different group a different question, so the figures can’t be added up or averaged. - **Who answered.** Four of the five don’t say how many people replied. A survey sent to 50,000 consultants may have heard from far fewer. - **What was combined.** Hinge’s free material puts referrals and direct outreach in one figure. - **How old it is.** The Consulting Success data is from 2022 and 2023. - **What was asked.** Most consultants in that study get most of their business from referrals, yet only 8% named referrals as their single top way of getting clients. Where business came from and what someone names as a method are different questions. - **Who is missing.** No survey that could be checked at its source was found for engineering firms, design firms or fractional executives on their own. ## What does this mean if you run a small firm? First, you are in good company. If nearly all your clients came through someone who already knew you, your firm works the way most firms in these surveys do. Second, your main source is one you can’t schedule. A referral arrives when someone you know meets someone with a need, and thinks of you. The timing belongs to them. You can do excellent work all year and still have no say over which month the next introduction comes. That is why a firm that lives on referrals alone can have full months followed by thin ones. [When referrals aren’t enough: six options and what each costs](https://defrostmail.com/blog/when-referrals-are-not-enough) goes through what you can do about it. ## Do firms that grow faster get fewer referrals? The surveys don’t show that. In Hinge’s breakout of consulting firms, those with no growth got almost half their business from referrals, and high-growth firms got 37.7%. Hinge reads the gap as the faster-growing firms’ other sources producing more, and not as referrals mattering less. A share is a fraction. Keep every referral you get today, add clients from a second source, and the referral share falls though nothing was lost. Hinge doesn’t say how many consulting firms are in the breakout, so treat 37.7% as a direction and not a target. ## What do firms add beside referrals? The same surveys name the other sources: - For content agencies, marketing that brings inquiries in came out at 13%, marketing sent out to new companies at 13%, and lapsed clients at 7% (Content Marketing Association). - For digital agencies, partner referrals were the top driver for 15%, and 59% have tried selling by contacting companies directly (SparkToro and Paddy Moogan). - Consultants named phone calls, networking, blogging and SEO, and email marketing among their top ways of getting clients (Consulting Success). Each of these costs time or money. One is writing to companies that don’t know you yet: see [whether cold email works for service firms](https://defrostmail.com/blog/does-cold-email-work-for-service-firms). Defrost is one way to add a second source. We find companies that fit, write an email in your name for you to approve, and bring you the reply. The only fee is $300 when a new company replies wanting to talk. [Here is what we do](https://defrostmail.com/how-it-works). ## Questions people ask ### What share of new business comes from referrals? It depends on who was asked. Among content agencies, referrals came out at 67% (Content Marketing Association, Pulse 2025). Among consultants, 57% get at least 60% of new business from referrals (Consulting Success). Hinge’s 2026 study of 495 professional-services firms puts referrals and direct outreach together at nearly two-thirds. ### Is it a problem to rely on referrals? Not in itself. Most firms in these surveys do. The limit is timing: a referral arrives when someone else has a need, so you can’t bring one forward in a quiet month. Firms that want steadier months keep their referrals and add a second source. ### Are there figures for engineering firms, design firms or fractional executives? None that could be checked at its source. The surveys here cover professional-services firms in general, consultants, content agencies and digital agencies. ## Sources - [Hinge Research Institute, launch of the 2026 High Growth Study executive summary](https://hingemarketing.com/about-hinge/news-events/news/article/hinge-announces-the-launch-of-the-2026-high-growth-study-executive-summary), January 13, 2026, read November 9, 2026. - [Hinge, five key takeaways from the 2026 High Growth Study](https://hingemarketing.com/blog/story/5-key-takeaways-from-the-2026-high-growth-study), read November 9, 2026. - [Hinge, consulting marketing strategy: five data-backed lessons](https://hingemarketing.com/blog/story/consulting-marketing-strategy-5-data-backed-lessons), February 4, 2026, read November 9, 2026. - [Consulting Success, Marketing for Consultants Study](https://www.consultingsuccess.com/marketing-for-consultants-study), read November 9, 2026. - [Content Marketing Association, Pulse](https://the-cma.com/pulse), read November 9, 2026. - [SparkToro and Paddy Moogan, State of Digital Agencies 2025](https://sparktoro.com/blog/digital-agency-new-business-still-a-concern-referrals-still-rule-for-lead-gen-and-are-sales-pipelines-finally-recovering/), February 17, 2026, read November 9, 2026. ## Short on time for this? Tell us what you do. It takes about three minutes and no card. If you’re a fit, we’ll tell you where we’d start. [Apply to Defrost](https://defrostmail.com/apply)