Referral Selling

Networking is the best way to leverage business. Most people think that they are not good at networking. So, in the referrals CD, we can add the elements of Networking, asking referrals etc. We should include the idea of entropy. The way the clothes get messy in a cup board. Cold calling, the process of contacting someone who do not know you or expecting your call, is a waste of time, according to the new book �No More Cold Calling� by Joanne S. Black. The industry standard response rate for cold calling is a mere 2 percent. Ms. Black writes, �I don�t believe anyone should have to cold call � ever.� The author�s research shows that 98 percent of salespeople dislike cold calling. Yet this is a practice commonly employed by companies big and small. Businesses find it a good way to get qualified leads, or even sales. Many do it out of habit because it�s been done over and over again. Others do it because they don�t know of a better or more effective way to sell. Still some sales professionals do it because their boss expects them to do it. However, Ms. Black contends that the �public is averse to cold callers, and their displeasure will continue to increase.� People hate unsolicited emails (which are what most of the cold call emails are). Companies employ gatekeepers and sentries acting as barriers to cold callers. Most of all, cold calling is the �least effective way� of landing a big customer. You can do other techniques that can give you �five times as many clients by doing a fraction of the work.�

The Sales Technique Superior to Cold Calling
According to the author, referral selling is HOT! Referral selling is the process where �you are introduced to people you want to meet and who want to meet you.� If you are referred to a potential customer, you are viewed as credible the moment the customer talks to you on the phone or walks into your door. You don�t have to do prep work in selling because the customer is already sold on you. And you won�t have to filter out a potential customer to find out whether this person is a qualified customer because this person is already your ideal customer. Referral selling is �the only way to build the kind of relationships that create loyal customers who are then thrilled to refer others to you.� The author contends that it is the best method of selling because of the following reasons: 1. Success Rate. Your success rate of converting prospects to clients will increase from about 50 to 90 percent of the time. As a result, you spend less time selling yet get better results � time that you can dedicate to building your business or getting even more clients. 2. Building Customer Relationships. Increased business with existing customers, who will become loyal referral sources for you. Referral selling already begins with trust; whereas you have to work hard to earn the trust of a sale you got through cold calling. Follow-on business from a sale resulting from referral selling is 2-to-3 times that of a sale created by cold calling. 3. Your Customer is Pre-Sold. The sales process is cut short because customers will already know who you are and will want to work with you. Your revenue can increase dramatically because you or your sales people will spend less time on unproductive business development activities and focus on more lucrative avenues. 4. Reducing the Competition. The competition either diminishes or becomes non-existent because you will not set the standard against which the others must compete. With referral selling, it will seem that you have your own private sales force out there working for you � without you paying them!

How to Ask Someone to Refer You
According to the author, you need to think about how you will ask your referral source for a referral, then write your script, and practice it. She outlines the following process: 1. Tell your friend or colleague about your business 2. Set the stage by reciting past successes or tell and interesting story that will convince them about your business 3. Describe your Ideal Customer so they know who may be the right person for you 4. Ask for one or two contacts, and remember to ask for an introduction The last part is often the hardest. Sometimes, you�d feel awkward asking for referrals. The author gives the following suggestions on how you may be able to ask with confidence (she advises to stick with the one that you are most comfortable with): • • • • • • "It would mean the world to me if you could introduce me to one or two people you know." "It would be terrific if you could put me in touch with one or two people you know." "I�d really appreciate it if you could introduce me to one or two movers and shakers." "It�s your relationship, and I know you�ll want to make the call to introduce me." "It really works best if the person making the referral makes the introduction." "An introduction from you would be terrific. If I just get a name, it�s like a cold call (and you know I don�t make cold calls)."

The book �No More Cold Calling� is not the first book that claims that referral selling is superior to other sales technique, but it is one that made the best argument for the futility of cold calling. It is a very interesting read, with lots of detail on how your organization can shift from a sales culture geared towards cold calling towards the more effective referral selling. If you are looking for ways other than cold calling to get customers, this is one book that you should not miss.

==================== If you visit the best sales blog sites, you’ll no doubt stumble upon Paul McCord. Paul has a lot to say about an old silver bullet—referral selling. I call referral selling ”old” only because the practice of leveraging existing customer relationships has been around for decades. In fact, not enough sales people build this potentially powerful lead generation strategy into their overall territory management approach. (There are reasons for that. Among them are unhappy, unreferenceable customers, fear and simply not knowing how to referral sell.) I’ve been pretty tough on sales tips books and articles. With that in mind, referral selling skills (like presentation skills and typing skills) can be independent of any sales methodology. Paul’s book, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income — Sales Success Through Client Referrals provides a comprehensive view of the subject. His intent is to guide the reader into deploying a referral-based business model. Although Paul’s background is in financial services, where referral selling is more widely used, his strategies and tactics can be applied across pretty much any industry.

Paul’s PWWR (pronounced “power”) system is the key. Plant the seeds, Water them throughout the sale, Weed out any issues, and Reap the referrals. This is Paul’s recommended process and it makes a lot of sense. Although I have not employed Paul’s PWWR process, I can envision it working very well in diverse situations. He’s done a terrific job. Here is my recommendation for sales leaders. (A full-fledged plan will contain considerably more detail—this is just a starting point….) 1. If your sales team hasn’t been effectively leveraging existing customers for referrals, determine why. 2. Benchmark the level at which referrals business is being converted to sales. 3. If the reason is that (you and) your salespeople don’t know how, invest in this book. 4. Take the time to study Paul’s referral process and his recommendations. 5. Set an objective. For example, referrals will be the source of 10% of our business next year. 6. Devise a plan for adopting his process across your team. 7. Build appropriate coursework, tools, coaching mechanisms. (This is a difficult proposition for a busy sales manager. You probably don’t have either the time or the skills. I’m sure Paul would be delighted to engage with you on this…) 8. Train your team or get them trained. 9. Deploy the process, measure results against your benchmark and objective and refine. ==================== Doing more of what you’re doing that isn't producing the results you want, isn’t going to get your sales where you want them to be. The market has changed dramatically. Prospects have changed. Not only are there fewer high quality prospects, they have made themselves harder to find and harder to get to. What has worked in the past to find and connect with quality prospects doesn’t work very well today. OK, most of us recognize that. But most of us are chained to our old poor performing prospecting and business development methods. And those old methods are killing your business. To connect with high quality prospects in today’s market you have to approach them in ways they will accept and respect, not in ways that turn them off. The more relationship driven the sale, the less effective cold calling, direct mail and email, networking through the local chamber

and leads groups, and advertising become. * Are you looking for quality prospects that want real solutions--or are you happy with price shoppers? * Do you want new clients that will be the loyal backbone of your sales for years to come--or are you satisfied with one-time buyers? * Are you looking for prospects that want to engage you for your expertise--or who just deal with you because you’re the cheapest alternative? If you’re looking for price shoppers, bargain hunters, and one-time customers, your current prospecting and new business development methods may work perfectly well for you. In today’s marketplace, if you want customers and clients who will pay what your products and services are worth, and if you want long-term, profitable, loyal clients and customers, you have to find prospects who are looking for real solutions to their issues, not the cheapest stop-gap measure they can find. You must find and employ ways to connect with prospects that put you and your product or service in a position of authority and superior expertise--that communicate your value to and respect for your prospect. Those methods exist. They are out there. And they probably are not being employed by your competition! If you or your sales team is ready to learn how to get away from the price shopper and one-time prospect and to find prospects who need and want your products, servives, and solutions and are willing to pay for them, give me a call. In today’s marketplace, can you afford to wait? ==================== The true sales superstars do business differently than most. They don't relie on word of mouth, they don't spend 60 to 80% of their time prospecting by cold calling or sending out mass mailings, they develop a unique relationship with their clients and customers that result in getting a large number of highly qualified referrals from each client. Unlike the referrals most salespeople, professionals and small business owners get, the referrals the mega-producers receive are not just some names and phone numbers, but are referrals to real prospects who need or want their product or service. Action Steps The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Don't let referrals be a surprise to the client
Traditional referral selling training has been to "do a good job and ask for referrals." That isn't the way the mega-producers generate their business. They know the traditional training doesn't work. Instead, they let the client know up-front that they will be expecting referrals once the sale is complete. They don't leave anything to chance and they don't let their client be surprised by a request after the sale that the client didn't know was coming. They let the client know what to expect and when to expect it. Not only does this eliminate taking the client by surprise at the end, it allows the client time to become comfortable with the idea of giving referrals and allows them time to think about who to refer. I recommend: From the very beginning of getting to know your prospect, let them know that you are a referral based business and that you will be seeking referrals from them after the sale if you've met their expectations and priorities.At http://www.powerreferralselling.com you will find a page of referral selling resources, including scripts for introducing the subject of referrals to a new prospect.

Let the client know exactly what a referral for you is
Like everything else in their business, mega-producers don't leave to chance whom they might get as a referral. They define for their client exactly what a quality referral for them is and then make sure the client understands. I recommend: Discuss with your customer/client who you are--that is, exactly who your ideal client is and then ask them to be prepared with referrals to that ideal client once the sale is complete. At http://www.powerreferralselling.com you'll find a discussion of how to define your ideal client.

Remind Your Client of Your Expectation of Referrals
Mega-producers constantly remind their client of the referral meeting after the sale. They don't beat them over the head, but rather simply slip reminders in the conversation casually. I recommend: Water the referral garden by with gentle reminders of the upcoming referral meeting. See discussion at http://www.powerreferralselling.com.

Know exactly what your client wants
Although the current buzz phrase in sales and marketing is "exceeding the client's expectations," few companies and salespeople know what their client expects because they never ask. Instead, they assume they know. By assuming, the best they can do is exceed what they believe their client's expectations should be. Mega-producers don't assume. They ask. They discuss in-detail with their client exactly what their cient's expectations and priorities are--and then they do everything in their power to meet those expectations and priorities.

I recommend: Know your client. Don't assume anything. Have a serious discussion with your client about what they expect and then make sure they receive exactly that. See the discussion at http://www.powerreferralselling.com about client expectations.

Get the referrals after the sale
After the sale, the mega-producer has a meeting with the client just to get referrals. A separate meeting emphasizes the importance of the referrals and allows the megaproducer to gather information about each referral. The mega-producer also has a list of potential referrals he/she wants to be referred that the client might know, insuring that if the client doesn't have referrals, they'll still get referrals. I recommend: Know who your client knows and prepare a list of potential prospects you client might know. At http://www.powerreferralselling.com you'll find an article titled "Know Who Your Client Knows" that details how to discover who your client may know.

Contact the Referred Prospect
Mega-producers don't just call a referred prospect. Since they are trying to build a relationship with the referred prospect based on the trust and respect the prospect has for their client (or the lack thereof), they find out from the client exactly what the relationship is and then use a contact method that best takes advantage of their trust or mitigates the lack of trust. I recommend: Spend time getting to know the relationship between your client and the prospect. The weaker the trust and respect relationship between client and prospect, the stronger contact method you must us to get a meeting with the prospect. You got it, go to http://www.powerreferralselling.com for discussion. ================== I am a vociferous evangelist for referral selling: I have written extensively about it; co-presented with two of the world’s leading authorities on the subject, Joanne Black and Paul McCord, and regularly lecture on it. Here are some interesting facts that may surprise you: • 85% of all sales people do not generate enough quality referrals? • Sales people who actively seek and exploit referrals earn four to five times more than sales people who don’t? • Referral business closes and converts more than 70% of the time? So, why is referral based selling so powerful? Quite simply, because a referred customer is already pre-sold on the credibility of the sales person, their company and the relevance of the products/services sold. These types of opportunities are much warmer than a cold-call based opportunity because it

maximizes the goodwill, inherent in the relationship between the referred customer and the referring person. By association, sales people are consequently perceived in a different light compared to those that have made contact ‘out of the blue’. The costs of selling to a referred customer are reduced because they are easier to see, and are likely to be reasonably well qualified so that the probability for converting the business is much higher. Generally speaking referred prospects will accelerate through the sales pipeline at a much faster rate than other types of opportunities, and they will also be more receptive towards providing future referrals. What are the biggest barriers to getting referrals? If asking for referrals has not been included and communicated in the sales process, this will deter sales people’s focus as they will see asking for referrals as a ‘nice to do’ rather than a ‘must do’. This in turn usually means that there is no rigorous method for measuring and monitoring how many referrals are generated and what the conversion ratios are for closing referred customer business. Energy goes where attention flows, so without specific attention to this sales people are unlikely to invest their energy in this direction. (Even if they are firm believers in the positive impact that referrals can create!). For many sales people asking for referrals is uncomfortable because they feel unsure about how to do this effectively, and they aren’t confident they will get their desired response. If people don’t know how to do something and they believe that what they are doing will damage their existing relationships, then it’s better to avoid it all together. Additionally, if sales people make the common mistake of asking for referrals too early on in the relationship this can result in more refusals that further erode sales people’s confidence. Therefore, to optimise the use of referral-based selling the following components are vital: 1. Asking for referrals and acting on them needs to be incorporated in the overall sales process. 2. Metrics around referrals should be sought and evaluated on a regular basis, because this contributes towards furthering the rationale for generating them. 3. Development and training needs to be delivered to the sales team so they can maximize the impact of referrals and feel confident with this skill.

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If you read my initial blog post here at AllBusiness you’ll recall the theme of my discussions here will be how to grow your sales in the context of the current recession. I mentioned that I’d be looking at a number of traditional prospecting and personal marketing methods, looking for ways to make them more effective, as well as addressing some less used strategies. Let’s start with one of the potentially most effective growth strategies available to sellers that is also one of the least productive —referrals. For most sellers, referrals really are the single most productive pipeline building strategy there is. Yet, asking for referrals is probably the biggest time and energy wasting prospecting method next to cold calling for most sellers. In fact, it is such a pathetic waste of time that over 30% of sellers never even ask for a referral and another 30% only ask on occasion. That’s over 60% of sellers who are so enthralled with referrals that they’ve virtually completely eliminated them as a business building tool. You have probably received the same referral training most of us in sales have received—virtually none. More than likely your training consisted of being told to do a good job for your customer and then after the sale, ask every client or customer for the name and phone number of someone they know who might be able to use your products or services. If you received “advanced” referral training, you were taught to ask for referrals more than once. If you learned to sell in the financial services arena, you were probably taught some variation of “I get paid two ways, the commissions I earn and the referrals you give me.” What BS. Certainly, “asking” for a name and phone will on occasion get you a new client. A few sellers have even managed to build their businesses by asking each of their customers for a name and number or two. But most salespeople have found “asking” to be close to worthless. For good reason. The vast majority of sellers find that most of the names and phone numbers they get from clients are no better prospects than if they had just opened the phonebook and pointed at names at random.

The problem isn’t with the concept of referrals. As I said earlier, referrals can and should be the foundation of most salespeople’s business. The problem is that what you’ve been taught is completely, totally, 100% wrong. Simply “doing a good job and asking for referrals” creates so many problems that it actually discourages clients and customers from giving you a quality referral, much less giving several quality referrals. How can asking a simple favor of a client create so many problems that it ends up discouraging them from doing what you asked? Think about how most sellers ask for a referral. Typically they’ll say something like: “Ms. Client, most of my business comes from the referrals my clients give me, who do you know that might be able to use my products or services?” Or, “Ms. Client, if you happen to run across someone who might be able to use my products or services, I’d appreciate it if you’d give them my card.” In most instances these questions are asked after the sale has been completed, the service or goods delivered, and the seller is following up with the client. Many times the question is asked literally as the salesperson is walking out the door. In my next post I’ll discuss a process that turns the worthless effort of “asking” for referrals into a disciplined, predictable, effective process to generate referrals, but before we discuss that, we have to understand what the problems are with the typical way salespeople try to get referrals so we know what not to do. Why Asking for Referrals Doesn’t Work That innocent sounding referral question creates a whole host of issues that prevent the salesperson from getting quality referrals: ? It ambushes the client. The subject of referrals has not been mentioned until the last second, as the salesperson is wrapping up with the client. Then, without warning the salesperson is putting the client on the spot asking an unexpected question and standing waiting for an answer. This is generally an uncomfortable moment for both the salesperson and the client. The salesperson instinctively knows they’ve put their client in an uncomfortable position and the client resents being cornered. Doesn’t give the client time to get comfortable. Certainly there are some clients who will gladly give referrals

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at the drop of a hat. Most clients, however, need time to get comfortable with the idea of giving referrals. For us a referral is simply a suggestion of someone the client knows who may be in the market for our product or service. For the client a referral is far more serious. A referral for the client is an endorsement, a statement to the referred prospect that the prospect should trust their judgment and that the prospect doesn’t need to investigate alternative sources because the client has already done so and this salesperson and their product or serice is the best around. That’s a big statement for a client to make and they must be given the opportunity to become comfortable making that statement. Doesn’t give the client needed information. Most of the time the salesperson doesn’t even define for their client what a good referral for them is. They assume the client understands who they’re looking for. Bad assumption. While the salesperson is standing there thinking, “Give me someone just like you,” the client is standing there thinking, “What does this person what and how do I get rid of them?” Doesn’t give the client time to think. Typically the salesperson is literally, or figuratively if on the phone, standing in front of the client waiting to get a referral or two. The client only has 10 or 15 seconds to go through their mental file cabinet to come up with one or two quality referrals. That, for most people, simply isn’t realistic. Doesn’t give the client a reason to give referrals. As mentioned above, there is a relatively small group of clients who will gladly give referrals when asked. Most clients, however, are reluctant to give referrals. Since clients are human, they tend to do things for the reason most humans tend to do things—they perceive them to be in one way or another in their own interests to do them. Asking for referrals doesn’t give them a “what’s in it for me.” Doesn’t give the client an objective way to determine if you’ve earned the referrals. Not only do clients believe that when they give a referral they are putting their reputation on the line with the referred prospect, most also assume that the person they refer you to will be more critical and more demanding than they have been. They must know that you will not embarrass them. They need assurance that you will do exactly what you say you will do. They need an objective way to determine whether or not you have earned their referrals, and simply asking for referrals at the end of the sale doesn’t do that. Makes the client do all of the work. Even if we give the client a reason to give referrals, the primary beneficiary is us, not the client. Asking for referrals is asking our client to assume the burden of doing our prospecting for us. Without

our help and guidance, that is asking more from our client that should be expected. What Must A Referral Process Do? What then must an effective, disciplined, predictable referral generation process do in order to be successful? It must: ? ? ? ? ? ? Give the client plenty of time to become comfortable with idea of giving referrals Let the client know exactly what constitutes a good referral for us Give the client plenty of time to figure out whom to refer Give the client a good reason to give referrals Give the client an objective way to determine whether or not we’ve earned their referrals Make it easy for the client to give a number of high quality referrals by us doing most of the work for the client

Instead of wasting time and effort asking for referrals, we have to have a process to generate them. Next post, we’ll dig into what that process is. In the first post in this series I pointed out why the traditional referral “training” that most of us in sales have received is worthless. That “do a good job for your client and then ask for referrals” training has proven to be a waste of time and energy for most sellers, and a very unwelcome surprise question for many clients. Yet, I also said that referrals could be and should be the cornerstone of most sellers’ businesses. So, if what we’ve been taught doesn’t work, what does work? The Vocabulary is All Wrong I’ll get to the process that does work in a minute, but first I need to address the language used in referral selling. We need to quit using the phrase “asking for referrals.” That phrase relates to the lame question the old referral “training” taught sellers to ask: “Ms. Client, do you know of anyone else who might be able to use my products or services?” (Or some variation of thereof). We need to get that whole concept out of our heads. We don’t ask for referrals, instead we need a process that works closely with our clients to generate referrals. When we ask a question we are at the mercy of the person of whom we asked the question. We may or may not get the answer (result) we want. Historically, most sellers have not been rewarded with a ton of great referrals when asking that question.

Instead of asking a question, we need to learn to generate—to birth, to create—referrals. Every client we have has many potential referrals to give us. Asking for them isn’t going to get us very far. Even if we get quality referrals by asking, we’ll only get one or two. Instead, we must partner with our client to spawn multiple referrals. So, Where Do We Begin? One of the issues with the traditional way of asking for referrals that we discussed in the last post is the feeling of being ambushed by the seller at the last minute. In most instances, the seller has not mentioned a word about referrals previous to the last minute request after the sale has been completed and the goods or services fully delivered. The request comes out of the blue as a total—and usually unwelcome—surprise. A corollary issue is that by ambushing the client at the last second, the seller hasn’t given the client an opportunity to become comfortable with the idea of giving the seller referrals. Again, as discussed in the first post, clients need time to acclimate themselves to the idea of giving referrals. A referral from the client’s perspective is a big deal—it’s putting their reputation on the line with person they refer the seller to. Sellers who are great at generating referrals begin the referral generation process as soon as they meet a prospect. As quickly as possible they introduce themselves as being referral-based. This isn’t an in-your-face referral discussion by any means. They introduce the subject of referrals as a natural part of the conversation by saying something like: “Don, do you know Judy Sloan? She’s a client of mine who was referred to me by one of other clients about 6 months ago, and since she’s an architect also, I thought maybe you might know her?” Or when making a cold call: “Ms. Prospect, although most of my clients are referred to me by my other clients, I ran across some information about you that made me think that I might be able to . . . .” These sellers simply take the natural openings in the conversation to introduce the subject of referrals in relation to themselves. No sales pitch. No asking for referrals. No direct statements. Just introducing the idea of referrals as a way they build their business. From that point on while the prospect is still a prospect, the seller will simply drop additional referral seeds when opportunities arise. Again, nothing forced. Just a casual comment like: “Wow, John, I didn’t think I was going to make it on time. I was on the other side of town meeting with a newly referred client and the traffic coming back was terrible,” or, “John, I’ve got a meeting next Tuesday at 10 with a newly referred client, do you think we could get together right after that at, say, 11:30?”

The concept of introducing the subject of referrals early in the relationship and then weaving in referral seeds as opportunities arise is simple—prospects and clients aren’t stupid. If you consistently bring up referrals in these contexts, they’ll eventually figure out that referrals are important to you and they will assume that sooner or later you’ll be bringing up the subject with them. Referral’s intimidation factor is removed by familiarity. So, Where Does the Generation Part Come In? Once your prospect makes the conversion from prospect to client, things begin to pick up regarding referrals. You have a direct conversation with your client about referrals. For some a direct referral conversation at this point sounds intimidating. It sounds like it is being too forward. It sounds like it is far too early. It’s not. It is at this point that you are going to explain to your client that your business is built on referrals; that most of your clients give you several quality referrals; that it is in the client’s best interest to give you referrals; that they don’t just give them, you earn them; you agree on what you must do to earn the referrals; explain what a good referral for you is; and get your client’s agreement to give you referrals after the sale. Sound like a lot? Sound impossible? It’s not. In fact, your conversation really is quite short and very matter of fact. A typical conversation will go like so: “Mr. Client, as you’ve probably gathered, most of my business is built on the referrals my clients give me. Let me ask you a couple of questions if I may: Have you ever had the experience where you’ve made a major transaction and the seller didn’t keep you informed of what was going on, frustrating you? (Everyone has had this experience, so the answer is always ‘yes’) Have you ever had a major transaction where the seller either didn’t return your calls in a timely manner or didn’t return them at all, leaving you in the dark? (Again, everyone has, the answer is always ‘yes’) Have you ever had a major transaction where something went wrong and the seller failed to inform you until it was too late for you to make other arrangements? (Again, everyone has had this happen)

Mr. Client, the reason those things happened isn’t because the sellers didn’t care or didn’t want to take care of you. They happened because those sellers had to spend 70, 80, maybe 90% of their time looking for their next client, not taking care of their existing clients. My clients give me 4 or 5 high quality referrals to prospects just like them who have the same issues and needs because by doing so they know that unlike the other sellers they’ve dealt with in the past, I will be spending the vast majority of my time making sure those past issues don’t occur. I’ll be staying on top of things to make sure their experience is exactly what they want, not what happens by chance. What would you like to happen while we’re working together to make this the exact experience you want? (Work through with the client what needs to happen—that is what you must guarantee will happen to meet their expectations) Great. My clients don’t just give me referrals, I earn them. I’d like to be able to count on you that if I make sure this happens as we just discussed that you’d give me 4 or 5 quality referrals just as my other clients do, is that reasonable to you?” Almost every one of your clients will say ‘yes.’ You have just given your client a reason to give you referrals that makes sense and that addresses many of the worries and frustrations clients have with making major purchase commitments, given them a way to determine if you’ve earned the referrals, and gotten them to agree to give you 4 or 5 quality referrals based on the definition of a quality referral you gave them. Didn’t take 5 minutes. No arguments, no stress, no fuss. No guarantee you’ll get referrals either.
You’ve done half the work—you’ve gotten a commitment from your client to give you quality referrals and you know what you have to do to earn them. Now you have to do the other half—figure out a way to actually get them. We’ll deal with that little issue in the last post of this series. =================

There's no democracy in prospecting. All prospects are not created equal; some are more valuable than others. Why? Some are more likely to buy from you. Some salespeople kid themselves and waste a lot of time on some prospects while they should be focusing on others. Who should they focus on? The prospects with the most likelihood of buying from you. Here’s who these valuable prospects are. The least valuable prospects are the ones you cold call. Sometimes you can find prospects like these from lists. But without any particular criteria that identify your best prospects, calling prospects from lists is a low-level adventure of smiling and dialing. Sure, you can find some valuable prospects this way, but expect that it's going to be slow going and require a lot of energy. If you do use lists, be as specific as possible to identify the types of prospects you want. Get as close to a description of

your best customers and find more like them. Who are these prospects? It could be a type of industry. If so, look at NAICS or SIC codes. These lists of companies by industry will be specific for the ones you are looking for. Prospects you get from asking existing, satisfied customers for referrals are more valuable than cold-call prospects. Are you not asking your satisfied customers for prospects? You're missing an opportunity to move up the prospecting value chain. Why? Existing prospects know you and your work. But these current prospects are not always thinking about mentioning customers for you to call, so remember that your customers are not in sales. You are! It's your job to ask. The best time to ask for a referral is when a customer gives you a compliment. There’s a persuasion principle called reciprocity. When you give someone something, the person feels obligated to give something back. When a customer gives you a compliment, it's because you have given him good service and value. He will unconsciously feel obligated to give you something back. When you ask for a referral, it’s the perfect way for your customer to give you something back. In this case, a referral! Even better than asking for a referral is when a customer takes it upon himself to recommend you to other prospects. That’s really a testimonial to your good work. Your customer, by recommending you, is putting his reputation on the line. He trusts you enough to endorse your work. More importantly, when another prospect hears, "You need to buy from him" you have a much easier job of selling. The highest value prospects are ones you might not think about. Most salespeople have their best prospects sitting right across the desk from them. Who are they? They are existing customers. Ask yourself, are all my customers buying all that they can from me? Do they even know everything you sell? These people should be your best prospects. Existing customers already know you, they like you and your products and are most likely to listen to your selling message. They're the highest value prospects you have. You may have heard that sales is a numbers game. It's not. It's a value game. Focus on the most valuable prospects and go after them. All prospects are not created equally. It's only when you focus on selling to great prospects, that you will make your sales numbers. That's no game. That’s a great sales strategy. =================
One of the critical parts of generating a large number of quality referrals, of course, is getting quality referrals as opposed to just getting names and phone numbers. But at times, despite your efforts go get quality referrals from your client, they simply cannot or will not think of anyone to whom to refer you. Nevertheless, you need not walk away without a number of quality referrals. In order to make sure you get the referrals you want—and to increase the number of referrals the client gives you—you must do your own homework well before you meet your client to ask for referrals. Homework simply consists of putting together a list of

people you have good reason to believe your client knows and to whom you would like your client to refer you. How do you create this list? Knowing your client is the first step. During the course of the sale you need to be aware of everything you discover about your client. Does he or she have signs of membership in organizations in their office or home? Are there bumper stickers on their car? Photographs that might indicate involvement in organizations or clubs? Has the client referred to a meeting or some other indicator of involvement? Can you gather information about past employment, other vendors or customers? All of the above are relatively easy ways you can investigate who you client might know. Lets look in more detail at some of these possibilities: Memberships: If you meet your client in their office or home office, you will often have the opportunity to discover their memberships by simply looking around the room. Do they have plaques from the Lions Club or Chamber of Commerce? Membership directories from an industry association on their bookshelf? Photos of them at an organization gathering? Bumper stickers: Some people advertise their political or social associations on their car. Though not a guarantee, if you notice a bumper sticker it is often a sign that they have a commitment to the organization or movement represented by the sticker. Vendors/Customers: Simply investigating whom the individual deals with can give you great insight into whom the client might be able to refer you to. Does he or she or their company sell to or buy from someone you are interested in getting in front of? Awards: Are you aware of any awards your client has received from any group, association, client, or vendor? Emails: Some clients will put you on their social email list when they send copies of articles, jokes, etc. that they think are of interest. Often these lists are sent to a large number of individuals and all of the recipients names are in your email header. Most people will simply delete these emails without a thought. Don’t! Examine the names of the other people the email was sent to—sometimes you’ll find some amazing names. I’ve received emails with the personal email address of nationally known sports, political, entertainment and business figures. Most of the time I have no reason to ask to be referred to these people, but if I ever want to be referred to Emmett Smith, Bill Bradley, Kobe Bryant, Terry Bradshaw, Tom Kite, Barbara Walters or any of dozens more high profile people, I know who to go to ask for the referral—and I already have their email address in my database. Family: Are there photos of their kids playing sports? What school or team do they play for? Has your client mentioned anything about their spouse having to do something with an organization or association? Who does their spouse work for? Past employers: This can be a particularly lucrative area to investigate. Most people have worked for several companies during their lifetime and often they will still have contacts at their past employers. If your client has worked in a capacity where they had the contacts you want, take note. If you take the time and effort to do a little investigation, you should have at least a few areas to investigate further. Once you have your list of associations, vendors,

past employers, etc., explore those organizations to determine whom within the organization you would like to be referred to by your client. If they are members of the chamber, make a list of several chamber members you know you want to meet. If they are a member of an industry association, what other companies would you like to sell? Who in that company do you need to be referred to in order to have the best shot at selling them? Are any of your client’s past employers of interest? How about your client’s spouse’s employer? You will need to investigate each of the organizations, companies, associations, etc. to discover whom you want to meet. You’ll need to come to the referral meeting with a list of 15 to 25 names to insure that your client will know at least a few of the people and will be comfortable referring you to them. During the referral meeting, go over your client’s referrals first. If, after your client has finished with his list, there are individuals on your list that your client has not mentioned, take a few minutes and ask your client about each person on your list. Of course, you want more referrals from your client in the future. Start preparing for your future referrals during your client acquisition meeting. Note during the meeting how your client reacts to each of the people you bring up on your list. If, for example, you have three people each from three different organizations, but your client really doesn’t know or is not comfortable referring you to any of the people from two of the organizations but is willing to refer you to all three of the people from the third organization, make a note to approach you client about more individuals from the third organization at some point in the future. Also, note where the referrals your client had prepared came from. Were they all family and friends? All business acquaintances your client only knows casually? Are they all vendors? All people within his company? Who your client refers you to will give you a strong indication of both how well he trusts you and where you might be able to make future suggestions about people you would like to be referred to. Do not contact any of the people on your list by using your client’s name without his or her explicit permission. Trying to manufacture referrals is a surefire way to lose credibility with both your client and your prospect. If you contact someone on your list your client has not referred you to, it is OK to mention you have done work for your client, but don’t imply the client referred you to the prospect. You can easily double or triple the number of high quality referrals you receive through careful listening and observation. Every client you have knows people and companies you would like to be referred to. Unfortunately, clients often forget about those potential referrals. Your job is to help your client make quality referrals—the easier you make it for your client to give you quality referrals, the more referrals you’ll receive.

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Virtually every professional has learned that generating referrals from clients and prospects is a key to success, yet surveys of thousands of attendees of my referral training seminars indicate that less than 15% of all salespeople and professionals generate enough referrals to impact their business. Traditional referral trainers have taught us to “do a good job and ask for referrals.” Using the traditional approach, the typical professional services business will get an occasional “referral” or two from their clients, but these tend

to be just names and phone numbers, rather than qualified prospects. Even worse, this “do a good job and ask for referrals” approach creates five problems: 1. The client is not prepared to give referrals. By waiting until the service is complete and then asking for referrals, your client has not had an opportunity to prepare for your request. To the client, the request comes from out of the blue. When you approach your client with your request without giving him an opportunity to think about it, you put him on the spot. You are giving him only a few seconds to go through his mental file cabinet. 2. The client does not know what you need. It may seem obvious to you, but your client has little idea of what makes a good referral for you, even if she takes a few seconds to think about it. You assume that because your practice involves a number of services for small to mid-size businesses, from management consulting, to tax preparation, to financial analysis, your client is immediately going to think, “What other companies do I know or do I do business with that might need Toms’ advice and expertise?” Wrong assumption. What she actually thinks is “what does this person want from me?” 3. Your client does not have a reason to give referrals We assume that if we have done a good job, the client will like and respect us and be willing to give us referrals. Again, this is far from the case. Most clients will not give quality referrals just because they like you or because you have done a good job for them. They need a reason to give you referrals. They need to understand why it is in their best interest to give you referrals. Clients assume that whomever they refer you to will be more demanding and critical they have been. When a client gives a referral, he is putting his reputation and image on the line with the person to whom he is referring to you. He is concerned about what his friend or acquaintance is going to think of his and his judgment, particularly if you mess up. 4. The client doesn’t have an objective standard by which to measure your performance. The traditional referral generation method does not give the client an objective standard by which to measure the quality of your performance. You and your client may “feel” you have done a good job, but when you ask for referrals, they begin to think back over the process more critically and question whether you have really performed up to standards they believe others would find acceptable. If the two of you agree up-front on exactly what you need to do in order to “do a good job,” the client will have an objective basis to decide if she trusts you enough and if you have performed well enough to earn the right to be sent to people she really knows well and respects. 5. Most advisors do not ask for referrals Finally, from tracking the responses of the attendees of my seminars, it appears a majority of professionals do not ask for referrals–rather they suggest them. Instead of asking a direct question seeking referrals such as, “John, what other business owners do you know that I may be able help solve some crucial issues?” the typical professional will make a weak suggestion such as, “John, if you happen to know someone I can help would you mind letting me know?” Or, “John, if you run across someone, who could use my services, would mind giving them my card?” Rather than a request for referrals, these are throwaway sentences, quickly forgotten by most clients. Traditional referral training is inherently unfair to you and your client. It does not give you the tools needed to successfully work with your client to generate quality referrals, and it gives your client neither a reason to give referrals, nor a chance to become comfortable referring you to people they know and respect. Generate the referrals you want Yet, it is possible to generate a very large number of high quality referrals from your clients. You need to have a referral generation process that:

• • • •

Informs your client ahead of time that you will ask for referrals Lets the client know what your definition of a referral Educates your client on why providing referrals is in their best interests Provides an agreed upon objective criteria to determine your performance

By forming a process where you eliminate the problems associated with the traditional referral generating method, you will increase not only the number of referrals you receive from your clients, but also the quality of each referral.

==================== Every salesperson and business owner has heard that referrals are by far the best prospecting and marketing method in existence. Yet, very few salespeople actually get very many high-quality referrals. Some manage to get a name and phone number here and another there. A few will manage to get several. However, most of these “referrals” are worthless -- just names and phone numbers of people or businesses that have no interest in or need for or can’t afford the salesperson’s product or service. Nevertheless, there are a few salespeople and business owners who have found a way to not only generate more than just a few referrals, but somehow they manage to generate enough high quality referrals to run very successful sales practices almost exclusively from the referrals they receive from their clients. Do they have some great secret the rest of us don’t know? Actually, in a sense, yes. They’ve learned that what most of us are doing to get referrals doesn’t work. Moreover, they have learned ways that do work. Let’s look at seven of the most basic things these mega-referral producers have learned: 1. Ask for referrals: Sounds stupid right? If you don’t ask, how do you expect to get them? Unfortunately, over 50% of salespeople simply never ask—and the majority who do ‘ask,’ really don’t ask for referrals. 2. Ask more than once: Statistics show that if you ask for referrals twice, you’ll get twice as many as if you only ask once. 3. Really Ask: Asking means a direct request for referrals. Studies have also shown that the majority of salespeople and

business owners who ask for referrals don’t really ask–they suggest. They’ll say something like “Don, if you happen to run across someone who could use my service, would you give them one of my cards?” and then they hand the client a bunch of cards— that usually go straight into the trash. 4. Let the client know who’s a good referral: Very few salespeople ever define for the client who a good referral is. They assume the client knows. Bad assumption. Clients aren’t in your business. Why should they know? You have to let them know exactly who you’re looking for. 5. Help them: Make some suggestions as to people whom they might know. If you’re selling insurance and your client builds homes, whom do you think they might know? Tons of contractors, realtors, vendors and suppliers, that’s who. Suggest some of those folks you know you’d like to be referred to—they just might know them. 6. Give them time to think: Don’t ask for referrals and stand there waiting for an answer. When you put your client on the spot like that, they aren’t going to come up with a ton of great referrals. Ask and then let them know exactly when you’ll get back to them to get the referrals. They need time to think and 10 or 15 seconds won’t cut it if you want quality referrals. 7. Don’t get names and phone numbers, get introduced: A name and phone number is just a name and phone number. Get introduced to the prospect through an introduction letter or phone call from you client to the prospect, or lunch meeting with the three of you. Mega-referral producers have a detailed process they use to generate a large number of high quality referrals from every one of their clients and even prospects. They have developed a disciplined and effective procedure they use with each client that leads to a predictable end—receiving a large number of high quality referrals. But even without learning the process they use, if you simply implement these 7 simple tips, you’ll increase both the number and quality of the referrals you receive from your clients immediately. Contact: If you have a topic you’d like addressed or if you’d just like to contact me, feel free to email me at [email protected] or you can connect with me via my website at http://www.mccordtraining.com

Today’s News: Only four more days to register for the Recession Buster Webinar and get the early 33% early registration discount. Learn four proven, effective, dynamic ways to find and connect with a large number of high quality prospects in ways they will accept, respect, and respond to. =================== In the last post I discussed how to work with your client to get agreement to give you a number of high quality referrals once the sale has been completed. Sounds great, huh? Just live up to your agreement to give the client the purchasing experience they want and you’ll get four, five, six or more great referrals. Easy. Well, in reality, not quite. Yes, in your conversation your client agreed that it made sense to give you four or five referrals to the type of people or companies you defined for them if you earn them through your performance as laid out in the discussion. Some of your clients will take this agreement seriously and give thought of whom to refer. Others will take it seriously—and then forget it. And still others won’t take it seriously at all. It would be nice if all we had to do was get their agreement and then wait for the magical day after the sale when they’ll give us tons of wonderful referrals. Do that and you’ll end up like every other seller who asks for referrals—you’ll be lucky to get one, two at the very most. So how in the world are you supposed to walk away with a number of great referrals if you know that your client, no matter how sincere they are about giving you several referrals, isn’t going to have them to give to you? Do the Work for Your Client For most clients, making quality referrals is difficult. Despite your attempts to define for them who a good referral is, most clients really have a very difficult time putting a person or business together with you and your services. Since we know this going into the relationship, and since we know we want a number of quality referrals from the client, we must then be prepared to do the work of finding quality referrals from the client, for the client. In order to be able to make the referrals for the client, we have to know who the client knows—or who we have reason to believe the client knows—that we know we want to be referred to. Hmm---referral generation just got hard. For most sellers selling into businesses, this isn’t nearly as difficult as it may appear. All we have to do is pay attention during the course of the sale.

Learn everything you can about your client and their business. Listen closely during conversations, particularly casual conversations. Keep your eyes open. Be aware of everything. ? ? ? ? ? Where did your client previously work? Are there industry association directories in their bookcase? Who are their vendors and customers? What other departments in the company would you like to sell into? Do they mention others by name that you know you’d like to be referred to?

Most of us, if we really pay attention during the course of the sale can probably come up with a dozen or more names of people or companies that we know we want to be referred to that we have reason to believe our client knows. Those will be the key to getting a large number of high quality referrals. During the remainder of the sale after our direct referral conversation with the client, we simply go back to dropping referral seeds as we make sure that we perform just as we have promised the client. No direct reminders of their promise to give referrals. No asking if they’ve given thought to who they might refer. Just the casual referral seeds and an exceptional purchasing experience as promised. After the sale is complete and all products delivered or services preformed, set up a short 20 minute referral acquisition meeting with your client. Don’t do any other work other than referrals in this meeting. Don’t let anything get in the way. At the meeting, get the one or two referrals you client has for you, if they have any, and then ask about the people on your list. If you’ve done your job of paying attention well and have a dozen or more names on your list, your client will probably know four or more. If you’ve met your obligations to your client, they will refer you to those people you ask about that they know. Instead of walking away with one or two—or no—referrals, you’ll walk away with four, five, six or more—and at a minimum you know the names you asked about and were referred to are quality referrals. After You Get the Referrals Your work is still far from done. At this point all you have are names and numbers. Now you have to convert them into introductions. Typically sellers will rush back to their office, pick up the phone, call the referred prospect, and get brushed off. Not good. Instead of phoning the prospect, look to get a direct introduction by: ? Letter of Introduction: get a letter introducing you to the prospect from your client. Don’t let the client write the letter. They’ll do it in their timeframe, not yours, and clients tend to write really general letters. Instead, write the letter for your client’s signature. Make sure the letter

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is absolutely truthful, but give the referred prospect a good reason to meet with you, i.e., give them a solid idea of what you accomplished for your client. Introductory phone call: Ask your client to call the referred prospect and introduce you. Stronger than a letter and more personal also. With your client on the line with you as you ask for a meeting, it is difficult for the prospect to decline. Introductory lunch meeting with your client, the prospect, and yourself. Stronger than a phone call and gives you a considerable amount of time to get to know the prospect. Again, when you do ask for a private meeting, it is difficult for the prospect to decline with your client there.

No matter the introduction method, you need to try to determine what the relationship between your client and the person they referred you to is. Clients don’t just refer you to people who trust and respect them. They’ll refer you to people who are neutral acquaintances and even to people who distrust and disrespect them. You must know which relationship you’re being referred into. If your client refers you to someone who trusts and respects them, some of the trust and respect the prospect has for your client is automatically imbued to you since you were referred by them. Consequently, you begin your relationship with that prospect from a position of strength. On the other hand, if the person distrusts and disrespects your client, some of that distrust and disrespect is also imbued to you. You begin your relationship from a position of weakness. You must know where you’re starting in order to know how to handle the prospect. In general, the weaker the relationship between your client and the prospect, the stronger the introduction method you should try to employ and the more demonstrable the results for your client you’ll have to have. You can generate lots of great referrals—you just can’t ask for them. You have to learn how to work with your client to generate them. Getting lots of quality referrals isn’t easy as so many try to claim. If it were, every seller would be a top producer working exclusively off of referrals. But by learning how to generate them and with some practice and skill development, you can build your business off of referrals.

ou probably know that I am a vociferous evangelist for referral selling: I have written extensively about it; co-presented with two of the world’s leading authorities on the subject, Joanne Black and Paul McCord, and regularly lecture on it. Here are some interesting facts that may surprise you: • 85% of all sales people do not generate enough quality referrals? • Sales people who actively seek and exploit referrals earn four to five times more

than sales people who don’t? • Referral business closes and converts more than 70 percent of the time? So, why is referral based selling so powerful? Quite simply, because a referred customer is already pre-sold on the credibility of the sales person, their company and the relevance of the products/services sold. These types of opportunities are much warmer than a cold-call based opportunity because it maximizes the goodwill, inherent in the relationship between the referred customer and the referring person. By association, sales people are consequently perceived in a different light compared to those that have made contact ‘out of the blue’. The costs of selling to a referred customer are reduced because they are easier to see, and are likely to be reasonably well qualified so that the probability for converting the business is much higher. Generally speaking referred prospects will accelerate through the sales pipeline at a much faster rate than other types of opportunities, and they will also be more receptive towards providing future referrals. What are the biggest barriers to getting referrals? If asking for referrals has not been included and communicated in the sales process, this will deter sales people’s focus as they will see asking for referrals as a ‘nice to do’ rather than a ‘must do’. This in turn usually means that there is no rigorous method for measuring and monitoring how many referrals are generated and what the conversion ratios are for closing referred customer business. Energy goes where attention flows, so without specific attention to this sales people are unlikely to invest their energy in this direction. (Even if they are firm believers in the positive impact that referrals can create!). For many sales people asking for referrals is uncomfortable because they feel unsure about how to do this effectively, and they aren’t confident they will get their desired response. If people don’t know how to do something and they believe that what they are doing will damage their existing relationships, then it’s better to avoid it all together. Additionally, if sales people make the common mistake of asking for referrals too early on in the relationship this can result in more refusals that further erode sales people’s confidence. Therefore, to optimise the use of referral-based selling the following components are vital: 1. Asking for referrals and acting on them needs to be incorporated in the overall sales process 2. Metrics around referrals should be sought and evaluated on a regular basis, because this contributes towards furthering the rationale for generating them

3. Development and training needs to be delivered to the sales team so they can maximize the impact of referrals and feel confident with this skill ================== Did you know that: • 40% of salespeople are failing in their sales careers? • 45% of all salespeople earn the average income for their industry? • A typical salesperson devotes only 10-20% of their time to actual selling because a large proportion of their available time is devoted to cold calling? • 85% of all salespeople do not generate enough quality referrals? • Salespeople who actively seek and exploit referrals earn 4 to 5 times more than salespeople who don’t? • Referral business closes and converts more than 70 percent of the time? Why is referral based selling so powerful? A referred customer is already pre-sold on the credibility of the salesperson, their company and the relevance of the products/services sold. These types of opportunities are much warmer than a cold-call based opportunity because it maximises the goodwill, inherent in the relationship between the referred customer and the referring person. By association, salespeople are consequently perceived in a different light compared to those that have made contact ‘out of the blue’. The costs of selling to a referred customer are reduced because they are easier to see, and are likely to be reasonably well qualified so that the probability for converting the business is much higher. Generally speaking referred prospects will accelerate through the sales pipeline at a much faster rate than other types of opportunities, and they will also be more receptive towards providing future referrals. What are the biggest barriers to getting referrals? If asking for referrals has not been included and communicated in the sales process, this will deter salespeople’s focus as they will see asking for referrals as a ‘nice to do’ rather than a ‘must do’. This in turn usually means that there is no rigorous method for measuring and monitoring how many referrals are generated and what the conversion ratios are for closing referred customer business. Energy goes where attention flows, so without specific attention to this salespeople are unlikely to invest their energy in this direction. (Even if they are firm believers in the positive impact that referrals can create!). For many salespeople asking for

referrals is uncomfortable because they feel unsure about how to do this effectively, and they aren’t confident they will get their desired response. If people don’t know how to do something and they believe that what they are doing will damage their existing relationships, then it’s better to avoid it all together. Additionally, if salespeople make the common mistake of asking for referrals too early on in the relationship this can result in more refusals that further erode salespeople’s confidence. Therefore, to optimise the use of referral-based selling the following components are vital: 1. Asking for referrals and acting on them needs to be incorporated in the overall sales process. 2. Metrics around referrals should be sought and evaluated on a regular basis, because this contributes towards furthering the rationale for generating them. 3. Development and training needs to be delivered to the sales team so they can maximise the impact of referrals and feel confident with this skill. When is the best time to ask for referrals? People will freely give referrals when they have benefited from your product/service and have an established relationship with you. This rarely occurs during the initial meeting because whilst they may like you, they haven’t yet validated what you can do for them. That’s why asking for referrals should be when the relationship you have established is strong enough to ensure their trust and belief in you. Assessing the strength of your existing customer relationships can be very subjective unless there is a meaningful set of relationship criteria in place. Although these will vary from organisation to organisation, they may include factors like: - Communication frequency with key influencers - Satisfaction with product/service - Speed of response to queries/problems - Length of relationship The customers with the highest scores (based on the relationship criteria) are those that should be approached for referrals. What is the best way of generating referrals? 1. Prepare a description in the form of a criteria list that specifies the type of person or organisation that you are looking to approach. This should be based on the profile of your Ideal Customer. 2. Evaluate all your customers using a relationship criteria and identify a list of those with the highest scores. For every customer your aim is to generate a minimum of 5

referrals. Therefore, if you have 25 customers on your list your target number of referrals will be 125. 3. Contact each customer on your list and take the pressure of them by explaining that you don’t want to sell to them, you would like their help. For example: “Do you know anyone who is (specify your criteria) that would be interested in learning about how our products/services can benefit them?” Preface your question with a softener such as: “I wonder if you can help me” or “I would really appreciate some advice.” 4. When customers give you referrals, ask their permission to use their name when making contact. Alternatively, where your relationship is ‘rock solid’ ask customers to make the initial introduction by letter or email. Often customers will give a glowing testimonial and create a relevant context when introducing people. 5. Thank customers for referrals and keep them appraised of your progress. This creates a positive association towards the giving of more referrals in the future. So, there we go, my most recent thoughts on the importance of referral selling! ======================= A recent report from CSO Insights denotes that sales quotas are off by a bewildering 60%. Further, sales closing accuracy is down and more importantly closing times are increasing. I was recently asked if a return to cold calling and perhaps direct mail might reverse these trends, emphatically I stated no. The rationale is simple, clients and even potential clients desire to conduct business with those that they know and those they trust. Cold calling, direct mail and other traditional selling methods do little to build relationships- they simply anger and frustrate. When was the last time you took a call in the evening after a lengthy day from a cold calling maven? And when was the last time you spoke with a million dollar insurance agent that cold calls? Today’s selling professional requires techniques that help to accentuate and differentiate from others. In a business culture where social networks proliferate the only true network is that built between a client and business professional. Clients enjoy the candor and the knowledge that is shared from a vendor. To this end, there are several methods that assist selling professionals. Networking Truly the best selling professionals constantly network. Selling professionals by nature require constant engagement with others to comprehend business trends and meet new opportunities. For over 27 years I attend at least one to two networking events per month and I can measure these to business. Admittedly, there exist a plethora of networking associations and organizations, choose those close to your location and aligned with your business. Review your local paper for functions that interest you and attend as a guest, but go. If do not attend your competitors are. Others cannot know your business with just a shingle hanging in the breeze.

Referrals Proper networking and selling etiquette involves referral acquisition. Similar to gaining closure agreement many professionals abhor asking for the order! Business is driven by the ability to ask for new business. If clients are happy with your work they will willingly provide others that can need to receive your value. The best way to seek referrals is when you are first engaged with the client and they are at that emotional high. More importantly you want to ask when you are in the account, since this is the best time to be top of mind. Post sale is not an alternative simply put, out of sight out of mind. Another imperative item to remember is that there is strength in numbers, the more you obtain the fuller the pipeline. There is a story of an insurance professional that would visit clients and not leave without three new referrals. Even if the client provided one or two, the agent would not leave until he received three or more. Needless to say, the agent retired an extremely wealthy individual. Follows up on referrals It might seem pragmatic, yet there is much evidence to illustrate that a myriad of professionals that obtain do not follow up. Friends, family and clients typically provide these golden nuggets, so it is vital that one follows up. A rule of thumb is twenty-four hours from receipt to contact. Ensure you mention the person that referred you and mention their enthusiasm for working with you. Positive attitude Good networking professionals have a positive attitude. They do not carry baggage with them nor do they illustrate negative feelings should things go awry. There is the story of a business professional that greeted all with “I am awesome!” Coincidentally he did this even through attempting to fight a debilitating disease. Alliances and relationships are built with people that are positive and are outgoing. Enthusiastic/Energy Remember the donkey from Winnie the Pooh- Eye Or? This poor donkey is about as unhappy as anything I know. Sometimes listening to him is depressing enough. This is true with human relationships. Individuals desire to be around warm, energized people. Many can feel the excitement of those around them. If you want to be a memorable networker, review your image, ensure you are excited about the event, the people and your business. People feed off positive energy, enthusiasm is fuel for networking, alliances and differentiation. Trustworthy Candor is the most imperative issue in today’s business environment. Ironically, an important business trait constantly discussed is ethics. Appalling as it seems, there are numerous daily instances of those attempting to buck trends and gain momentum while not following rules. People will only do business with those they trust and those they respect. Good listening skills Remember a time when you were with someone either at a cocktail party or other

event, and the person spoke and never came up for air? Bothered you didn’t it? Clients are engaged with professionals that can provide value by understanding needs and listening. Clients clamor for solutions not prescriptions and the best people understand the art of listening. Use techniques such as open and closed questions and pausing to truly understand how to assist. Enjoys helping It is better to give then to receive. Those that want to gain will give first. Similar to tithing, professionals must provide content to gain something. Think of tips, techniques and referrals that you too can provide. This technique is a great opener for building relationships since others will identify with your willingness to provide helpful information. Sincere Avid athletes concentrate on CORE. Fundamentally this is the system upon which all musculature and symmetrical principles assist to build a nutritional body. Selling and networking exercises CORE too. One of the muscles of CORE is sincerity. Differentiation is built upon a sincere desire to build relations, become personable and assist coexisting needs. Admiration is built based on trust and willingness to assist. Dale Carnegie described this in his now famous work, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. Key exemplars: 1) Talk in terms of the other person's interests and 2) Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely. The key to business building and success is producing things others don’t. One needs to discover methods to rise above the din and become visible. With global competition increasing and a shift in industries requiring selling professionals there exists the need to become outstanding. There is also the issue of working smarter not harder to produce required results. Refrain from tired non-functioning sales methods and begin new strategies that can escalate your rewards and make you an outstanding performer! =============== Glad you found us on Google! For more sales tips you should subscribe to the RSS feed or join us on Facebook for exclusive content! Referrals are touted as being the best prospecting tool in any salesperson’s toolbox. According to sales legend, referrals are the key to becoming a top producer. Virtually within 30 minutes of entering the sales field, most salespeople are told that if they want to succeed, they must get referrals from their customers and clients. Yet, the truth of the matter is that few salespeople generate very many quality referrals. Certainly, a few salespeople have figured out how to generate enough quality referrals to run their very successful sales businesses. These men and women are by far the exception, not the rule. Moreover, studies have shown that those men and women who have learned how to generate a large number of high quality referrals earn four to five times their industry

average. How to Ask For A Referral (And What to Avoid) There are others who get a few names and phone numbers here and there and think they are getting referrals. Unfortunately, most of these “referrals” don’t turn into sales. They do, of course, get a sale out them every so often, but for the most part, these “referrals” are nothing more than names and phone numbers that are no more qualified than if they simply picked names at random out of the phone book. Most salespeople, however, find that referrals are not all they’re cracked up to be. In fact, referrals have proven to be so disappointing that the majority of salespeople don’t even ask for them. Many salespeople quickly conclude that referrals just aren’t worth their time and effort. These salespeople determine that referrals are just a myth, or that their clients won’t give referrals, or that their clients don’t have referrals to give, or that they will irritate a client if they ask for referrals. In fact, the problem isn’t with referrals or their clients. The problem lies with how the salesperson goes about asking for referrals. Here are the top 10 referral mistakes salespeople make: 1. Not Asking At All It shouldn’t be a big surprise that if you don’t ask, you won’t get referrals. Almost 70% of all salespeople don’t even ask for referrals. They don’t even bring the subject up! Of course, they don’t get referrals. Of course, referrals are a myth. How can you expect to get something if you don’t even try? Seldom do referrals simply drop out of thin air like manna from heaven. Moreover, those who don’t ask have a legion of excuses as to why they don’t ask. They don’t ask because they know they won’t get them anyway; their clients don’t know anyone to refer; they will upset their client; their clients are too busy to give referrals; they don’t want their client to think they are begging for business or that they are needy. These are simply excuses. Salespeople don’t ask because they are afraid of asking. Pure and simple. 2. Asking Only Once Studies have shown that those salespeople who do ask generally only ask once. Certainly, asking once is better than not asking at all. But statistically, asking once will only generate 1.47 names and phone numbers. Less than one and a half referrals per client. And since most of the “referrals” the typical salesperson gets are of poor quality, getting less than one and a half referrals per prospect is pretty discouraging. That means they’ll have to ask several clients to get a single sale. However, the same studies that show salespeople receive less than one and a half referrals when they only ask once show that salespeople who ask for referrals twice receive 2.03 names and phone numbers from each client. That means for every 10 customers asked, the salesperson who only asks once for referrals will get 14 names

and phone numbers, while the salesperson who asks twice will receive 20 referrals– almost 50% more. Now, these aren’t any better quality referrals than the ones the salesperson who only asks once receives, but at least they have many more opportunities to make a sale–simply by asking for referrals a second time. And those who had the temerity to ask a third time? They received, on average, 3.28 referrals from each customer. Therefore, for every 10 customers asked, these salespeople receive 32 referrals, more than three times the number of the salesperson who only asks once. You think they might make more sales than the person who isn’t asking or who only asks once–or even those who ask twice? Those salespeople who use the PWWR Referral Generation System(TM) averaged 5 referrals per customer. In addition, these weren’t the typical name and phone number but were high quality referrals. For every 10 customers, these salespeople received an average of 50 referrals, most to high quality prospects. If their close ratio is only 25%, they will close 12 sales without having to spend time prospecting and money marketing. 3. Suggesting Instead Of Asking Many salespeople “suggest” referrals instead of asking for them. Instead of making a direct request, they try to soft peddle the request by saying something like: “Mr. Client, if you happen to run across someone who could use my product or service, would you give them one of my cards?” Alternatively, “Mr. Client, if you know of anyone I might be able to help, I’d appreciate it if you’d tell them about me.” This is the chicken’s way out. They don’t want to offend, so they don’t ask. But they don’t want to miss the opportunity for a referral. The solution is to suggest that the client pass their name along. If this is your referral generation format, don’t hang around the phone waiting for the calls to come in. 4. Waiting Until The Sale Has Been Completed To Bring Up Referrals Most who do ask wait until the sale has been completed before they even bring the subject of referrals up. One of the issues salespeople have with referrals is they believe based on their experience, that asking for referrals makes their clients uncomfortable. The request seems to be an unwelcome one by most of their clients. And it is–not because the request for referrals is itself an intrusion, but because of the timing of the request. By waiting until the last minute to bring the subject up, the salesperson has given the client no time to think of whom to refer and they have waited until the client has mentally moved beyond the sale. The sale is complete. It’s over. The client has already mentally moved on to other issues. They’re simply waiting for the salesperson to leave so they can begin to take care of other business. And, bam, here comes a request out of the clear blue that tries to pull them back into the sale. What should have been a simple request is now an intrusion.

5. Focusing On Their Needs, Not The Client’s The typical referral request goes something like this: “Mr. Client, let me ask a favor. It would really help me if could give me the names and phone numbers of a couple of people (or companies) that I might be able to help as I’ve helped you.” Or, “Ms. Client, do you know anyone else that might be able to use my services? It would be a great help to me if you could give me their names.” Clients don’t give referrals because they like you, because they respect you, or even because you did a good job. Clients are human beings. Therefore, like most human beings, they do things because they perceive them to be in their own best interests. For the most part, clients don’t really care what will help you; they care about what will help them. That’s not to say that a few clients won’t give referrals for no reason; there are a few who will. Most will not. The majority of salespeople focus on themselves when requesting referrals instead of focusing on the client. To be successful in generating referrals, you must give the client a reason why giving referrals is in their best interest, not yours. 6. Not Defining What A Good Referral Is As basic is it is, few salespeople let their client know what a good referral is. Instead, they assume the client understands what a good referral is. Bad assumption. Although you know what a good referral for you is, your client doesn’t. They need direction. While you are standing there thinking, “Give me someone just like you,” they’re thinking “what does this person want and how do I get rid of them.” If you want a quality referral, you must let your client know who you’re looking for. If you don’t, no telling what you’ll get. 7. Not Understanding The Psychology of the Referral Getting a large number of high quality referrals from clients and prospects isn’t easy. In fact, less than 15% of all salespeople generate enough quality referrals to significantly impact their sales. In order to become a successful referral salesperson, you must come to understand the psychology of referrals. Clients and prospects assume that whomever they refer you to will be more demanding and more critical than they have been. They assume that whomever they refer you to will be less forgiving of the little issues that come up in a sale. They assume that whomever they refer you to will be less satisfied with the sale than they have been. In addition, clients and prospects will refer you to people whom they have various types of relationships with. Some of the people they refer you will trust and respect them. Others will be casual acquaintances who neither trust nor distrust your client. Some will even be people who distrust and disrespect your client.

To make matter even more complicated, you must understand your psychology of referral selling. What goes on in your brain is just as important as what goes on in your client’s and the prospect’s brain. Unless you have a thorough understanding of the psychology of referrals and the relationship between your client and the referred prospect, your likelihood of massive success is minimal. Like much of selling, the process is more psychological then physical. 8. Calling the Referred Prospect The natural inclination when you’ve received a referral is to pick up the phone and call the prospect. Wrong move. When you simply pick up the phone and call, you’re giving the prospect the opportunity to determine you’re nothing but another telemarketer and to mentally cut you off before you even have the opportunity to bring up your client’s name. There are a number of ways of contacting a referred prospect, but the key is to get a personal introduction, not just a name and phone number. 9. Not Helping the Client Give Referrals Despite their best efforts, even mega-producers who make huge incomes off their referral-based business have clients and prospects who claim not to know anyone to refer. Yet, these men and women still walk away with a fistful of high quality referrals. How do they do this? They don’t rely on their client to come up with people or companies to refer. Instead of hoping that their client has referrals for them as most salespeople do, they are proactive and help their client make high quality referrals. They discover whom the client knows that they know they want to be referred to and they ask to be referred to those people. 10. Not Earning the Referrals If you want a large number of high quality referrals, you can’t just ask for them–you must earn them. They’re not just given, they’re earned. Successful referral salespeople understand that the number and quality of the referrals they receive is dependent upon giving their client the purchasing experience the client wants, not the one the salesperson wants to give the client. Consequently, they find out what the client wants and expects to happen during the course of the sale and then they give the client the exact purchasing experience the client wants, thus earning the referrals. You cannot ask and expect referrals if you haven’t earned them. And you don’t get to determine whether or not you’ve earned them–the client makes that decision so you must give them an objective way to determine whether or not you have earned them.

Obviously, generating a large number of high quality referrals is difficult. If it were easy, every salesperson would do it. However, by understanding the issues that kill referrals and then learning how to eliminate those issues, you can generate a huge volume of high quality referrals. Referral selling isn’t dependent upon luck, or having the “right” clients, or using bribes or incentives. It is dependent upon knowing the process that will overcome the issues associated with getting referrals, implementing that system, and then honing your referral selling skills. And once you’ve learned the system and honed your skills, it becomes a natural part of your selling process. No matter your product or service; no matter whether you sell to individuals or businesses; no matter the cost of your product or service or the length of the selling cycle, you can build a referral-based business. It simply takes knowledge, skill, and practice. ======================

Developing a Referral Based Mindset
Converting your sales business to a referral-based model requires you to rethink and rework your mindset. You must become thoroughly immersed in the referralselling model. Your clients and prospects must believe that your business is built on referrals, and for them to take your statements and proclamations of being referralbased seriously, you must project the professional attitude of a referral-based salesperson. In other words, you must “act the part” to “become the part.” This acting the part to become the part is more difficult than it may sound. It requires that you completely buy-in to the idea that your business is built on referrals —even if at this point in time you receive few referrals. It requires you to retune your thinking so that everything you do and say conveys your referral-based business. Why is it so important that you retrain your mind to think as a referral based salesperson? Simply because generating a large number of highly qualified referrals is a process that begins from the moment you first meet a prospect and continues throughout the relationship—hopefully for years. In addition, as mentioned previously, the prospect and client must take your assertions of a referral-based business seriously. The process of referral generation requires that you constantly plant and water referral seeds in both your clients and prospects. That planting and watering must become part of your nature. You must be able to drop the seeds and then water them smoothly, without any hesitation or clumsiness. This requires a state of mind that is ever mindful of the opportunities that present themselves, as they present themselves.

So, how do you develop this mental attitude? First, and foremost, you must decide that becoming a referral-based salesperson is what you want to do. Many salespeople try to develop a referral-based business in a half-in, half-out manner. They want to be able to pick and choose whom they will present themselves as referral based to and whom they don’t. It doesn’t work that way. They fear that if they project themselves as strictly referral based they will lose the opportunity to take on non-referred clients. This is far from true. As a matter of fact, presenting yourself as exclusively referral-based will enhance your ability to attract non-referred customers. People want to work with the best. They want to purchase from the leaders in the industry. The more exclusive you become, the more people want to work with you. Think about the times you’ve passed a jewelry or furniture store whose sign reads “By Appointment Only.” What is your reaction? You want in the store. You want to know what is so exclusive that you have to make an appointment just to see it. Moreover, you wonder if you can afford it. And if you get in and find something you can afford, you buy it. Why? Because it came from that store. Then you tell all your friends about what you bought from such-n-such store and how exclusive the store is, and how special your purchase is. The same psychology works with selling. The more exclusive you become, the more people want to work with you. Just because you promote yourself as referral only doesn’t mean that you cannot take on non-referred clients. You simply explain to the prospect that even though you work from client referrals, you will be happy to take them on as a client. Even new salespeople with virtually no client base can use this format. A simple greeting such as, “(prospect’s name), I normally work only with (people or companies) that have been referred to me by one of my clients, but I have room to take on an additional client at this time and I would be happy to work with you.” You’ve established with the prospect that you are a referral-based salesperson, but have given them a reason that you would be willing to make an exception and take on a non-referred client. However, this approach will not work for long if you then convey through your words and deeds that your statement was nothing but a lie. Once you establish yourself as referral-based, even when taking on a non-referred customer, you must maintain the referral-based attitude. If you don’t, you come across as a fraud and you immediately lose credibility.

If you cannot or will not commit yourself wholeheartedly to becoming a referralbased salesperson, you are better off simply learning some of the referral generating techniques and using them within your selling system. Don’t try to mix a referralbased system with a non-referral based system. It doesn’t work. Secondly, after determining that you want to become a referral-based salesperson, you must change all of your marketing material to reflect your new sales methodology. Change everything. Your business cards, stationary, email signature, marketing fliers, website, everything must reflect your referral-based business. This becomes the point where many salespeople begin to reconsider their choice. They worry that by advertising to the world that they work from referrals, non-referred prospects will pass them by. Again, the psychology of the sale is that the more exclusive you are the more people want to work with you. When constructing your marketing materials, make sure your statements are bold and straightforward. Referral taglines such as, “I (heart) referrals,” or “I Love Referrals,” simply communicate that you like to get the occasional referral. That isn’t the message you want to communicate. Something more bold such as, “Appointments by Referral Only,” or “Referral Based, Client Centered,” work well. Not only does your referral statement communicate to your prospects and clients that you are a referral-based salesperson, it also communicates to YOU that you are referral-based. It is a constant reminder to you that your mindset must be that of a referral-based salesperson. Once you have changed your marketing materials, you must change your discussion with both clients and prospects. Think in terms of referral seeds and watering those seeds. Look for opportunities to remind your clients and prospects that you are referral-based and that you expect referrals. If you follow the techniques and strategies in Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals to insure your client knows that your expect referrals, that they know exactly what a referral for you is, and that you know exactly what the client’s expectations and priorities are in the sale, you can freely plant, water and weed your referrals throughout the sales process without fear of being overbearing or alienating your clients and prospects. However, in order to do this successfully, you must have developed a referral mindset. If you haven’t you’ll sound unsure of yourself, or, worse, insincere.

Develop your referral-based infomercial and then repeat it to yourself so often that it is second nature. Not only does your infomercial communicate your referral-based status to your prospects and clients, it helps to develop your mind. As you think through and develop your infomercial, repeating it over and over to yourself to the point that it truly is a natural part of your thinking, you are convincing yourself of your referral-based business model. You are in the process of selling yourself as you are in the process of preparing to sell your prospects and clients. A referral-based selling model can be naturally integrated into any selling system. It makes no difference what the product or service, whether you are an outside or inside salesperson, or whether you’re new to sales or highly experienced. All it requires is learning and perfecting the techniques and strategies of referral selling. But these tools won’t work if you are not first convinced that you are a referral-based salesperson. Convince yourself and you’ll convince your clients. Convince your clients and use the techniques and strategies in Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sale Success through Client Referrals, and the referrals will come. ===============

The 10 Biggest Referral Mistakes Salespeople Make
by Paul McCord Referrals are touted as being the best prospecting tool in any salesperson’s toolbox. According to sales legend, referrals are the key to becoming a top producer. Virtually within 30 minutes of entering the sales field, most salespeople are told that if they want to succeed, they must get referrals from their customers and clients. Yet, the truth of the matter is that few salespeople generate very many quality referrals. Certainly, a few salespeople have figured out how to generate enough quality referrals to run their very successful sales businesses. These men and women are by far the exception; not the rule. Moreover, studies have shown that those men and women who have learned how to generate a large number of high quality referrals earn four to five times their industry average. There are others who get a few names and phone numbers here and there and think they are getting referrals. Unfortunately, most of these “referrals” don’t turn into sales. They do, of course, get a sale out them every so often; but for the most part, these “referrals” are nothing more than names and phone numbers that

are no more qualified than if they simply picked names at random out of the phone book. Most salespeople find that referrals are not all they’re cracked up to be. In fact, referrals have proven to be so disappointing that the majority of salespeople don’t even ask for them. Many quickly conclude that referrals just aren’t worth their time and effort. These salespeople determine that referrals are just a myth, or that their clients won’t give referrals, or that their clients don’t have referrals to give, or that they will irritate a client if they ask for referrals. In fact, the problem isn’t with referrals or their clients. The problem lies with how the salesperson goes about asking for referrals. Here are the top 10 referral mistakes salespeople make: 1. Not asking: It shouldn’t be a big surprise that if you don’t ask, you won’t get referrals. Almost 70% of all salespeople don’t even ask for referrals. They don’t even bring the subject up! Of course, they don’t get referrals. Of course, referrals are a myth. How can you expect to get something if you don’t even try? Seldom do referrals simply drop out of thin air like manna from heaven. Moreover, those who don’t ask have a legion of excuses as to why they don’t ask. They don’t ask because they know they won’t get them anyway; their clients don’t know anyone to refer; they will upset their client; their clients are too busy to give referrals; they don’t want their client to think they are begging for business or that they are needy. These are simply excuses. Salespeople don’t ask because they are afraid of asking. Pure and simple. 2. Asking only once: Studies have also shown that those salespeople who do ask generally only ask once. Certainly, asking once is better than not asking at all. But statistically, asking once will only generate 1.47 names and phone numbers. Less than one and a half referrals per client. And since most of the “referrals” the typical salesperson gets are of poor quality, getting less than one and a half referrals per prospect is pretty discouraging. That means they’ll have to ask several clients to get a single sale. However, the same studies that show salespeople receive less than one and a half referrals when they only ask once show that salespeople who ask for referrals twice receive 2.03 names and phone numbers from each client. That means for every 10 customers asked, the salesperson who only asks once for referrals will get 14 names and phone numbers, while the salesperson who

asks twice will receive 20 referrals—almost 50% more. Furthermore, the referrals received after the second request are of higher quality than those received from the first request. And those who had the temerity to ask a third time? They received, on average, 3.28 referrals from each customer. Therefore, for every 10 customers asked, these salespeople receive 32 referrals, more than three times the number of the salesperson who only asks once. You think they might make more sales than the person who isn’t asking or who only asks once—or even those who ask twice? Those salespeople who use the PWWR Referral Generation System™ averaged 5 referrals per customer. In addition, these weren’t the typical names and phone numbers—they were high quality referrals. For every 10 customers, these salespeople received an average of 50 referrals, most to high quality prospects. If their close ratio is only 25%, they will close 12 sales without having to spend time prospecting or money marketing. 3. Suggesting instead of asking: Many salespeople “suggest” referrals instead of asking for them. Instead of making a direct request, they try to soft peddle the request by saying something like: “Mr. Client, if you happen to run across someone who could use my product or service, would you give them one of my cards?” Or, “Mr. Client, if you know of anyone I might be able to help, I’d appreciate it if you’d tell them about me.” This is the chicken’s way out. They don’t want to offend, so they don’t ask. But they don’t want to miss the opportunity for a referral. The solution is to suggest that the client pass their name along. If this is your referral generation format, don’t hang around the phone waiting for the calls to come in. 4. Waiting until the sale has been completed to bring up referrals: Most who do ask wait until the sale has been completed before they even bring the subject of referrals up. One of the issues salespeople have with referrals is they believe based on their experience that asking for referrals makes their clients uncomfortable. The request seems to be an unwelcome one by most of their clients. And it is--not because the request for referrals is itself an intrusion, but because of the timing of the request. By waiting until the last minute to bring the subject up, the salesperson has given the client no time to think of whom to refer and they have waited until the client has mentally moved beyond the sale. The sale is complete. It’s over. The client has already mentally moved on to other issues, they’re simply waiting for the

salesperson to leave so they can begin to take care of other business. And, bam, here comes a request out of the clear blue that tries to pull them back into the sale. What should have been a simple request has now become an unwelcome intrusion. 5. Focusing on their needs, not the client’s: The typical referral request goes something like this: “Mr. Client, let me ask a favor. It would really help me if you could give me the names and phone numbers of a couple of people (or companies) that I might be able to help as I’ve helped you.” Or, “Ms. Client, do you know anyone else that might be able to use my services? It would be a great help to me if you could give me their names.” Clients don’t give referrals because they like you, because they respect you, or even because you did a good job. Clients are human beings. Therefore, like most human beings, they do things because they perceive them to be in their own best interests. For the most part, clients don’t really care what will help you; they care about what will help them. That’s not to say that a few clients won’t give referrals for no reason; there are a few who will. Most will not. The majority of salespeople focus on themselves when requesting referrals instead of focusing on the client. To be successful in generating referrals, you must give the client a reason why giving referrals is in their best interest, not yours. 6. Not defining what a good referral is: As basic is it is, few salespeople let their client know what a good referral is. Instead, they assume the client understands what a good referral for them is. Bad assumption. Although you know what a good referral for you is, your client doesn’t. They need direction. While you are standing there thinking, “Give me someone just like you,” they’re thinking “what does this person want and how do I get rid of them.” If you want a quality referral, you must let your client know who you’re looking for. If you don’t, no telling what you’ll get. 7. Not understanding the psychology of the referral: Getting a large number of high quality referrals from clients and prospects isn’t easy. In fact, less than 15% of all salespeople generate enough quality referrals to significantly impact their sales. In order to become a successful referral salesperson, you must come to understand the psychology of referrals. Clients and prospects assume that whomever they refer you to will be more demanding and more critical than they have been. They assume that whomever they refer you to will be less forgiving of the little

issues that come up in a sale. They assume that whomever they refer you to will be less satisfied with the sale than they have been. Consequently, your client must have an opportunity to become comfortable with the idea of giving referrals and must be confident that you won’t embarrass them by not giving exceptional service to those they refer you to. In addition, clients and prospects will refer you to people whom they have various types of relationships with. Some of the people they refer you to will trust and respect them. Others will be casual acquaintances who neither trust nor distrust your client. Some will even be people who distrust and disrespect your client. With prospects that trust your client you start the relationship with some of that trust imbued to you. On the other hand, with prospects that distrust your client you start the relationship with some of that distrust imbued to you also. Unless you have a thorough understanding of the psychology of referrals and the relationship between your client and the referred prospect your likelihood of massive success is minimal. 8. Calling the referred prospect: The natural inclination when you’ve received a referral is to pick up the phone and call the prospect. Wrong move. When you simply pick up the phone and call, you’re giving the prospect the opportunity to determine you’re nothing but another tele-marketer and to mentally cut you off before you even have the opportunity to bring up your client’s name. There are a number of ways of contacting a referred prospect, but the key is to get a direct personal introduction to the prospect from your client, not just a name and phone number. 9. Not helping the client give referrals: Despite their best efforts, even mega-producers who make huge incomes off their referral-based business have clients and prospects who claim not to know anyone to refer. Yet, these men and women still walk away with a fistful of high quality referrals. How do they do this? They don’t rely on their client to come up with people or companies to refer. Instead of hoping that their client has referrals for them as most salespeople do, they are proactive and help their client make high quality referrals. They discover whom the client knows that they know they want to be referred to and they ask to be referred to those people.

10. Not earning the referrals: If you want a large number of high quality referrals, you can’t just ask for them—you must earn them. They’re not just given, they’re earned. Successful referral salespeople understand that the number and quality of the referrals they receive is dependent upon giving their client the purchasing experience the client wants, not the one the salesperson wants to give the client. Consequently, they find out what the client wants and expects to happen during the course of the sale and then they give the client the exact purchasing experience the client wants, thus earning the referrals. You cannot ask and expect referrals if you haven’t earned them. And you don’t get to determine whether or not you’ve earned them —the client makes that decision so you must give them an objective way to determine whether or not you have earned them. Obviously, generating a large number of high quality referrals is difficult. If it were easy, every salesperson would do it. However, by understanding the issues that kill referrals and then learning how to eliminate those issues, you can generate a huge volume of high quality referrals. Referral selling isn’t dependent upon luck, or having the “right” clients, or using bribes or incentives. It is dependent upon knowing the process that will overcome the issues associated with getting referrals, implementing that system, and then honing your referral selling skills. And once you’ve learned the system and honed your skills, it becomes a natural part of your selling process. No matter your product or service; no matter whether you sell to individuals or businesses; no matter the cost of your product or service or the length of the selling cycle, you can build a referralbased business. It simply takes knowledge, skill, and practice. The PWWR Referral Generation System™ was developed from interviews with four dozen mega-producers, each of whom earn a minimum of a million dollars a year in income from their sales businesses. The PWWR system is the most comprehensive, detailed, and effective referral selling process there is. And, most importantly, it works. It works because it identifies and resolves the above issues, as well as many others. The question isn’t whether referral selling works. Referral selling is quite simply the most effective and proven client generation process

there is. Period. Those who have learned how to do it and have taken the time to master it make many times what their industry average income is. The question is, are you willing to put in the time and energy and invest the dollars to learn how to make it work. If you want to turn your business or your sales team’s business into a referral-based business, you need to take a serious look at the PWWR Referral Generation System™ training. It will change your career. ================