Sales and Sales Management Blog

September 1, 2010

Three Steps to Getting Hiqh Quality Referrals From Your Clients

Filed under: Referral Selling,lead generation,marketing,prospecting,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 1:58 pm
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Are you finding that you’re just not getting the number of quality referrals you want from your clients?  Chances are you said yes because that’s the case with most sellers.  Oh, sure, we all have some clients that will give us referrals all day long.  Just ask and they’ll give you name after name.  Other clients, the majority, aren’t nearly as generous with their referrals.

The biggest problem in both cases is so often the referral we get isn’t much better than pointing at a name in the phonebook at random.

How can you guarantee that you get great referrals?  Simple.  Make sure the client gives you a great referral by finding the referral for them to give you, rather than relying on them coming up with a quality referral to give.

The reality is that clients really don’t know who we’re looking for and most of them just don’t have a real incentive to invest the time and energy to come up with a great referral for us.

But we know who is a great referral for us.  And certainly we’re willing to invest the time and energy to find a great referral (if we’re not, we have some real serious issues to deal with).

Since we’re the one with the need; and we’re the one with the desire; and we’re the one who knows who makes a good referral for us, why would we rely on anyone else other than our self to come up with the referral?

So how can we come up with the referral for our client to give us?

Here are three steps to guaranteeing you get great referrals from your clients:

  1. 1.     Get Your Client On-board to Give Referrals.  Most sellers wait until after the sale has been completed before they bring up the idea of referrals.  Bad idea. 

    Most clients need time to get comfortable with the idea of giving referrals, so bring up referrals early in the relationship.  Don’t ask for referrals; just let your client know that your business is built on referrals and then drop referral seeds as the sale progresses.  Since your prospects and clients aren’t stupid, if they hear you mention referrals often in a casual manner, they’ll get the impression referrals are important to you and they will be expecting you to ask for them at some point.

  2. 2.    Find Out Who Your Client Knows.  We’ve already established that in order to get great referrals you have to do the work for your client, so do it by discovering during the course of the relationship who they know that you know you want to be referred to.

    How do you find out? Through small-talk (who do they mention in conversation they know); paying attention to what’s in their environment (pictures, association directories, membership plaques, and such); their background (where did they work previously); their work (what vendors and suppliers do they interact with).  Your job is to be a detective and to uncover the relationships they have with people or companies that you know you want to be referred to.  The more you uncover the more quality referrals you uncover.

  3. 3.    Don’t Ask for Referrals, Ask for THE Referral.  Now when it comes time to ask for referrals, you’re not going to be like every other seller and ask a weak question such as, “Donna, do you happen to know anyone else (or another company) that might be able to use my products or services (or that I can help—or any other such weak question)?”

    Instead you’re going to ask for a specific referral:  “Donna, I’ve been trying to connect with David Jones for some time without success.  You mentioned that you’ve worked with David for several years, would you be comfortable introducing me to him?”  You know she knows David.  You have reason to believe David is a good prospect for you.  Don’t waste Donna’s time with that weak general referral question; ask to get connected to a person you know she knows that you know you want to connect with.

Referrals can be the foundation of your sales business if you just develop the skills necessary to be a referral-based salesperson.  If Donna knows three people or companies you know you want to be referred to and you can get introductions to them from her, how much time and energy have you saved getting those three introductions through referrals instead of cold calling or sending out direct mail or hoping to bump into them at a networking event?

Forget what you’ve been taught about asking for referrals.  Referral generation is a PROACTIVE process where you do the work, not your client.  Your client doesn’t have the motivation, you do.  They don’t have the understanding of who makes a good referral like you do.  Your client doesn’t have the time to invest in figuring out a good referral like you do.  It’s your business, not theirs.  Make it easy to give quality referrals—you’ll get a ton of them if you do.

June 16, 2010

4 Referral “Laws” You Must Respect If You Want to Become Referral-Based

Filed under: Referral Selling,marketing,prospecting,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 4:45 pm
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Over the years I’ve worked with thousands of sellers who have sought to move their sales business from a catch-as-catch-can prospecting business to a solidly referral-based business.  Most have been successful, but a few have refused to acknowledge and adhere to four basic “laws” that are critical for becoming referral-based.

  1.  Your Client Does Not Owe You Referrals.  So often I hear trainers and managers tell sellers to expect referrals because clients owe them for doing a good job.

     Bull.

    Your clients paid for the products or services you rendered.  They owe you NOTHING.

    That doesn’t mean you can’t get lots of great referrals.  You can.  But instead of expecting them because they are owed you, let your client know that your business is based on referrals and that you want to earn their referrals.  Then ask them what they expect to happen during the course of the sale.  Once you know what they expect, ask them that if you deliver on their expectations would you have earned their referrals.  If your client knows you want referrals and you make it clear how you will earn them, the majority of your clients will agree to give them once earned.

  2. If You Want Great Referrals, You Will Have to Uncover Them for Your Client.  Most clients really have no idea who to refer to you even after you’ve defined for them who your ideal client is.  They’re not in your business.  They don’t know all of the things you can do for a client.  It isn’t their job to know who to refer to you—it’s your job to help them make great referrals.

    Instead of waiting and hoping your client comes up with a quality referral or two at the end of the sale, take the time during the sales process to find out who your client knows that you know you want to be referred to and then, instead of asking a lame question like, “Mr. Client, do you know of anyone else that might be able to benefit from my products or services?,” ask for a referral to the specific person or company that you’ve discovered your client knows that you know you want to be referred to.

    Yes, this is much harder than just asking the general referral question, but it is many times more effective.  It takes detective work.  It takes time to learn to be constantly on the lookout for who your client knows.  It takes learning how to listen, to ask questions, to observe, to make all of your senses aware of what’s going on.  But the payoff is a strong, referral-based business.

  3. A Name and Phone Number of a Prospect is Not a Referral.  So, you worked with your client and got the name and phone number of a potential prospect from them.  Do you have a referral?  No, you have a name and phone number of a potential prospect.

    A referral is NOT simply a name and phone number.  Just getting a name and phone number is little better than making a cold call to the person.  Instead of a name and phone number, you want a personal introduction to the prospect from your client.

    Again, this is more difficult than just getting a name and number and picking up the phone to call them.  A personal introduction can be through a letter of introduction from your client (that you write for the client’s signature), a phone call from your client to the prospect introducing you, or a lunch or coffee meeting with your client and the prospect.  However you manage it, it must be a direct introduction from your client to prospect.

  4. Referrals Are Not Always Good.  Not all referrals are of the same value.  Certainly you know that.  But do you know that some referrals can actually harm your prospects of working with a prospect?

    How so, you ask?

    We all have clients who have referred us to people who trust and respect the client.  When we meet these referred prospects we are working from a position of strength because some of the trust and respect they have for our client is imbued to us simply by being referred by someone they trust and respect.

    But the opposite is also true.  Sometimes clients refer us to people who distrust and disrespect our client.  In those cases we are working from a position of weakness when we meet these prospects because some of the distrust and disrespect they have for our client is imbued to us also.  The more they distrust and disrespect our client, the weaker the position from which we start—sometimes to the point that we are better off not having the client introduce us.

    What is your client’s relationship to the referred prospect?  Don’t know?  Better find out before you ask to be introduced or you just might be surprised with the situation you find yourself in.

You can become a referral-based seller if you learn the laws of referral generation.  It takes a lot more than asking some weak “referral” question.  It means really getting to know your client.  It means really earning the referrals.  It means involving your client in the process while making giving great referrals easy for them.

Pay attention to these laws and you’ll find it a lot easier and more fun to get great referrals—and that’s a whole lot easier than pounding the phone cold calling.

April 11, 2010

Find Out Who You Know That Can Get You Introduced to Your Prospect: PeopleMap.com

Filed under: Referral Selling,prospecting — Paul McCord @ 3:19 pm
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My friend Nancy Nardin of SmartSellingTools.com gave me a heads-up on a very interesting new service called People Maps.  You can get Nancy’s take on PeopleMaps here.

I’ll let Nancy’s post talk about how the technology works, I’ll stick to what it does—and what my quick 15 minutes of use has indicated of its value.

PeopleMaps takes your contact database—auto download from LinkedIn, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, and/or Facebook, or you can upload your contacts by hand—and then when you enter an individual or company you are interested in connecting with, the program takes your contacts, compares them with all the other contacts in the entire PeopleMap database and figures the 10 best routes for you to get introduced to the individual or company you want to be introduced to.

Sounds pretty nifty huh?

Well, I wanted to see how it works.

To date I’ve only loaded my LinkedIn and Facebook contacts, so my searches were conducted with some limitations on my total universe of connections, but I wanted to see what would happen with a small universe of only about 200 connections.  Even with such a limited number of personal connections, I found the program gave me quick paths to almost anyone or any company I entered.

Let’s start off with the absurd:

Barack Obama:  I’m two connections away from the President although my 2nd connection (I would have to be introduced to them through my primary connection, that is, the person I know) has only a weak connection to Obama.  The system ranks connection strength from a low of 1 to a high of 10.  My 2nd connection’s connection rank to Obama is only a 3.  Is the Barack Obama in the PeopleMap system President Obama?  I don’t know since it didn’t identify him in any political position.

George Bush:  Since I live in Midland, Texas which is the town where George Bush grew up and spent most of his early career, I figured I had to see what would happen with a connection search for Bush.  Bush isn’t in the PeopleMap system indicating he isn’t in the public databases of any PeopleMap users.

Let’s get down to business:

I sought to find out how close I was to numerous executives in companies such as Ford, Johnson and Johnson, Goldman Sachs, and Georgia Pacific, as well as local west Texas companies and regional Southwest companies. 

In all I ran people maps on 25 possible connections.  Almost all of my connection paths were from one to three people, only two inquiries required me to go four people deep.  Almost all of my final connections had at least a 7 and most a 9 rating in terms of their strength of connection to my desired prospect. 

All of the connections after my initial connection and prior to the desired contact were rated anywhere from a 5 to a 9.  One of the nice features of the PeopleMap is it give up to `10 connection paths so you can find the path you believe will be the strongest to your prospect.  If one path peters out before you get to your prospect, you can try a different path.

I’ve not tried to connect with any prospects using PeopleMap yet.  But just having a map from who I know to who knows who I want to know is a tremendous benefit.  I now know how to get from where I am to where I want to be, and if my first connection is someone I have a strong relationship with, I have great potential to get where I want to go.

PeopleMap offers two levels—free which is very basic but is the one I’ve been playing with, and a paid at $49 per month which gives considerable more information.  I’d advise using the free service until you determine the additional benefits of the paid service are necessary for your needs.

February 5, 2010

A Couple of Blog Milestones and Some Other Stuff

Filed under: Networking,Referral Selling,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 9:21 am
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A Positive Milestone: 1,000 comments
As every blogger knows, it’s tough to get people to interact with you on your blog.  I took me a couple of years to finally get to the point where comments became somewhat frequent.  I’m pleased to say that this morning the blog registered its 1,000th comment.  Not a giant milestone, but still, progress.

A Negative Milestone: 20,000 spam comments
Coincidentally, this morning the blog also blocked its 20,000th spam comment.  Spam, I’ve found, is the real cost of blogging.  Spam comes at you in all forms, whether bots with sex, casino, or watch spam or individuals trying to get mention of their blog posts about their get rich quick scheme or their lead generation ebook for only $79.99.

Anyway, as we continue in our fourth year of the Sales and Sales Management Blog, I’m honored that some have found it worthy of their time to read and even to comment on the content or link to the posts.

I’ll continue to try to bring quality posts that will help increase your sales, help you improve your sales team, and prompt you to think.  As always, I’ll be featuring many great authors besides myself. 

HELP!

My article “Sales Call Reports–Are They Worth the Hassle?” has made it to the finals for Sales Article of the Month for February at Top 10 Sales Articles.  I’ve got tough competition from Dr. Tony Alessandra, Keith Rosen, Lee Salz, Kevin Eikenberry, Danita Bye and others.  To win, I need your vote.  Half of the selection of the winner is based on reader votes; the other half based on votes by a panel of professional sales trainers and consultants.  I’d appreciate it if you’d hope over to Top 10 Sales Articles, read the 10 finalists and vote for the one you believe best (mine, of course).

Networking That Really Works: A FREE Prospecting Webinar on Feb 18

Are you spending time at the chamber networking event or the morning leads exchange group and finding you’re just wasting precious time and energy for no return at all?

Unless you’re an auto mechanic, a personal banker, sell cars, or are a dentist, the chamber event and the leads exchange group probably aren’t going to help you at all.  If you sell sophisticated products and services or high dollar items, more than likely you’re not going to be meeting great prospects or getting many quality leads at these venues.  The majority of people at the chamber event are other sellers looking for prospects and those at the networking breakfast typically can only refer to micro and small businesses or less than ideal consumer prospects.

So is networking out of the question?

Not at all.

You just have to network where you’re going to find a large number of quality prospects and create long-term relationships with them.

Join me on February 18 at 1PM Central for a FREE 1 hour webinar to learn how to make networking work.

You’ll Learn:

  • Where to spend your time networking
  • How networking demonstrates your integrity and trustworthiness
  • How networking builds your image and reputation as being an expert
  • How to work a room and guarantee after event meetings with prospects

This isn’t a come-on to sell products or coaching.  You’ll learn real strategies that produce results.

Limited Seating

Register HERE

Dave Brock reviews Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals

Over on his blog Dave Brock reviews my book on referral generation, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals.  Dave makes some excellent observations and I encourage you to stop over and read the post—and while you’re there, read lots more posts as Dave is a very insightful writer and thinker.

January 29, 2010

Want Referrals? Find Them, Then Have Your Client Give Them to You

Filed under: Referral Selling,lead generation,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 1:27 pm
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Most of us who sell would love to get a number of quality referrals from each of our clients.  The reality for most of us is we seldom get referrals, and when we do, they’re usually no better than if we’d picked a name or company at random from the phonebook.

Asking For Referrals Will Get You Nowhere
Most of us have been taught to get referrals by simply doing a “good job” and then asking for referrals after the sale has been completed—often literally as we’re walking out the door or during a post-sale follow-up phone call.  We pop the referral question on our client and are then surprised and frustrated when they don’t have a quality referral to give.

We shouldn’t be. 

Instead we should be amazed when one does give us a quality referral because what we’re doing is inherently unfair to our client.  We’ve given the client no time to become comfortable giving referrals; we haven’t defined for the client who a good referral for us is; we’ve not given them a reason to give us referrals; and we’re asking them to do our job for us. 

I’ve questioned thousands of sellers over the years about their closing ratio of referred prospects vs. the closing ratio of their non-referred prospects.  Sad to say, in general the closing ratio of referred prospects is about the same—only slightly higher—as the closing ratio of the prospects they’ve contacted through other means such as cold calling.  What does that mean?  It means the quality of the prospects they receive from referrals is no better than the quality of prospects they generate through other means.  It means that when they get a name and phone number from their clients all they are getting is a name and phone number, not a quality referral.

Yet, we want quality referrals from them.

Your Clients Have Quality Referrals to Give
Almost all of us has gotten at least one great referral from a client.   We know our clients have referrals to give if we could just figure out how to get them.

The problem is that our clients really don’t know whom to refer, and even if we define for them who a great referral for us is, most of our clients simply don’t think of those prospects that we’d love to be referred to.

It isn’t their fault.  It isn’t their job to do our job for us.

But we really want those referrals they have.

Make It Easy to Give Referrals
How do we get those great referrals our clients have that they don’t think to give us?

We do it by making it so easy to give us quality referrals that we walk away from our client with three, four, five or more great referrals and all our clients had to do was say, “Yes, I know them.”

We get lots of great referrals by doing our homework, by discovering who our client knows—or probably knows—that we know we’d like to be referred to. 

We do the work for our client.

Become a Referral Detective
Doing the work for your client means you have to become a detective; you have to use your eyes and ears to ferret out who your client knows, or you have reason to believe may know, that you know you want to be referred to. 

For most sellers this is a tough assignment. How can you possibly discover who your client could refer you to?  Can you get into their head or sneak in and take a look at their Rolodex?

In a sense, that is exactly what you do.  You use your senses to figure out who you know you want to be referred to that you client may well know that at the proper time, instead of asking for referrals, getting none and walking out empty-handed, you ask your client if they know the people on your list.  If they do and you’ve earned the referrals, you’ll get them.  So instead of walking out with no referrals, you walk out with three or four or more referrals to people or companies you know you want to be referred to.

Sources of Referrals
Where do you find these potential referrals?  Everywhere.  You must be ever on the lookout for potential connections your client has.  Literally from the moment you meet a new prospect you’re looking for clues to who they may know. 

Here are some ways to discover who your client may know:

  1. Talk.  Asking casual questions about their background, their hobbies, their neighborhood, their workplace during small talk can turn up some great connections.  Former employers, the organizations they belong to, where they spend their time can reveal many potential connections you can explore.
  2. Observe. If you’re meeting them in their office or place of business make sure you look around.  What organization’s membership book is on their bookshelf?  What plaques and photos do they have on the wall?  Are there signs of who their vendors or customers are such as boxes, envelopes, or business cards?
  3. Internet.  Look them up on LinkedIn.  Who are their connections?  Who else from their company is on LinkedIn?  Do they have a blog?  Are they on Facebook or Twitter?  Who are their followers?  What do they blog about?  Examine their company’s website—are there potential prospects you can find there?  Are they likely known by your client?
  4. Think of their professional connections.  If your client is an architect, what other architects do you want to be referred to that they may know?  If your client owns a franchise, are there other franchises of the same company around that your client probably knows? 
  5. Think of their family and social connections.  Do they have family members you know you want to be referred to?  Are there people in their neighborhood or within the same business park you know you want to be referred to?  Are there people involved in the same charity they’re involved with?

For most of us, if we really put our mind to it we could come up with many potential referral prospects for each of our clients.  It isn’t easy, at least not at first.  You have to get your mind into the habit of thinking about whom your client may know that you know you want to be referred to.  You have to train yourself to think like a detective—always questioning what you see and what it means for who your client knows.

But the payoff can be tremendous.

Quit just asking for referrals.  Learn to be a detective and both the quality and quantity of the referrals you get from your clients will go outta sight.

January 23, 2010

Keep Your Client in the Loop After You Get the Referral

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication,Referral Selling,prospecting,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 10:55 am
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Congratulations, you’ve just received several referrals from one of your clients.  Great job!  But hold on, you’re work has just started.  No, I’m not talking about contacting and selling the referred prospect, I’m talking about keeping your client in the loop.

One of the primary reasons clients are hesitant to give referrals is that they are afraid of being embarrassed in front of a friend, relative, acquaintance or co-worker by you not performing as you should.  So, when they do give a referral, they have a vested interest in what’s going on between you and the prospect.  Not in the sense of whether or not the prospect purchases, but in how the prospect perceives you and the value being referred by the client.

When a client gives you a referral, you learn a number of things:

  1. The client will give referrals.  Obviously, you just received one or more.
  2. How well the client understands what you do.  The quality of the referral will let you know how well your client understands what you do and who is a good referral for you.  The better the referral, the more the client understands.  The poorer the referral, the more work you must do to educate them for future referrals (and future sales to them for that matter).
  3. How much they trust you.  Generally, the stronger the trust relationship between the client and the referred prospect, the more the client trusts you. 
  4. They have more referrals to give.  Seldom will a client give you all of the referrals they can make at one time.  If a client gives referrals, you can almost bet they have more to give—if you keep earning them.

How do you get those additional referrals?  Additional referrals are earned, just as the original referrals were earned.  You earn those additional referrals by:

  1. Giving your client the assurance that you’re trustworthy with referrals.  You must show through your actions that their trust in giving you a referral was well placed by making sure that the referred prospect has an exceptional experience with you.
  2. By keeping your client fully informed of everything that is occurring with the referred prospect.
  3. By continuing to deliver superior service to your client.

Does the above mean that you must perform perfectly with the referred prospect?  What if there was an honest mistake or miscommunication?  What if something out of your control happened during the course of the sale?  Will these incidents destroy any possibility of acquiring additional referrals?

No, not at all.

The keys to gaining additional referrals from a client are to treat the referred prospect exactly in the same manner you treated the client and to keep your client informed of what is transpiring between yourself and the referred prospect.

Your client gave you referrals because they understood that giving referrals was in their own best interests and because you earned them through the service, you gave them.  You must now demonstrate that same level of service for the referral they have given you.  They expect—actually demand—you perform at the same level—or higher—for those they refer to as you did for them.  That level of service you gave them was what demonstrated to them that they could trust with a referral.  Anything short of that and they will reevaluate whether you should be trusted with additional referrals.

That having been said, clients understand that mistakes, miscommunications, and problems arise in business.  A single issue during the course of the sale to a referred prospect, even a major issue, will not sever your ability to gain additional referrals from you client if you address and resolve the issue in an exceptional manner.

Clients don’t expect perfection, they expect exceptional service—both for themselves and for those they refer you to.  How well or poorly you handle the issues will be a major factor in determining your future refer-ability.

Keeping your client informed of the progress of the sale with the referred prospect reassures them that you’re doing your job—and that all is well.  It is also your source of informing them if there have been problems and how they were resolved. 

It is critical that you let your client know of issues involved with sales to prospects they have referred you to before the prospect has a chance to relate the incident.  You can relate the circumstances and the resolution in the most favorable light—the prospect may not.  This doesn’t mean that you can lie or gloss over it, just that you can give the background and the full resolution without the emotional involvement the prospect will have.  Of course, if you’ve done an exceptional job of resolving the issue, the tale told by the prospect should also be impressive.  However, you always want problems to be related to your client by you—you don’t want to get a phone call from the client asking what happened.

Keeping your client informed doesn’t mean bombarding them with emails, phone calls, and notes.  A simple “thank you for the referral” card immediately after receiving the referral and the occasional call or email will suffice.  The object is to keep them in the loop and to reassure them that their referral was well made for both you and the prospect.  Even better than the occasional call or email is to explicitly ask the client how and how often they would like to be informed of the progress.

Clients are interested in what’s going on with the referrals they make.  They want to know the prospect is being taken care of in the manner the client expected, and they enjoy knowing that they have provided you with a quality referral.  More importantly, they want to know that they haven’t embarrassed themselves in front of an acquaintance.

Simple actions will earn those additional referrals your clients have—you just have to earn them.

December 28, 2009

Free Webinar, Jan 21: 4 Quick Steps to Triple Your Client Referrals

Filed under: Personal Marketing,Referral Selling,lead generation,prospecting,sales,sales training,selling — Paul McCord @ 2:10 pm
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Free Webinar: 4 Quick Steps to Triple Your Client Referrals

Thursday, January 21  2PM Central Daylight Time

LIMITED SEATING so register early

Few sellers generate enough high quality referrals to seriously impact their sales and income because few have been taught how to work with their clients to generate high quality referrals. 

Most sellers have been “taught” that all you need to do is ask a satisfied client for referrals and they’ll give them.  Most find that asking doesn’t work.  Sure, there are a few clients who willing give “referrals,” but most won’t.  And even the “referrals” most sellers do get are nothing more than worthless names and phone numbers of people who have no interest in or need for their product or service.

Asking for referrals won’t get you where you want to go.

You must learn to work with your client to generate introductions to prospects who want and/or need your products and services.

That takes far more than asking some silly question such as “Ms. Client, do you know of anyone else that might be able to use my products or services?”

On January 21 we’ll focus on 4 easy to implement actions that will dramatically increase the number and quality of referrals you receive from each of your clients.

During this Hour You’ll Learn:

  • Why asking for referrals is a total waste of time
  • How to make your client comfortable and confident in giving high quality referrals
  • How to get your client to willing agree to give you multiple high quality referrals
  • How to get 3, 4, or more high quality referrals from your client—even if they say they have none to give you
  • How to nail down appoints with your referred prospects

The mega-producers don’t ask for referrals–but most have built their business on referrals.  Learn why you need to forget everything you’ve been taught about referrals—and learn how to generate them the same way the mega-producers do.

Start 2010 off right by learning how to fill your pipeline with great prospects.

LIMITED SEATING

Register HERE

December 18, 2009

Blast Your Pipeline with Dozens of Quality Referrals in 30 Days

Filed under: Referral Selling,lead generation,prospecting,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 8:59 am
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This is chapter three from my e-book: Recession Proof Your Pipeline: A Dozen Strategies to Fill Your Pipeline in 30 Days

Blast Your Pipeline with Dozens of Quality Referrals in 30 Days

Large numbers of high quality referrals are difficult for most salespeople to generate.  Certainly, many will manage to get a name and phone number here and there.  However, most of those names and phone numbers are little better than taking out the phonebook and pointing a finger at a name. 

It need not be that way.

By learning a disciplined, effective, proven process for generating a large number of high quality referrals from each of your clients and even your prospects, referral selling can become a reality.  It is for many of the top producers in every industry.

Yet of course, you can’t possibly learn and implement a systematic process of referral generation and expect to see significant results in only 30 days.

The good news, however, is that you can still generate a substantial flow of business in only 30 days if you learn to turbo charge your client’s ability to give you a large number of quality referrals in a very short period of time—virtually overnight.

Whom do You Want to Be Referred To?

If you expect to use referrals as an igniter of your pipeline in short order, you’ll have to do all of the work for your clients.  Asking your database of clients for referrals will generate referrals if done correctly.  However, the fruits of that request won’t be seen quickly.

You, of course, don’t have the luxury of waiting.  You need business NOW.

Therefore, you’re going to make giving referrals easy—for your client.

Sit down right now and draw up a list of 100 individuals or companies YOU KNOW you want to be referred to.  Be specific.  List the name, the phone number and the address of each individual or the name, phone number, address, and the specific person within the company for each company you wish to be referred into.

You may have to do some serious research.  Nevertheless, your list is the critical part of this strategy.

Don’t stop at 50, or 70, or 90.  List a minimum of 100 individuals or companies.  Remember, you’re going to make it easy for your client to refer you.  Someone must do the work—and that’s you.

When making your list, leave room on the right side of the sheet beside each name to put the name of the person who is going to refer you to that person or company.

Who Is Going To Refer You to Whom?

Great.  You know 100 individuals or companies you want to be referred to. 

So, how are you going to get referred to them?  By your clients, of course.

Now, take your database of clients and examine each one.  Which client do you have reason to believe can refer you to the first person on your list?  The second?  The third?

The more you know about each of your clients, the easier this part of the task will be.  Hopefully, you’ve come to know the majority of your clients well.

Beside each prospect, list the client–and their phone number–that you believe can refer you to that prospect.

If you have a list of 100 people or companies you know you want to be referred into, you’ll probably be able to identify 70 or so that you have reason to believe one of your clients may know and can refer you to.

If you have 70 prospects your clients may know, you’ll probably find they can actually refer you to about 47.

If you are referred to 47, you’ll probably set appoints with about 35

If you set appointments with 35, then multiply 35 by your average close ratio—that is what you can expect to close.  If your close ratio is 40%, you should have in your hand 14 short-term sales

Get the Referrals

Now the question is: how do you turn your list into referrals?

Naturally, you are going to go back to each of the clients that you have identified as a potential referrer to someone on your list.

Start with the clients you have the strongest relationship with first.  Better to get some positive reinforcement from your best relationship clients before you approach those you have a weaker relationship with.

However, before you approach anyone, you need to get comfortable with what you’re going to say.  You don’t want to stumble and stammer.  You want to come across to your client as comfortable, confident, and in control.

Referrals can be tricky.  They are hard to generate if your client doesn’t believe you expect them and that you have earned them.  If you doubt, that doubt will be picked up by your client, who will be less likely to agree to give them.  After all, if you don’t believe what you’re saying, why should your client?

Get your act together before you make your call to your first client.

Don’t ask for referrals via a letter or email.  You will be far more successful if you ask in person.  Short of that, you must make a personal phone call.  Generating referrals is a relationship action, not an impersonal request.  You must deal with your client on a one-on-one, personal level. 

When you call, before bringing up the referrals you seek, find out if your client has ANY needs, concerns, or requests regarding your product or service.  In other words, make sure you still have a happy and fully satisfied client.  If you don’t, you cannot expect referrals.  If the client is dissatisfied for any reason, instead of referrals to get, you have customer service work to perform.

Then, once you know your client is still ‘on the team,’ explain that you have a favor to ask.  You have two or three people you believe you can help but have not been successful in being able to meet through the normal course of business.  These are people that you thought for whatever reason the client might know and are hoping that if they do know them, that they would be comfortable referring you to these prospects. 

If you have done your research and matching of prospect to client well, your client will probably know one or two of the prospects you ask about. 

Once they acknowledge they know them, find out how well.  With a referral, you are hoping to build a relationship with the referred prospect based on their trust and respect for your client.  If the prospect trusts and respects your client, some of that trust and respect is imbued to you—so you start your relationship with the prospect from a positive position.

However, the person you’re asking about may not trust and respect your client.  If they are just casual acquaintances, their trust relationship is neutral, as will be your starting point.  In addition, if the prospect distrusts and disrespects your client, your starting point will be from a negative position because some of the distrust for your client will also be imbued to you.

It is important that you know where you start–the stronger the relationship between client and prospect, the better your chances of getting an appointment and a sale.

If you have done your job for the client well, they should have no problems referring you into the prospects they know.

Work your way through your list of 100 prospects.  You should have more than a month’s work ahead of you.  Again, you will probably have about 70 prospects to contact and set appointments with.

Don’t Just Get Referred, Get Introduced

One of the biggest mistakes you can make with a referral is to simply get your client to agree to refer you.  That’s what the average salesperson does—and it doesn’t work well.

Instead of just getting a verbal referral, that is having your client say, “Sure, I’ll refer you to them,” get a direct introduction to the prospect.  Not only is a direct introduction more powerful than an agreement to use the client’s name, a direct introduction, if done correctly, almost guarantees a private meeting with the prospect.

Although there are a number of ways of getting a direct introduction, when under the time pressure of a 30-day explosion of production, you have 3 realistic options:

  1. A Letter from Your Client Written by You for Your Client’s Signature.  A letter of introduction will probably be your standard format for a direct introduction.  Don’t ask your client to write the letter because they will not have the sense of urgency you need, nor will they write the letter you want written.
            Instead, write the letter for your client, on your client’s stationary, in your client’s voice.  Use a standard format:  1st paragraph informs the prospect of what you did for the client; the 2nd gives the prospect an idea of what you might be able to do for the them; the 3rd states an exact day and time the client has asked you to call the prospect; and the 4th has your client asking the prospect to call the client after your meeting with the prospect so the client can get the prospect’s opinion of you and your company ( the reason the client requests this is because the client respects the prospect’s judgment).
           Have your client sign the letter and then mail it to the prospect.  A day or two after the letter should have arrived, call the prospect.  Assume the prospect has not read the letter.  When you reach the prospect, immediately refer to your client and the letter, not to yourself.  If you introduce yourself first, the prospect may determine you are nothing but another tele-marketer before you have the opportunity to mention your client’s name and they may mentally block you out.  Don’t give them the chance.  Gain their interest with your client’s name first.
             Some salespeople think they can get around the letter by simply acting as if a letter has been sent.  Bad move.  Some prospects, after getting off the phone will look for the letter.  If it isn’t there, only one of two things could have happened—the letter was lost in the mail or the salesperson lied.  Guess which one they’ll assume?
  2. A Phone Call to the Prospect From Your Client While You’re in the Client’s Office.  This is, of course, a more powerful introduction than a letter.  Don’t’ let your client call without you being present.  You want a direct introduction and you want to know everything that is said during the conversation. 
         Although powerful, this format has some drawbacks.  This method is powerful because it is unusual and because it allows the prospect to ask direct questions about you, your product and the client’s purchasing experience.  This format can backfire if there are questions you’d rather the prospect not ask.  If there are weak areas in your client’s purchase, this may not be your best choice.
    However, this format almost guarantees a meeting with the prospect since it is difficult for the prospect to decline a meeting request when the client is also on the line.
  3. A Lunch Meeting with Your Client, the Prospect and Yourself.  This is, by far, the most powerful introduction format you can use in this circumstance.  A lunch format allows you to get to know the prospect as a friend prior to getting to know them as a prospect or client.  In addition, in this format, your client acts as your salesperson during the lunch, you’re there as the consultant.  As with the phone call format, it is very difficult for the prospect to decline a meeting request in front of the client.  Furthermore, since the meeting format is informal, you’ll have the opportunity to learn a great deal about the prospect and their business long before you begin discussing business.  If you pay attention, you should have a great deal of ammunition before the subject of business comes up.

Execution

Developing referrals from your clients can take some time.  You must develop your list of prospects you want to be referred to; you have to match those prospects to individual clients in your database; you must contact each individual client for the referrals; write the letters or arrange the calls or lunches; and then have the actual contact with the prospect.  All of this before you even have the individual meeting with the prospect. 

This method requires you to be disciplined, very well organized, and committed to working the process.  You must have a sense of urgency or time will slip away and you won’t meet your 30-day goal. 

Commit yourself to having your prospect list completed within 2 days.  Keep in mind, developing this list may take some serious research.  Then, once you have your prospect list, you should have matched prospects to clients by the end of day three.  By the end of the fourth day, you should have contacted and received referrals from several clients.

As soon as you have referrals, start the introduction process.  Don’t try to go through all 100 prospects prior to beginning getting introductions.  You’ll run out of time.  Again, this format calls for good organizational and coordination skills.  You’ll have to be gathering referrals while working referrals.

More than likely, you’ll find that you’ve filled your pipeline and still have more referrals to pursue.  Good job!  Not only will you have jumpstarted your sales again, you’ll carry that momentum into the coming months as well.

Want more strategies to help fill your pipeline quickly?  You’ll find 11 more strategies for using the phone, networking, creating marketing partnerships and more in Recession Proof Your Pipeline.  Order it here

November 24, 2009

Using Incentives to Get Referrals

Filed under: Personal Marketing,Referral Selling,business,lead generation,marketing,prospecting,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 12:01 pm
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I’m often asked why I don’t advocate using incentives to influence clients and prospects to give referrals.  My reasoning is two fold:  first, if your referral generation process is effective and you execute it correctly, you don’t need to give incentives; and second, if done correctly, incentives can be very effective—but most salespeople find giving effective incentives to be cumbersome and time consuming.

Let me explain.

I coach and train clients who use incentives very effectively.  They are a key part of their referral generation process.  They follow the PWWR Referral Generation System™ to the letter—with the exception of their explanation of why it is in the client’s best interest to give them referrals.  Instead of explaining to the client how their being referral-based is an asset to the client and why giving referrals insures the client receives the purchasing experience they want, these salespeople prefer giving incentives.

The difference between the incentives they give and those most salespeople give is the secret to why their incentive program is so successful—and why it is so cumbersome.

Typically, salespeople will make one of three mistakes when giving incentives:

  • The incentive is not an incentive, it’s a bribe—a sizable chunk of money, at least in relation to the cost/value of their product or service, in the hopes of getting referrals.
  • The incentive is not an incentive, it’s a come-on—it is nothing more than a discount for their own products or services which many clients see as nothing more than another way for the salesperson to get more business from the client.
  • The incentive has limited appeal.  For instance, they’ll give a $10 gift card to Starbucks or coupon for a car wash.  That is, an incentive given to everyone but with limited appeal.

Incentives need to be just that—an incentive, something that encourages people to give referrals, not a reward, not a bounty. 

What does an effective and reasonable incentive look like?

Let me give an example from one of my clients.

I have a small IT client who uses incentives very effectively.  As a matter of fact, prior to working with me, they gave cash incentives believing money would motivate clients.  Although they initially resisted changing their incentive program, since changing they’ve increased their referrals by over 1,700%.  Much of that change is due to implementing the PWWR Referral Generation System, but the incentive they provide is their reason referrals are in their client’s best interest to give.  Not only have they saved a small fortune by not giving large cash incentives, the incentive itself is far more effective.

They focus mainly on installation and service work for small to mid-size companies.  They, of course, are constantly looking for other small to mid-size companies that don’t have an IT department that they can help with both their installation and performance issues. 

They use incentives as their reason that it is in their client’s best interest to give referrals.  But their incentive isn’t a discount nor is it dollars.  Rather, they get to know their clients very, very well.  They get to know their clients so well that they can focus their incentive to meet that individual client’s personality and interests. 

For instance, one of their clients is a small publishing company.  The company publishes cookbooks.  The owner of the company collects antique and rare cookbooks.  Although her collection is quite large, she is still constantly looking to add to her collection.  Every time she refers someone to her IT service company, they go to a used and rare bookstore and purchase her—you guessed it, an antique cookbook.

They never spend more than 25 or 35 dollars.  The incentive is small—nothing compared to what she will spend with them over the course of the year—or what they would have given her in the past.  But she will kill to find new referrals that she can make because she appreciates the attention they give her.  Obviously, they aren’t giving every client who refers someone to them a cookbook.  They go out of their way to show their appreciation to her by doing something unique just for her.

Another of their clients is a minor league baseball team.  This team has been around since the 50’s.  Over the years, they’ve had hundreds of players come through their team and eventually go on to the majors, some for only a few days, others have become stars.  What do they do for this client?  Every time the team gives them a referral they find and purchase a baseball artifact associated with one of the players that had played for the team who eventually went on to the majors.  The team has started a “museum” (read trophy case) based on the artifacts they’ve received from their referrals.  Again, they only spend a few dollars on each item.  The dollars they spend isn’t what gets the client’s attention—it’s the attention to detail and the uniquely personal nature of the incentive.  Like the publisher above, the baseball team is always looking for referrals to give—and new artifacts to include in their display.

Obviously, this incentive system requires getting to know the client well.  That’s actually the easy part.  The tough part is finding the incentive item.  The IT company above may spend weeks looking for the appropriate incentive gift for their minor league client.  Instead of investing money in the client’s incentive, they invest their time, their effort, and their creativity.  Most importantly, they invest their attention and their sincere interest in the client.

Using incentives can be very effective and need not be costly if done correctly.  Avoid costly bribes.  Don’t give money; give personal attention.  Certainly, don’t give a discount coupon or any other “incentive” to spend more money with you.  And avoid blanket incentives that are easy to give and have little impact.

The key to an effective incentive program isn’t the dollar value—it’s the personal value.

November 20, 2009

An Immodest Proposal

Filed under: Referral Selling,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 12:21 pm
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The holidays are upon us and many of you sales leaders may be wondering what you might get for your team members.  Certainly there’s the typical take ‘em out for lunch or maybe a drink a day or two before Christmas.  Maybe you plan on doing what most team leaders do—nothing other than wish them a Merry Christmas.

Well, I have an immodest proposal for you.  Why not get them something that is inexpensive but that will significantly increase their production next year?  That’s a win/win situation since it will increase both your and their income, make you both look good, your sales reports will shine, and you just might get that promotion you’ve been wanting—all for about $15 per team member.

So what’s going to do all of this for only $15?

I suggest you purchase each of your team members a copy of my book, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals. (Wiley, 2007)

No, the title doesn’t claim that every one of your team members will be making a million dollars a year after reading it.  The title comes from how the book’s referral process was developed.  I interviewed 47 sellers across the US and Canada who each make a minimum of a million dollars a year and who generate the majority of business from referrals from their clients.  I wanted to know what they were doing to be so successful with referrals while most sellers were struggling to get even a few great referrals a year.

What I found, not surprisingly, is they don’t ask for referrals like most of have been taught, but instead generate referrals by working closely with their clients to earn the right to get referrals and then to identify highly qualified prospects for the client to refer them to.

That’s the crux of the book—the disciplined process they use to generate a large number of high quality referrals from each of their clients.

Best of all, it’s a process you and your team members can learn and implement to greatly increase the number and quality of referrals you and your team members get.

A Few Book Endorsements and Reviews:

David Straker, ChangingMinds.com

“In the end, the joy that earns this book a rare five stars is the practical, thorough and innovative treatment of referrals that can have literally massive benefit to anyone, not just in sales, who wants to connect with valued other people.

Quite simply the best book on gaining and using referrals.”

 

From Dave Stein’s Review of Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income

“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.”

 

CRM Magazine

“required reading.”

 

Rolf Dobelli, get abstract

“You can keep working hard all alone clearing stumps and moving rocks with your current approach, or move to more fertile ground where your best clients can make your life easier by helping you find new clients just like them. getAbstract recommends this book to any professional who needs to sell . . . .”

 

Frank Rumbauskas, NY Times best-selling author of Never Cold Call

“Having spent over ten years as a top-producing sales rep, and now having spent over four years teaching and training salespeople – and having read hundreds of sales books in that time – I can tell you that Paul McCord’s book is hands-down THE BEST book on referral selling ever written!”

 

AllBooks Reviews

“Salespeople from every industry will find this a useful and comprehensive sales referral guide. Chapter after chapter of excellent advice that dispels myth and rumor related to referral selling.”

 

Dave Lakani, best-selling author and coach

“This book lays out in systematic detail the most effective selling and referral system I’ve seen. It doesn’t make getting referrals easy but it does make getting them predictable.

Even though I consider myself a good referral sales generator, I cringed more than a little at the mistakes I identified while reading this book and how much money I left on the table through missed sales and missed opportunities.

I also like this book because it is a quick read with plenty of great examples, the author doesn’t belabor points to fill space, he just gets right to the point . . . so you can implement and earn.

Excellent book, I highly recommend it.”

 

Selling Power Magazine, Sales Management Newsletter

“Referrals are a tricky business if you don’t know what you’re doing – and many reps don’t. Many say they don’t want to ask for referrals because they don’t want to irritate a customer with whom they have good rapport. Or, in an effort to be casual about it, they ask in such an oh-by-the-way manner that the customer quickly dismisses it. Or they ask once and drop it. And none of these approaches will result in good, solid referrals.

So what’s the answer? Referrals must be an integral part of your sales approach, from first contact through post-sale. (McCord’s) PWWR system addresses the issues that keep most sales people from generating large numbers of quality referrals.”

 

Forbes Book Club

Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals was, I’m proud to say, selected as an offering of the prestegious Forbes Book Club.  Unfortunately within months of my book’s selection the book club closed  I’m hopeful–and fairely sure–that selecting my book wasn’t the cause of them going out of business.

 

You can find Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals at all find booksellers, including:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

My website

Want the audio book instead?  It’s Here

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