Sales and Sales Management Blog

June 19, 2009

Boost Your Sales series: “Your Connections Are Your Key to Sales Success,” by Paul McCord

Filed under: Referral Selling, Word of Mouth Marketing, marketing, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 6:24 am
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Although my government here in the US has neither the moral courage nor political will to do so, I and many millions of others do.  I’ve installed the widget on the righthand sidebar (yep, it isn’t working as it should, so I’ve got some work to try to get it to work correctly on wordpress).  You can get a widget to show your support by going here.

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Your Connections Are Your Key to Sales Success
by Paul McCord

I hear many sellers complain that directly asking for referrals is too uncomfortable so they would much rather generate referrals by asking their clients to recommend them when the opportunity occurs. 

Bad mistake.

Not only do they misunderstand how to generate referrals, they’re confusing referrals with Word of Mouth Marketing. 

They’re not the same. 

Both can be highly valuable in building and maintaining a solid and growing sales business.

Neither can be done successfully if left to chance as most sellers do.

Unless you are selling a highly specialized product or service in a narrow market, your connections can be the foundation of a business that puts you in the top earnings category of your industry.

But to do so, you must learn how to turn both referral generation and word of mouth marketing into a disciplined process rather than a chance happening.

Referral Generation

First, let’s clear up some language issues.  We’re not talking about “asking for referrals.”  Asking for referrals traditionally has entailed asking a lame question such as “do you know of anyone who might be able to use my products or services?”  The goal of such a question is garnering the name and phone number—if you’re lucky, two– of someone your customer knows.  Over the decades this method has been taught, most sellers have discovered it isn’t very effective and a great many sellers simply quit asking.

Instead of “asking for referrals” we’re going to talk about “referral generation.”  Referral generation isn’t a question, it’s a proactive, disciplined process that begins the moment you meet a prospect and continues throughout your relationship with the person or company that generates a consistent flow of high quality referrals.

The traditional method of seeking referrals, the “do a good job and ask for referrals” method that is taught by the vast majority of sales trainers and training programs that address referrals, creates so many issues that failure is almost inevitable.

By simply “doing a good job” and then “asking for referrals,” you create these issues for your client:

  • This question is normally thrown at a client at the very end of the sales process and without any forewarning what-so-ever.  It’s a question that comes out of the clear blue catching an unsuspecting client by surprise and often making them feel that they’ve been ambushed by the salesperson. 
  • Most often, upon asking for referrals, the seller stands in front of the client waiting for an answer.  Is it any wonder that many clients are uncomfortable and feel that they’ve been cornered by the seller?
  • If the client gives a “referral,” it is most likely nothing more than a name and phone number that is no more qualified than if the seller had opened the phonebook and pointed at a name and number at random.  The seller has given the client no time to become comfortable with the idea of giving referrals and only about 10 or 15 seconds to go through their mental file cabinet to find a quality prospect to give; nor has the seller defined for the customer what constitutes a good referral for them.
  • Not only has the seller put their client in an uncomfortable position, they haven’t given their client a reason to give referrals.  Despite the common assertion by sales trainers to the contrary, most clients don’t want to give referrals.  Certainly, there is a small percentage that gladly give referrals, but most need a good reason to give quality referrals and with the traditional method of asking for referrals, the seller hasn’t given the client a reason to give them.
  • Although we may think of a referral as nothing more than our client giving us the opportunity to talk to someone who might need our product or service, our client thinks of giving a referral as telling the referred prospect that they wholeheartedly endorse us and that the prospect should trust the client and work with us based on their endorsement.  For most clients, that’s a big step and a great many are reluctant to take it.  Many clients believe that the people they refer us to will be more critical and more demanding than they have been and, therefore, they need to be sure that we aren’t going to embarrass them by disappointing the prospects they refer.  Consequently, we must let the client know that they aren’t going to give referrals but rather we’re going to earn them.  Therefore we must give them an objective way of evaluating whether or not we’ve done that.  Like the issues above, the traditional method taught by most trainers and training methods ignores this issue.
  • Finally, the traditional method of asking for referrals makes the client do all of the work.

Is it any wonder sellers feel uncomfortable asking for referrals?  If I was going to do this to my client, I’d be pretty uncomfortable too.  In fact, I’d probably not even ask.

Fortunately, there is a process that allows you to work with your client, eliminates all of the above issues, and will consistently generate a large number of high quality referrals.

Although I could write the book about the process and how to implement it in your sales business (actually, I did write the book, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals, Wiley, 2007), for brevity’s sake, I’ll simply lay out the process:

Let Your Prospect Know You’re Referral-based: From the moment you meet a prospect, begin planting the referral seeds by letting them know that you are a referral-based seller.

Consistently Drop Referral Seeds:  You don’t have to beat your prospect over the head about referrals, simply gently mention that you’re referral-based when the opportunity arises.  Prospects and clients aren’t stupid and if they hear it enough, they’ll put two and two together and figure you’ll eventually be asking them for referrals.

Have a Direct Referral Conversation with Your New Client:  Once your prospect has converted from prospect to client, you need to have a direct conversation about referrals with them.  The conversation is to let them know why your clients give you referrals, that is, why it is in your client’s own interest to give you referrals; what a quality referral for you is; that your client doesn’t just give you referrals, you earn them, and set the standards by which your client will judge whether or not you’ve earned them; and get your client’s verbal agreement to give referrals if you’ve earned them.

Continue the Referral Seeds:  After your referral conversation, go back to just dropping referral seeds.  Again, there’s no need to beat your client about the head, just gentle, conversational reminders is all that’s needed.

Set the Referral Acquisition Meeting:  Once the sale has been completed, set a meeting with your client to get your referrals.  Set the meeting for a date a few days in the future—remind your client of their agreement to give referrals if you’ve earned them; confirm that you have earned them; review what a good referral for you is; give them a bit of time to think of whom to refer.

Don’t Make Your Client Do All The Work:  While you were working with your client you should have been paying attention and learning whom your client knows.  At the referral acquisition meeting, after your client has given you their referrals, ask them to refer you to the people you’ve learned they know—or you think they may know—that you know you want to be referred to.  By paying attention and asking for specific referrals, you’ll double, triple, quadruple or more the number of quality referrals you receive.

Don’t Get Names and Numbers, Get Introduced:  Instead of just getting a name and number like everyone else, get a direct introduction from your client to the referred prospect.  Get a letter of introduction, arrange for a conference call between the three of you, or set a lunch meeting with your client and the referred prospect.  An introduction turns a name and phone number into a real referral.  A name and phone is nothing but a name and phone number.

Keep Your Client Fully Informed:  Thank your client for every referral and make sure you keep them fully informed of what is going on with each referral they give you.  Not only do they want to know that they’ve helped you, they want to know that you’re not giving them reason to regret having given you referrals.

Word of Mouth Marketing

Word of mouth marketing is a very different animal than generating referrals. 

Word of mouth marketing is the verbal (most often) recommendation of a good, service, or provider of a good or service.  Where a referral is the direct introduction of you to a prospect by a client (or other referral source), word of mouth marketing is having someone suggest a prospect contact you.

These are two radically different forms of prospecting and personal marketing–with very different result expectations.

You control what happens with a referral.  You work with your client to generate the referral.  You get a direct introduction to the prospect.  You’re in control.

With word of mouth marketing you hope your client (or other source) recommends you to a prospect, then you hope the prospect contacts you.  You are almost totally dependent on the effort of someone else to generate prospects for you.

Because they are diametrically opposite in approach, they complement one another well.

Although you have little control over word of mouth marketing, you need a process that will give you as much control and allow you to capture as many word of mouth recommendations as possible.

What process works to help capture as many word of mouth recommendations as possible?  Here’s what works for me.  Again, as above, in abbreviated form:

Earn Recommendations Before Asking for Recommendations:  Although your family and friends may recommend you no matter whether they think you’re the best at what you do, few customers and acquaintances will.  Make every contact’s experience with you exceptional.  Earn their word of mouth recommendation before you ever bring the subject up—and if you’ve failed to make their experience exceptional, don’t ask for recommendations.

Let Your Recommendation Sources Know You Appreciate Their Recommendations:  Let everyone know that you sincerely appreciate their efforts.  Thank them before you get a recommendation from them.  Thank them after every recommendation you receive from them.

Let Your Recommendation Sources Know You Would Like to be Notified When They Recommend You:  You need to know who your sources have recommended you to so you can contact them if you don’t hear from them.  Studies have shown that only about 40% of the people whom you are recommended to will ever contact you.  If, however, you can follow up with them, the number you talk to increases to about 65%, increasing by over 50% the number of recommendations that you have the opportunity to sell.

Give Your Sources a Reason to Take the Time to Recommend You:  Offering your sources a small incentive for making a recommendation is a tangible ‘thank you’ that most clients and recommendation sources will appreciate.  Your incentive need not be particularly large, but it does need to be valuable in the sense that it has value to your source.

Keep Your Recommendation Source Informed:  Just as with a referral, you need to make sure you keep your recommendation source informed of what is happening with the person they recommended you to.  Seeing that their recommendation has proven beneficial for both you and the person they recommended you to will encourage them to make additional recommendations.

To make referral generation and word of mouth marketing effective, you can’t leave them to chance.  If you are willing to invest the time, effort, and dollars to learn how to turn referral generation and word of mouth marketing into effective processes, they can take your sales business to new levels quickly. 

 

Paul McCord, a leading Business Development Strategist and president of McCord Training, works with companies and sales leaders to help them increase sales and profits by finding and connecting with high quality prospects in ways prospects respect and respond to.  An internationally recognized author, speaker, trainer and consultant, Paul’s clients range from giants such as Chase, New York Life, Siemens, and GE, to small and mid-size firms, as well as individual sales leaders.  He is the author of the popular Sales and Sales Management Blog (http://salesandmanagementblog.com). 

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Do You Like the Sales and Sales Management Blog?

Then you’ll love my POWER SELLING newsletter.  Twice each month you’ll get my newsletter that focuses on real solutions to real sales and sales leadership issues with ACTIONABLE guidance, not grand but worthless theory.

Simply shoot an email to me at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com with “Subscribe” in the subject line and your name and email address and I’ll get you subscribed.

And by the way, we hate SPAM also, so we’ll never sell, lease, rent or give your information to anyone—EVER!

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June 18, 2009

Boost Your Sales series: “Marketing Is What You Do When Your Product Is No Good,” by Dr. Martin Russell

Filed under: Referral Selling, Word of Mouth Marketing, marketing, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 5:31 am
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It’s Referrals and Word of Mouth week at the Boost Your Sales blog series. 

Although we have several doctors contributing to the Boost Your Sales series, Dr Martin Russell is our only medical doctor contributor,
and tomorrow I’m up with “Your Connections are Your Key to Your Success”

Stay tuned in next week as a great list of experts—Jeb Blount, Nigel Edelshain, Cindy King and Ardath Albee give great guidance on “Prospecting and Social Media”

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Marketing Is What You Do When Your Product Is No Good
by Dr. Martin Russell

My background is as a medical doctor, and this quote, “Marketing is what you do when your product is no good”, was handed to me by one of my patients who knows of my marketing work.

She is one of those people who thinks that marketing should be a four-letter word.

My first reaction was to be insulted.

But then I stopped, and I said to her that this quote was either from someone who had never been successful in sales, or it was from a ‘natural’ salesman who just didn’t call what they did marketing.

Turns out this quote is from Edwin Land (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Land) chief executive of the Polaroid Corporation for almost 50 years, scientist, and inventor of the film for the Polaroid instant camera.

The Polaroid camera was such a brilliant invention that the story goes that when…

“fifty-seven (cameras) were put up for sale at Boston’s Jordan Marsh department store before the 1948 Christmas holiday … all fifty-seven cameras and all of the film were sold on the first day of demonstrations.”

Was the product good?

Certainly.

But was there any marketing?

Well someone chose to put them in that store, chose the timing just before Christmas, and created the demonstrations.

Heck yes there was marketing!

And that’s the point.

There was lots of marketing. It was just that the marketing matched the product so well that Edwin Land could claim it wasn’t there.

If you want to be a great salesman I hope you have read and devoured Paul McCord’s books on referral selling. They will teach you to walk and talk referrals as an intrinsic part of your service. Million-dollar sales people are always overlapping the marketing and the service.

Many people in small/micro businesses don’t want to think of themselves as marketers.

They reluctantly place their Yellow Pages ad, or put up a website, or quiver in their shoes at the thought of asking for referrals.

That’s why I like to start with word of mouth referrals. No matter how much a business owner is against marketing, they want people talking about them and giving them word of mouth referrals.

Word of mouth can seem haphazard, but done properly, it can be on-demand, consistent, and best of all, a win for everyone concerned.

It comes down to this.

You can have a separate mental category called ‘marketing’ – or you can realize it is all part and parcel of providing your product or service.

Consider these four aspects…

1. Clients want to have better lives. This means they want your great products and services!

2. Clients want to be able to rely on you to be there for them, no matter what the economy does. This means they want you to stay in business!

3. Clients want to continue adding value to their lives. This means they want you to follow-up!

4. And finally, clients care about people they know, and they don’t want them ripped off, or given poor advice, or let down. This means, if you will take care of people properly, they want to give you referrals!

So rather than be cynical (scared?) of ‘marketing’ like my patient who brought me the quote, it is up to you to as a business owner to help people over that problem.

But first, are YOU over that problem of thinking of marketing as separate from your business?

Remember, you don’t have to be a ‘natural’ like Edwin Land, because marketing – yes even plain old word of mouth referrals – has a specific set of skills that can be learned.

Dr Martin Russell is a medical doctor with his own solo by-referral counseling practice, as well as being co-author of “Word of Mouth Magic” – www.WordofMouthMagicEbook.com and having his marketing blog at www.WordofMouthMagic.com

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Do You Like the Sales and Sales Management Blog?

Then you’ll love my POWER SELLING newsletter.  Twice each month you’ll get my newsletter that focuses on real solutions to real sales and sales leadership issues with ACTIONABLE guidance, not grand but worthless theory.

Simply shoot an email to me at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com with “Subscribe” in the subject line and your name and email address and I’ll get you subscribed.

And by the way, we hate SPAM also, so we’ll never sell, lease, rent or give your information to anyone—EVER!

Or, if you prefer, just save the Sales and Sales Managemenet Blog to you RSS Reader here.

June 17, 2009

Boost Your Sales series: “There’s No Such Thing as a Warm Call,” by Joanne Black

Filed under: Referral Selling, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 5:58 am
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Big Day at the Sales and Sales Management Blog
as We Celebrate Our 500th Post

And that post is Joanne Black’s “There No Such Thing as a Warm Call” continuing our Referrals/Word of Mouth Marketing week

Tomorrow Dr. Martin Russell discusses “Marketing Is What You Do When Your Product Is No Good”
and finally, on Friday I up with “Your Connections are Your Key to Your Success”

Stay tuned in next week as a great list of experts—Jeb Blount, Nigel Edelshain, Cindy King and Ardath Albee give great guidance on “Prospecting and Social Media”
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There’s No Such Thing as a Warm Sales Call
By Joanne S. Black

A sales call is either cold or HOT. Fortunately, there is a way to make nothing but hot calls, with a fantastic rate of return. The secret is referrals.

If you’re like most salespeople—when you receive a qualified referral, you convert a sales prospect to a paying client well more than 50 percent of the time. In fact, more like 70 or 90 percent of the time. In addition:

•           You’re pre-sold

•           You have credibility

•           You shorten your sales process, and

•           You ace out the competition

Not only are referred clients more profitable, but also they are the first to refer you to others. Make referral selling your sales prospecting strategy, and you will dramatically increase your sales, your revenue, and your profits.

The Definition of a Referral: An Introduction

The only way to make HOT calls is when you receive a personal introduction. The prospect knows who you are and is expecting your call. This is the definition of a qualified referral—and the only definition.

There are many things written about different types of referrals—it’s one kind of referral if you have a name, another if you have a reference, another if you’ve been introduced. No. There’s only one kind of referral—and it requires that you have a personal introduction.

Salespeople often delude themselves into thinking they are making “warm sales calls” when in fact, they’re actually making cold calls.

Consider the following situations:

•           You call someone because you got their name came from a colleague or friend. Cold!

•           You call someone and then follow up with a letter. Cold!

•           The person’s name came from a specific list. Still cold!

Cold Calling is Bad Math

These are all cold calls—the person doesn’t know you and is not expecting your call. Even though you think you’ve been able to avoid sounding like a telemarketer, this type of call is still cold. And cold calling is a numbers game. If we make 100 calls, we’ll talk to about 20 people, schedule 10 appointments, and if we’re lucky, close one new deal. That’s a 1 percent return on our time.

Whether it’s direct mail, making a phone call, or unsolicited email, this is spam. Why bother with a sales system that gets such dismal results? Your time is worth more.

Every salesperson and sales executive will agree that referrals are the best business—nothing else comes close. Yet, when I ask this same group if they have a targeted sales strategy to build their business through referrals—with a written referral plan, weekly referral goals, and a way to track and measure referral results… silence. On one hand, referral business is unsurpassed; and on the other, salespeople do not have a consistent referral-sales strategy. It’s common sense, but not common practice.

Five Tips to Make the Shift from Cold to HOT

1.         Make a list of everyone you know—current clients, past clients, peers, neighbors, service providers, friends, past co-workers, volunteer groups, etc. You should have at least 100 names. Prioritize the list so that the people that you know the best are at the top of your list.

2.         Set a goal and decide how many people you will contact each week. Arrange in-person meetings whenever possible (face time matters).

3.         Tell your referral sources that you are building your business through referrals and would like their help. Describe your ideal client and ask for one or two people who meet your description.

4.         When your referral source makes a suggestion, find out as much as you can about the prospect and his company.

5.         Then ask your referral source to make the introduction. The introduction could be by phone, in person, or by e-mail.

Start thinking about how you spend your time and the type of payoff you want. Get that treasured introduction. Get HOT! Get referrals!

Joanne Black is a leading authority on referral selling and the founder of No More Cold Calling. She is the author of No More Cold Calling™, The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust from Warner Business Books. For more information, visit www.NoMoreColdCalling.com. Phone: 415-461-8763 |  joanne@nomorecoldcalling.com

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Do You Like the Sales and Sales Management Blog?

Then you’ll love my POWER SELLING newsletter.  Twice each month you’ll get my newsletter that focuses on real solutions to real sales and sales leadership issues with ACTIONABLE guidance, not grand but worthless theory.

Simply shoot an email to me at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com with “Subscribe” in the subject line and your name and email address and I’ll get you subscribed.

And by the way, we hate SPAM also, so we’ll never sell, lease, rent or give your information to anyone—EVER!

Or, if you prefer, just save the Sales and Sales Managemenet Blog to you RSS Reader here.

June 16, 2009

Boost Your Sales series: “Make Sure You Get One GREAT Referral,” by Bill Cates

Filed under: Personal Marketing, Referral Selling, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 6:07 am
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It’s Referrals and Word of Mouth week at the Boost Your Sales blog series. 

Today it’s Bill Cates

Tomorrow Joanne Black is here with “There’s No Such Thing as a Warm Sales Call”

Thursday Dr. Martin Russell discusses “Marketing Is What You Do When Your Product Is No Good”

and finally, on Friday I up with “Your Connections are Your Key to Your Success”

Stay tuned in next week as a great list of experts—Jeb Blount, Nigel Edelshain, Cindy King and Ardath Albee give great guidance on “Prospecting and Social Media”

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Make Sure You Get One GREAT Referral
By Bill Cates

One of the questions I always get is “How many names do you try to get in one sitting?”  My answer to this is “it depends.” It depends on how open your referral source is to the process; how much time and energy they feel like devoting. My personal record is 17 names in one phone call, and I’ve gotten 10-11 on several occasions. But NOT because I pushed my clients into this. I was ready to move on to another subject several times, but they kept on going, and going, and going (like the Eveready Energizer Bunny.)

 At a recent referral boot camp, an advisor told me his method. He told me that he doesn’t “brainstorm” for a lot of names. He says this to his clients, “I’m glad you really see the importance and value of the work we’ve done together. Who is one person that you know, who you think should really know about the work I do?”   He only asks for one referral each time, but the one he gets is always a good one – a high-trust referral.

Now, it must be said that this advisor is extremely successful and doesn’t need the quantity that some advisors need.  If you need more than just one great referral, do what I usually teach – come prepared to suggest several places (names, categories, target lists, etc.) and brainstorm with your client.  You can use this method as part of the overall brainstorming.

Remember, if you ask, they can always say, “no.”  If you don’t ask, the answers is always “no.”  Don’t run your career afraid of the word “no.” They won’t stop being your client, for goodness sakes.

Bill Cates is the author of Get More Referrals Now! and Don’t Keep Me a Secret! To receive Bill’s complimentary newsletter and to learn more about how his boot camps, coaching, books and other referral tools can help you acquire more and better clients through referrals, go to www.ReferralCoach.com (301-497-2200)

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Do You Like the Sales and Sales Management Blog?

Then you’ll love my POWER SELLING newsletter.  Twice each month you’ll get my newsletter that focuses on real solutions to real sales and sales leadership issues with ACTIONABLE guidance, not grand but worthless theory.

Simply shoot an email to me at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com with “Subscribe” in the subject line and your name and email address and I’ll get you subscribed.

And by the way, we hate SPAM also, so we’ll never sell, lease, rent or give your information to anyone—EVER!

Or, if you prefer, just save the Sales and Sales Managemenet Blog to you RSS Reader here.

June 15, 2009

Boost Your Sales series: “Laying the Foundation for Referrals,” by Ian Brodie

Filed under: Personal Marketing, Referral Selling, Word of Mouth Marketing, marketing, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 6:28 am
Tags: , , , , , , ,

It’s Referrals and Word of Mouth week at the Boost Your Sales blog series. 

We start off with Ian Brodie’s advice on how to prepare your clients to give quality referrals

Tuesday it’s Bill Cates with “Make Sure You Get One Great Referral”

Wednesday Joanne Black is here with “There’s No Such Thing as a Warm Sales Call”

Thursday Dr. Martin Russell discusses “Marketing Is What You Do When Your Product Is No Good”

and finally, on Friday I up with “Your Connections are Your Key to Your Success”

 

Stay tuned in next week as a great list of experts—Jeb Blount, Nigel Edelshain, Cindy King and Ardath Albee give great guidance on “Prospecting and Social Media”

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Laying the Foundations for Referrals
by Ian Brodie

A lot of what’s been written on Referrals over the years has been on the practical strategies and methods for getting them. And there’s no better source for the best thinking on these topics than Paul’s book: Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals (Wiley: 2007).

But I want to take a slightly different slant in this post. Assuming you know how to prepare and ask your clients and business partners for referrals in an effective way – how can you increase your chances of a strong referral occuring?

I’m going to cover three topics: 1) What motivates people to give referrals in the first place? 2) How you can help your referrers get better at giving referrals and 3) How to attract referrals without having to ask for them.

Motivating Referrers
What motivates someone to actually give a referral? What’s in it for them?

In my experience across multiple professions, I’ve found that clients and business partners are actually very generous when it comes to giving referrals. Their main concern is less one of self interest, and more one of helping their own clients, colleagues and friends.

But what they are concerned about is risk. They will want to be absolutely sure you will do a good job before they refer you to people whose relationship they value. They simply can’t afford to take the risk of you doing a bad job and their reputation and relationship suffering.

Your current and recent clients should have the confidence in you to know this won’t happen. But for business partners (and also perhaps for ex-clients from a while back) you will need to invest time to make sure they are fully confident in your capabilities and your intent to do a great job for whoever they refer you to. And you must be able to demonstrate this – not just claim it. Far better to invite a referral partner to a seminar you are running where you showcase your expertise than to simply tell them you have it.

The other risk for business partners is that you may attempt to “steal” the relationship from them (perhaps unintentionally in some cases). It’s advisable to set out clearly how you would proceed should they refer you – and emphasize that you would ensure they retained the primary relationship.

After these risks have been dealt with, you can increase the urgency and dedication with which your referral partners go about referring you. The prospect of reciprocation (if genuine) can obviously help. But sometimes referral relationships are by nature one-sided.  Accountants, in particular, are often able to give more referrals to lawyers than they get – simply by nature of the number of long-term business relationships they have. So making sure you are “going the extra mile” and visibly doing whatever you can to get high quality referrals back to them helps. In addition, you may be able to help them in other ways: introducing them to wider circles of contacts, giving them specialist advice on their own affairs, allowing them to showcase their expertise as guest presenters at your events.

Helping Your Referrers Get Better at Giving Referrals
In some cases your contacts would like to give referrals to you – but are simply not good at spotting referral situations and making the initial contact. Sometimes they just need a little help.

This is particularly important when the need for your services is not immediately apparent from outside. Companies contemplating layoffs and in need of employment advice don’t often advertise the fact in advance, for example. A close confidante may be privy to discussions that would alert them to these sorts of needs – but often most people don’t see the signs until it’s too late to act.

One method to help referrers identify situations where your services would be of value is to educate them about the externally visible “trigger events” which cause a need for your services. An obvious example would be the hiring of a new general counsel – often presaging a change in retained law firm. News of a potential new product may break well in advance of hiring a marketing consultant to help with the launch.

By thinking through (preferably with the aid of some of your clients themselves) the events that triggered the need for your services you can compile a simple list of “things to look for” which can help you and your referrers steal a march on your competitors.

In other situations, it may be that the referrer can spot the need – but struggles to find the words to discuss it with the potential client. In the case of divorce law for example, it may be very clear to your referral partner that someone needs professional advice – but they may be too embarrassed or uncomfortable to broach the subject with the person they are trying to help.

In this case, you need to help them by firstly educating them about the right time to intervene in the person’s best interest – and giving them some examples of words they can use to gently introduce the subject without the risk of damaging their relationship.

Becoming a “Referral Magnet” – How to Attract Referrals Without needing to Ask for Them.
Most of our discussion so far has focused on how to get more and better “outbound referrals”. In other words, referrals where the referrer reaches out to the prospect to recommend you.

However, the same lessons apply to “inbound referrals” – where the prospect themselves contact your referrer and ask for a recommendation. These types of referral can be incredibly valuable – as they are to highly qualified prospects – ones who are essentially saying “I have a need and I need help now”. Being able to attract these sorts of referrals will pay huge dividends.

The challenge here is that since needs for many products and services arise fairly infrequently, by the time your referrer is contacted by the prospect you won’t necessarily be “front of mind”. So they may not give you a particularly strong referral. After all, how many other lawyers does that accountant you count as a partner know and refer to? How many other printers does that consultant you met at the chamber of commerce pass referrals to already? Usually quite a few.

In order to get these referrals – often the most valuable ones – you must be front of mind with your referral partners when they receive the call.

Now, if they are a current or recent client you have done great work for then the chances are that you will be the only one referred. Or if you are part of a “leads group” then members of that group will automatically refer to you. But these situations are in the minority for most referral situations for most people. In order to maximize the number of referrals you get, you need a wide network of high potential referral partners, and you must be front of mind with them despite them not being recent clients or part of a “club” with you.

How do you do this? In the same way you stay front of mind with high potential clients. You invest in and nurture the relationship. You may not be able to work with them daily or meet them every week – but you can keep in touch and you can add value to them with every interaction.

It’s exactly the approach you would take with a high potential client: you would log them on your contact management system. You would invest in the relationship to secure future business. You would schedule regular events with them, send them clippings or news items of interest, proactively offer advice and guidance for free. Doing the same thing with high potential referral partners can have just as high a payoff. If they are regularly being contacted to give recommendations in your field then you must make sure you have a plan to stay front of mind with them.

You can’t do this with all your potential referrers – but you should be able to identify who are the ones with the most potential to refer business to you and to focus on them.

At minimum, you should be reviewing the list of your top referral sources weekly and your next tier monthly, in order to keep them front of mind for you and ensure that during the week you are awake to possible ideas and resources that might help them. Connect with them on Linkedin and monitor their status updates. Track them and their company via Google Alerts or other tracking methods.  Make sure you keep in touch and maintain your relationship by phone and face to face, not just by email.

Above all, if you are genuinely interested and concerned for them as human beings, then the right sort of nurturing behavior will follow.

Ian Brodie works with professional service firms – consultants, lawyers, accountants, surveyors, architects and coaches – to help them attract more clients and win more new business.  Ian has just launched the Rainmaker Network which is a worldwide free to join network focused on helping partners, marketers and business developers in Professional Service Firms to attract new clients and win new business.

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June 5, 2009

Boost Your Sales Series: “Turn Your Cold Calls into Welcome Introductions,” by Paul McCord

Filed under: Personal Marketing, Referral Selling, cold calling, marketing, prospecting, sales, selling, small business — Paul McCord @ 7:33 am
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Here’s the last article for the “Using the Phone to Generate Business” week.  It’s my contribution about the process I use to connect with prospects via the phone.  I never make cold calls, but I speak with a lot of decision makers I’ve never interacted with before.  This is how I turn what would be a cold call into a referred introduction.

Next week we’ll deal with Successful Networking.  First up will be The Sales Hunter–Mark Hunter; Tuesday bring in Andrea Sittig-Rolf; on Wednesday it will be Jonathan Farrington’s turn; Thursday I’ll introduce you to Will Kintish; and then Friday, as always, it will be my turn to tackle networking.

Come back everyday to get your daily dose of great, actionable sales and management guidance and discussions.

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Turn Your Cold Calls into Welcome Introductions
By Paul McCord

Are you a business-to-buisness seller who must use the phone to generate buisness and who is frustrated with amount of time you must spend, the number of calls you must place just to get a single appointment?  I feel your pain.

Are you tired of trying to find ways around the gate keeper, create voice mail messages that will be returned, and find a way to capture and keep your prospect’s attention?  Again, I feel your pain.

I’m a salesman, too.  I sell sales training, management consulting, coaching and speaking presentations.  My clients are companies, individual salespeople, business owners, and business and industry associations.

I prospect.  I have to if I want to stay in business.  I, like every other seller, am constantly looking for potential new business.

I also market my services and myself.  I have to invest a significant amount of my time and effort in getting my message out to potential clients.  The marketing I engage in takes many forms–from writing articles to giving interviews to writing newsletters to attending events and functions to networking and seeking referrals.

In other words, my business is exactly like yours.  I engage in the same activities you do.  I face the same obstacles, the same setbacks, the same disappointments, and enjoy the same victories. 

Whether you sell insurance, parking lot maintenance, copiers, communication systems, or the most sophisticated computer networks, business-to-business selling is in its essence the same for all of us.  The details are different.  The process may be vastly different.  The sales cycle may be months or even years apart.  But the basic essence is the same, and the most basic is you have to have a prospect that will accept your efforts to connect with them.

Like almost every other seller, I must use the phone to connect with some of those prospects.  Nevertheless, I refuse to make cold calls.  In my opinion, there is hardly a more worthless use of my time and energy than cold calling.  Cold calling is time consuming for the sellerCo and it immediately signifies to the recipient of the call that the person making the call isn’t an expert in their field because most prospects assume that true experts aren’t sitting at a desk pounding the phone.

Yet, that creates a dilemma for me—there are prospects I can’t find a way to reach without picking up the phone and calling them.  Despite being a strong advocate of referral selling, networking, developing referral partnerships, and using PR to create interest and get prospects to pick up the phone, those methods, no matter how expertly I implement them, just can’t get me to every possible prospect that I’m interested in reaching.

Not having a way to connect through other means and refusing to cold call presents a serious problem.

Fortunately, there is a solution that allows me to NEVER make a cold call and still call prospects that I’ve never interacted with before.  In fact, it always allows me to begin establishing a relationship with almost every prospect I connect with that I can expand and nurture over time.  In addition, this simple method allows me to gather a wealth of information about the company, their needs, their plans, and in many cases, key information about the person I’m about to speak to before I ever make the call.  Before I call, I know whom I’m calling, why I’m calling, and I have a very good idea of where the conversation will be going. 

And if my prospect doesn’t answer the phone, I almost always get a return call from the voice mail I leave.

What is the incredible system I use?

Actually, it is so simple and so obvious I almost hate to admit it.  But it works.  It takes the pressure off me, as well as off the prospect.  When I call, I’m simply doing follow-up work, fulfilling my obligation to one or more of the prospect’s employees.

Once I’ve identified a company to approach about any of my services, I do my homework.  I call three or four of the company’s salespeople (remember my prodict– I’m selling sales training and consulting).  My hope is to speak to a salesperson that has been with the company for only a short time, to another who is an old hand with the company, and one who is a top producer. 

When I speak to these individuals, I am upfront with the purpose of my call.  I let them know who I am, why I’m calling them, what my intentions are regarding calling the company about my services, and request their permission to ask them some questions about the company and their experience with the company.  Seldom does anyone refuse speaking with me.  If they do, I’ll just call another salesperson within the company.

I ask a number of information gathering questions such as:

  • what type of sales training the company provides
  • their personal evaluation of the quality of the training
  • whether training is provided by outside vendors on in-house trainers
  • if they use outside trainers, what companies do they use
  • what training needs do they see the company has that aren’t being met
  • who in their opinion I should speak to about training
  • if there is anything else I should know prior to calling the person they suggested I call
  • prior to ending the call, I ask for permission to use their name when I make the call.

Three or four short calls—each will only last a very few minutes—gives me a tremendous amount of information about the company and potential opportunities for me.  Often I learn a little bit of personal information about the person I’m about to call that helps me connect with them.  Typically, at least one and often two or three of the individuals will not only give me permission to mention their name, but will encourage me to call, giving me a referral into the company.  Now, I’ve not only upgraded the call from a cold call to a warm call, but I’ve upgraded the warm call to a referral. 

When I do call the company, I use the introductions provided by the salespeople to break the ice and gain credibility.  Those introductions turn the call into a conversation about their needs and observations rather than a sales pitch.   In fact, most prospects actually appreciate my call.  In many cases I’m informing them of issues and concerns their sales team has that they aren’t aware of, and in virtually all cases I’m not calling them wasting their time fishing for  a reason to meet with them, I’m discussing a real specific issue that their team has that needs to be addressed.

If I am directed to voice mail, I don’t panic.  I don’t hang up without leaving a message.  I don’t leave some misleading message hoping to trick someone into returning my call.  I leave a very brief factual message that introduces myself and mentions that salesperson X and salesperson Y asked me to call about some issues that concern them.  I almost always get a return call.

Naturally, the person I’m calling wants to know how and why his or her salespeople encouraged me to make the call.  Again, I don’t beat around the bush.  I tell them that I was doing my homework prior to making my introductory call.  The fact that I was willing to spend time learning something about the company, their needs, their salespeople, and their processes tends to impress the person with whom I’m speaking. 

Seldom do sellers take the time to be prepared before making a call.  Seldom do they find a way to turn a cold call into a referral.  So unusual is it that when someone calls who is fully prepared, the impression is not only positive but also deep and lasting.  Furthermore, by demonstrating my ability to find a positive, honest and effective way to connect with them that pricks their interest and almost demands they pay attention to me, they make the connection that I just might have something of value to teach their sales team. 

Naturally, I don’t turn every call into a sale.  I do, however, begin the process of developing a positive and trusting relationship that will, hopefully, turn into a sale in the future.

My method of reaching the prospects that I otherwise cannot find another way of reaching doesn’t allow me to make tons of calls.  I give up quantity for quality.  And to tell you the truth, I’d much rather have an introduction to a quality prospect than sit and pound the phone hoping that sooner or later I’ll fall into an appointment.

No matter your product, you too can find individuals within your target companies who can give you the information you need—and their endorsement when you do make the call.  Getting past gatekeepers and gaining the prospect’s interest doesn’t have to be a game of deception or manipulation.  Investing a little time before calling your prospect opens doors, eliminates resistance, pricks interest, and helps begin the relationship building process. 

You virtually never have to make another business-to-business cold call.  With a little bit of research and effort you can turn almost every cold call into a referred call.  Give it a try, it makes life much easier and making those calls much more enjoyable—and productive.

Paul McCord, a leading Business Development Strategist and president of McCord Training, works with companies and sales leaders to help them increase sales and profits by finding and connecting with high quality prospects in ways prospects respect and respond to.  An internationally recognized author, speaker, trainer and consultant, Paul’s clients range from giants such as Chase, New York Life, Siemens, and GE, to small and mid-size firms, as well as individual sales leaders.  He is the author of the popular Sales and Sales Management Blog (http://salesandmanagementblog.com). 

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May 23, 2009

The Four Pillars of a Successful Referral, Part 4: How You Contact Your Referred Prospect

Filed under: Client Relationships, Personal Marketing, Referral Selling, business, marketing, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 7:49 am

For most sellers, a referral is nothing more than a name and a phone number that they have been given by a client or prospect.  Although having nothing more than a name and phone number with which to contact the prospect, most salespeople are excited about their new referral.  The first thing they do when they get back to their office is grab the phone and excitedly call the prospect, just to get the brush off—assuming they even get through to the prospect.

No matter how qualified a prospect the referred person is, no matter how much they trust and respect your client who referred them, if all you get is a name and phone number, you don’t have a referral. 

A name and phone number by itself

is little better than taking out the phonebook

and pointing at a name at random.

To convert a name and phone number into a REFERRAL, it must be accompanied by a direct INTRODUCTION of you to the prospect from your client.  And the weaker the relationship between the client and the prospect, the STRONGER the introduction must be.

You have three basic introduction formats at your disposal:

  • Letter to the prospect from your client.  Your most common form of introduction would be a letter from your client to the prospect introducing you.  Don’t ask your client to write the letter.  First, even if they do get around to writing it, they’ll do it on their time schedule, not yours.  Secondly, when a client writes a referral letter, seldom do they give the prospect a REASON to accept your call and to meet with you.

    Instead, write the letter for your client in the client’s voice, and then have your client sign it.  You’ll save your client from having to write the letter, you’ll get it done quickly, and you can write a more convincing letter anyway.  You know better than your client what you accomplished for the client, and if you’ve taken the time to find out what the relationship between your client and the prospect is and to learn as much as possible about the prospect’s potential needs, you’ll be able to relate more directly what you might be able to do for the prospect.  Your letter should give details about what you accomplished for your client and a solid reason why the prospect should consider meeting with you.  Give the letter ample time to reach the prospect, and then follow up with a phone call.

  • A phone call from your client to the prospect.  A stronger method of introduction is to have your client call the prospect and introduce you over the phone.  Never ask your client to call a prospect when you’re not there to be introduced.

It is very difficult for a prospect

to say NO to an appointment when

your client is on the phone with you. 

         Never ask a client to place a phone call unless you are SURE of their response to any potential
        questionthe prospect may ask        

  • A lunch meeting with the three of you.  Far stronger than either a letter or a phone call, having your client invite the prospect to a lunch meeting with the three of you creates a whole new dynamic.  Not only are you introduced to the prospect by your client, but

in many instances the client

actually ends up acting as your

SALESPERSON—

leaving you in the position of

the expert consultant.

           A lunch meeting puts you in the ultimate position of strength and virtually guarantees a private meeting with the
          prospect, and it demonstrates an extremely high degree of respect and trust of you on the part of your client.

The good news is you control three of the four pillars.  And even the one you don’t control, your client’s relationship to the referred prospect, can be handled by using a strong method of introduction for those particularly weak referrals.

If  you want to create a large number of high quality referrals from your new clients and even prospects you’ll have to learn a comprehensive, disciplined process.  We’ll talk about that process in the next post.

May 22, 2009

The Four Pillars of a Successful Referal, Part 3: Your Client’s Relationship to the Referred Prospect

Filed under: Handling Prospect, Personal Marketing, Referral Selling, business, marketing, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 7:27 am
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Most salespeople and business owners assume that all referrals are equal.  Even a great many trainers act like they’re all equal.  They’re not.  The strength of a referral depends more on the relationship between the client and the person they refer than on any other factor. 

Clients don’t just refer you to people who know them, respect them, and trust them.  It would be great if that were the case, but it isn’t.  Clients will refer you to people who are just casual acquaintances—and even to people who don’t respect them or don’t trust their judgment.

You can successfully convert any of these relationships into a great client.  But in order to so,

you must know EXACTLY

what the relationship between

your client and the referred prospect is.

When you get a referral you’re hoping to be able to set an appointment with the referred prospect based on the recommendation and endorsement of your client.  That’s the theory.  The reality is often very, very different.  Unless you know what the relationship between your client and the person they referred you to is, you don’t where you’re starting your connection with the referred prospect.

Prospects will initially judge you based on what they think of the person who referred you.  That means that your referral won’t necessarily have a positive impact on the prospect.  In some cases the prospect will have no pre-conceived opinion about you, while in other cases their pre-conceived opinion will be decidedly negative.

If your referred prospect trusts and respects your client, some of that trust and respect will automatically be imbued to you because someone they trust and respect endorsed you.  Consequently, you begin your relationship with that person from a position of strength.

If your referred prospect is simply a casual acquaintance of your client, they may have not developed an opinion about your client—good or bad.  In that situation you begin your relationship from a neutral position.  Although relatively rare, these neutral relationships do exist, and you will encounter these types of referrals.

Likewise, if your referred prospect distrusts or does not respect your client, in particular your client’s judgment and opinion, you begin your relationship with that prospect with some of that distrust and doubt imbued to you.  You begin the relationship from a decidedly negative position.

Your referred prospect will view YOU

the same way they view your Client–

Good, Bad, or Indifferent 

If you are not aware of the relationship between your client and the prospect—and in particular how the prospect views your client–you run a very real risk of blowing your opportunity to connect with the prospect. 

If your prospect trusts and respects your client, you will want to emphasize your relationship with the client and bring their name up often to reinforce the good feelings the prospect has regarding your client. 

On the other hand, if the prospect distrusts your client or doesn’t respect their judgment, simply use your client’s name for the introduction, and then seek to build your relationship with the prospect based on who you are, not on your relationship with your client.  Your client’s name gave you the opportunity to speak to the prospect; the rest is up to you.  Be aware, however, that the prospect will have reservations about you based on their opinion of who referred you.  It’s an uphill climb with a significantly lower potential for success, but one that can be made successfully if you’re aware of the obstacles in your path prior to making contact.

In those few instances where the prospect has virtually no opinion of your client, your client’s name should open the door.  Certainly you can continue to mention your client—they are neither an asset nor liability, but again, you’re faced with the task of building trust and respect based completely on your own, without any help from your client.

Next, the fourth pillar of a successful referral—How You Contact the Referred Prospect

May 20, 2009

The Four Pillars of a Successful Referral, Part 2: Your Client’s Purchasing Experience

Filed under: Client Relationships, Personal Marketing, Referral Selling, marketing, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 7:49 am
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Of equal importance to your relationship with your client is your client’s purchasing experience. Just because your client trusts you doesn’t mean he or she had the purchasing experience they wanted. On the other hand, just because your client had a good purchasing experience doesn’t necessarily mean they trust you.

To get the QUANTITY and QUALITY of referrals you want,

your client must trust you

AND

they must have the purchasing experience THEY want,

not the one YOU want to give them

Although we prefer to treat all of our clients the same, each is an individual. Each has their own idea of what they want to happen during the course of the sale. Certainly it is easier on us to treat them all the same, doing the same things the same way for each client; but that’s simply trying to make it easy on us rather than trying to give each client the experience they want. To generate a large number of high quality referrals, we have to change our perspective and rather than trying to make the purchase as easy as possible for ourselves, we have to concentrate on delivering the exact purchasing experience each individual client wants.

That’s a tall order. It means getting out of our comfort zone. It means taking on more work for ourselves. It means really getting to know our client’s wants and expectations rather than assuming we know what they are.

You earn referrals by

giving each client what they want,

not what you think they should want

To do this you have to talk to your client. You have to ask them to clarify exactly what they want to happen during the course of the sale. That is, you have to find out what their expectations are because meeting those expectations is how you earn their referrals.

This idea of asking clients to define their own purchasing experience is not only a foreign concept for many salespeople and business owners, it’s a foreign concept for most clients. More than likely, you’ll be asking a question that they have never been asked before. That alone begins to set their purchasing experience with you apart from any other they’ve had.

But more important than beginning to differentiate yourself from any other salesperson they’ve dealt with, by specifically asking them to design their own purchasing experience you:

1. Establish objective criteria for them to decide if you’ve earned the referrals

2. You have the opportunity to address any unrealistic expectations they may have right up front to insure those unrealistic expectations don’t become issues later

But how do you deal with existing clients that you didn’t have an opportunity to go through this process with during the sale? Naturally you can’t go back and recreate the purchase; but you can make sure that they are happy and satisfied with your performance and their decisions. If they are, you have a relationship that can be leveraged to help build your business.

If, however, you discover they have issues with either you or your product/service, you have some work to do before you can expect to successfully leverage the relationship. Rather than seeking referrals or an additional sale, your job is to mend fences, to put your relationship and the purchase back in order. You must correct your client’s issues before trying to leverage your relationship by:

• Discovering what the client’s issues are

• Asking point blank how you can make it right

• Either doing exactly what the client wants or if that isn’t possible, finding a resolution satisfactory to the client

• Implementing the resolution making sure that you know what your client expects to happen and that you do exactly that

Once you are completely satisfied that you’ve built the trust with your client and their purchasing experience meets their expectations, the third pillar comes into play–Your Client’s Relationship With The Referred Prospect

May 18, 2009

The Four Pillars of a Successful Referral, Part 1: Your Relationship to Your Client

Filed under: Client Relationships, Personal Marketing, Referral Selling, marketing, prospecting, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 5:47 am
Tags: , , , , ,

What’s so tough about getting a referral from a client? Once you’ve met your customer’s needs, all you have to do is ask them if they know of anyone who might be able to use your products or services. You then go back to your office and call the person you were referred to and set up a meeting. Couldn’t be easier, right?

That’s the core of traditional referral training.

Almost every seller knows it just doesn’t work very well. In fact, it works so poorly that vast numbers of have just quit trying to generate referrals.

The problem isn’t with the concept of generating referrals. The problem is that most trainers have simply accepted the traditional referral ‘training’ and simply regurgitate the pap they were taught about referrals.

For the 47 million-dollar-a-year-income sales superstars who generate the majority of their business from referrals, referral generation isn’t a weak question at the end of the sales process, but is rather a disciplined process that begins from the moment they meet a new prospect and continues throughout the relationship with their client.

Generating a large number of high quality referrals requires that we recognize the foundational aspects on which a quality referral is based and how we might be able to control these aspects. Over the next four posts we’ll take a close look at the four basic foundational pillars of generating a quality referral.

Pillar 1: Your Relationship to Your Client

Conventional wisdom from sales trainers is that clients “love to give referrals; they want to help; all you have to do is ask.”

What bull! Although there is a small contingent of clients
who love to give referrals, most clients HATE to give referrals.

Clients believe that whomever they refer you to will be more demanding and more critical than they have been and they fear they will be embarrassed because the prospect they refer you to will have a bad purchasing experience and will be unhappy with your performance or your product or service.

Clients will only give referrals–that is, real, quality referrals–once you have established a relationship with them that:

• Demonstrates you are honest and trustworthy

• Demonstrates you will do what you say you will do

• Gives them reason to BELIEVE that you will live up to the expectations and demands of those they refer you to

Your relationship with your client must be one built on their EXPERIENCE of your trustworthiness and honesty.

Not your claims.

Not your promises.

Not your intentions.

Referrals are EARNED, not given.

To overcome your client’s natural resistance to give referrals, they must KNOW you will not only not embarrass them in front of the people the refer you to, but that you will HONOR them by giving their friends, colleagues, and associates SUPERIOR service that is based in HONESTY and INTEGRITY.

Honesty extends to how you generate referrals. Many clients don’t appreciate being cornered at the end of the sale with an unexpected and uncomfortable request for referrals. Not only does that last second request annoy the client, even for those few clients who want to give referrals it makes it difficult for them to give a quality referral since it doesn’t give them time to think about whom to refer, not to mention it doesn’t define for them who a quality referral is. Letting your client know early in the relationship that your business is referral based and that once the sales process has been completed you’ll be working with the client to acquire high quality referrals.

Every salesperson promises honesty. All claim superior service. Most intend to be trustworthy. Every client has heard the promises and the claims. They may even believe the intent is there. But they have had few relationships with salespeople where the promises, claims and intent have come to fruition.

You only get quality referrals when your client trusts you with them and that trust is earned by your deeds, not your words. If you don’t back up what you say, don’t be surprised when your client is uncomfortable giving referrals. The good news is this pillar isn’t dictated by chance since you have total control over your honesty, truthfulness, and actions, almost guarantying your client’s trust.

Next Post: Part 2: Your Client’s Purchasing Experience

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