REFERRALS-A CIVIC DUTY?

(.....in Building Sales Pipelines Remotely)

It is said that "with great power comes great responsibility". We all know the power of 'word of mouth' and that it is the fastest way to grow a business. With such knowledge shouldn't we extend the 'word of mouth' principle to reviving the economy? Since referrals build pipelines and fast track high probability prospects, which in turn drives new sales and business growth; surely it is in our interest to promote referral generation in all its forms?

Given the current crisis; we owe it to ourselves as salespeople and professional services practitioners to do everything in our power to fast track the pace of the global economic recovery. To quote poet Julia Abigail Fletcher: "Little drops of water...make the mighty ocean". In that vein one of the fastest ways you and I can do our little bit to kick start the economy; is through the giving and soliciting of referrals. 

Why? 

Firstly, referrals reduce the average length of sales cycles, reduce price sensitivity, reassure the potential buyer, reduce brand and incumbent loyalties, reduce resistance to change, build pipelines quickly and have a higher probability of closure. Referrals/introductions also reassure the introducer about their decision to use your firm and encourage the recipient of the introduction to give you and others referrals too.

Let's take a further look at the rationale for both giving and soliciting referrals in the current climate:

Giving Referrals

We can't solely look to our elected politicians for policies and stimulus to drive economic growth. At some point it behooves us to use our own great, under tapped personal power to complement their efforts because...

'With great power comes great responsibility'

Exercising that power by giving introductions or at least being open to the idea of referrals is one of those "little drops" quoted earlier and all it requires of us is the following:

1. Entertaining the idea of giving introductions
2. Asking the following question- do I know someone that could benefit from one of my contacts, friends, associates or relative's business services?
3. Deciding who is the most credible of your contacts that would benefit from the introduction 
4. Making the introduction!

That's it; an easy way to exercise our own personal power to help drive UK and global economic recovery!

Asking for Referrals

Referrals can and should contribute to new business development as a matter of course. It should be no surprise that people are more amenable to giving introductions than they ever were, in a bid to stimulate growth and build the economy. The actual willingness to give introductions has always been high; if only sales people bothered to ask! Besides, traditional networking is just not an option in the current environment. So now we have two more huge reasons not to be shy and give referrals a try!

Here are 5 ways-many of which are often overlooked- in which you should be asking for introductions: 

Ask Suspects

Why not ask suspects who decline an opportunity to meet with you for introductions ? You can and should demonstrate enough credibility for someone to give you an introduction in this first phase of sales engagement. Not every person you cold/warm call will give you an introduction but more than enough of the people you ask will; to make it worthwhile asking. To a large extent soliciting referrals at this stage of engagement is a numbers game. However, how you ask will have a large impact on your success. So spare your blushes and get comfortable asking. You have nothing to lose but everything to gain because you didn't have anything in the first place!

Ask Prospects

You have a huge chance to demonstrate value once you've turned suspects into prospects. This means you can ask for introductions from people who have agreed to meet with you during that first meeting. How do we know if they'd be willing to give us introductions? You know by the level of credibility and value you've built up in that first meeting.

A simple way to assess if you've built up enough credibility to warrant an introduction is to ask that question of the prospect ! Your response will determine wether you've demonstrated enough value to invoke the 'hero factor' in your prospect. Invoking the hero factor means exciting a prospect enough about how you can help her/him, that they feel almost duty bound to share the good news about your services with someone else when asked. As long as you ask in the right way, more often than not you'll meet with success.

Ask Clients

This is probably where most people are comfortable asking for introductions for obvious reasons and yet only 15% of sales and client facing staff ever do! If you have clients and they are not rushing to leave you, research and experience shows that up to 85% of your clients represent a huge untapped reservoir of introductions. Clients can give a first hand account of the great value and service you provide. This in turn inspires others to use you. So if you're not asking your clients for referrals in the current environment you need to take a long, hard look at yourself!

Use LinkedIn (asking for introductions on mass and asking individual connections)

Most people connect with you because they know you, met you, reached out to you or you've reached out to them in your professional or networking capacity. Therefore you have some credibility with them related to your field of expertise. So why not solicit their efforts in helping you share that expertise. 

Use Promotional material 

e-mail signatures, receipts, contracts, proposals, ebooks, training materials and more; represent opportunities for you to invoke the 'hero factor' and generate endless introductions. Most organisations use some of these relationship junctures to generate referrals. But here's my point; if all of the above are part and parcel of your engagement with suspects, protects, active prospects and clients. Why not capitalise on the opportunity to leverage all of them as referral generating channels?

In both instances giving or receiving introductions have the dual effect of stimulating sales growth in our businesses and other businesses. It's a small step but the compound effect has huge ramifications for driving sales and building sales pipelines remotely. 

Therefore it's not too big a stretch to say: 'your country, your company and your industry needs you to give and get more referrals!

Stay healthy, stay safe and happy prospecting!