Joanne sat down with CanDoGo–the sales productivity folks–to talk about how referrals happen.
Bottom line: We need to proactively talk to our clients and ask them to make the introduction. That is when referrals happen.
Here’s the conversation:
Paul: “You know Joanne, I always thought that if I do good work for a customer, they would just mention me to other people. It just never occurred to me that I actually should be asking for a referral.”
Joanne: “Well that’s it, we think we have done great work and of course our clients will refer us. Sometimes they do but they will in passing tell someone else about you. They don’t pick up the phone and call. I have more people say, did you hear from so and so I gave them your name. No, I never heard from them. We need to proactively talk to our clients and ask them to make the introduction. That is when referrals happen.”
CanDoGo™ is a sales productivity tool that helps salespeople close more sales–and close them faster. By receiving timely advice from world-renowned experts, CanDoGo™ users work smarter, faster and more efficiently.
Asking is Key—Making it easy for your Partner to refer you is where this strategy comes to life. In my work I make it easy and lucrative for folks to refer business my way. I don’t stop at clients either. I set up an entire network of folks that keep me in mind in their daily travels. When something comes up I make it easy to bring me in. In most cases, I have actually engaged referral partners to systematically pass my information along to their networks. It is truly amazing how many executives I gain access to that have never heard of me, my solutions or the clients I represent. They engage me because they know my Referral Partner—efficient and effective. Isn’t that what we are all looking for.
You bet! If you don’t ask, you don’t get. That’s my sales mantra. It doesn’t matter what we sell, the sales prospecting process is the same. We need to ask.