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Why do powerhouse pro NFL teams such as the Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers, and Green Bay Packers practice football during the sixteen-game season? As their excellent win-loss records indicate, they obviously know how to play the game of football. Naturally, the reason they practice intensely during the season is that the games are so critical the coaches want to ensure the players are at their best.
You should want to be at your best when it comes to referrals. For attracting high-paying clients, referrals are a critical part of the game. Are you getting coaching and practicing your referral skills?
“Every sales leader agrees that referrals drive revenue, and referrals deliver their most highly qualified leads that convert to clients well more than 50 percent of the time,” says author Joanne Black. “These same sales leaders say their biggest challenge is getting more leads in the pipe.”
How do you get more leads in the pipeline—and qualified ones at that?
“Get a referral introduction,” says Black. “Referrals guarantee one-call meetings, a qualified pipeline, and closed deals.”
Recently I caught up with Black at a conference and asked her to share some advice for upping your referral game. A captivating speaker, contrarian thinker, and innovative seminar leader, Black is a member of the National Speakers Association and speaks at sales meetings and conferences with her signature talk “Referrals Are Retro: How to Build a Referral Culture in a Digital World.”
To build a referral culture means you have to regularly ask for referrals. As the old adage states, if you don’t ask you don’t get.
“Every company gets some referrals today—mainly from clients who move to another company and hire you. But most salespeople aren’t asking their clients for referrals, which means everyone they’ve met during the buying process,” says Black. “A referral means you receive an introduction and that is key.”
“The glitch,” says Black, “is few companies have a measurable, programmatic, referral system, which includes a commitment to building a referral culture, developing a referral strategy, and creating metrics for outcomes from a referral program.”
This means equipping the sales team, even if that sales team is just you, with the necessary skills to ask for referrals. In addition, these skills need to be reinforced and coached.
Black offers the following quick referral-gathering tips:
Always ask for the introduction and then communicate impact. “Communicate the business results your clients have gotten by working with you. Quantify the results as much as possible. For example: Increased revenue by x percent, decreased cost of sales by y dollars. Or decreased accounts receivable time by 25 days.”
Describe your ideal client. “Go narrow and deep. The more specific you are in your description, the easier it will be for your referral source to identify someone.”
Be crystal clear. “Clarify the typical title of your prospects, the problems that need solving, industry, size of company, the kind of person, and geography. Ask for one or two people they know who you should meet.”
Black is arguably America’s top referral selling authority. She authored a great book titled No More Cold Calling: The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust, and another great book, Pick Up the Damn Phone!: How People, Not Technology, Seal the Deal.
