Sales Performance - Referral Selling Training

It's not just who you know, it's who your clients know. If you don't ask your clients to refer you, you miss your most critical business development activity.

If it sounds too good to be true, it's not.

Everyone Is a Part of Your Inside Sales Team
If you don't include your current clients in your referral-sales team, you leave money on the table—every single day. If you ask them, they will refer you. But, you must ask.

Get upfront and honest with yourself. Ask (and answer) the two most important inside sales prospecting questions:

1. How many client relationships do I have?(Translation: How many people do I know in all of my current and former client organizations?)
2. With how many of these clients do I have great relationships? (Criteria for "great": They return my calls.)

Savvy executive sales professionals have at least 100 client contacts. If just 20 percent offered you referrals, you'd have 20 amazing new contacts. Once you actively cultivate them, they become part of your "executive sales team." Can you see where this leads, and how much business you could generate?

Take a few minutes and imagine your new solution selling life when you talk to prospects who want to talk to you. When you receive a referral introduction, you:

• Are pre-sold (They know you and the results you deliver.)
• Have already earned trust (One of the hardest things for solution salespeople to gain.)
• Gain instant credibility (They know you're not just there to "sell" them something.)
• Shorten your sales process by at least 25 percent (You decrease your cost of sales.)

Convert that referred prospect to a new client more than 50 percent of the time (You decrease your strategic account planning time and increase your client-facing sales presentation time.)

It's Who You Know
Here's the hard fact: most clients think of us only when they need us. It's up to you to get them thinking about you between sales calls. Your clients may not automatically offer referrals: Regularly remind them that you exist, so when a consultative selling opportunity arises, you're the one who gets it.

The clients you serve well--the ones who know you, like you, and trust you--truly want you to achieve sales territory success. After all, they know your work and the business results they've achieved from your solutions. Referring you makes them look good to their customers and business partners.

Our clients will refer us--if only we ask. With a little "instruction" you can empower your clients (your Referral Source) to refer you. Teach them how to introduce you (How do you want "what you do" to be described?). Teach them about your Ideal Client, and provide them with the answers to these critical questions:

• What business issues do you solve?
• What is the function of your Ideal Client? (CEO, VP, IT, Marketing)
• In what industry or geography do you work?
• What size company is your sweet spot?

Referral selling sounds too good to be true. But it's all true. Referral selling works. You choose how to spend your time. Get back in touch with your clients, ask them for referrals, and ask how you can help them. Your new sales opportunities will amaze you!

It's time to ask.