At first glance, a referral is a pretty simple thing. For most salespeople, managers, and trainers, a referral is just a name and phone number that a client has given the salesperson once the salesperson has completed the sale and has done a good job for the client.
Once a salesperson has received a referral, contacting the referred party is just as simple. The salesperson either will call the referred party mentioning to him or her that the client, which they know, referred the salesperson to them, or will ask the client to write a referral letter to the prospect and then the salesperson will call the prospect after they have received the letter. A very simple, straightforward process.
Unfortunately, this process is totally and completely wrong, and has been proven by millions of salespeople to not work worth a darn. Nevertheless, this is what is taught in almost every sales course in the world. And not only is it a waste of time and effort, it deceives the salespeople who don't succeed with it into believing that the fault lies with them, not with a "system" that doesn't work.
Generating a large number of high quality referrals requires far more than "doing a good job and asking for referrals." It requires a systematic process of planting referral seeds, watering them at every chance, weeding out problems and issues, and then reaping the rewards. That is what my PWWR (pronounced Power) Referral Generation System does.
If you want to generate a large number of high quality referrals from your clients, you must understand what a referral is based on.
A Referral is Based on a Foundation with Four Pillars-and you can control 3 of them:
The relationship between you and your client: you can control this pillar of the foundation. By instituting the full client relationship building process in detailed in Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals (John Wiley and Sons, 2007), you can create a strong relationship with your client built on mutual trust. Clients don't give referrals because they like you or even because you did a good job. Clients hate to give referrals and unless they have a deep trust that you will not embarrass them and that you'll deal honestly with the prospect they refer, they won't be willing to give quality referrals.
Your client's purchasing experience: you can control this pillar of the foundation. You must discover exactly what your client's expectations and priorities are, then meet-, and hopefully exceed them. You cannot afford to guess or "think" you know what these are-you must know exactly and you can only do that by discussing them with your client and then making sure you meet them or exceed them-nothing less will do.
The relationship between your client and the prospect: you have no control over this pillar. Clients will refer you to people they have very strong, positive relationships with and people they have very negative relationships with. If the prospect trusts and respects our client, some that trust and respect will be automatically imbued to you. On the other hand, if the prospect distrusts or doesn't respect your client, some of that distrust or disrespect will also be imbued to you. Your job is to find out exactly what the relationship between client and prospect is and then plan you approach accordingly.
Your initial contact with the prospect: you control this pillar also. If you have built your relationship with the client properly, your client will be happy to contact the prospect in whatever method you desire. As outlined in Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income, there are a number of methods of contacting clients, each with their own pros and cons, depending on the strength or weakness of the client/prospect relationship.
As seen above, you have control of the majority of the pillars upon which a referral is based. If any of the above is weak, your likelihood of generating quality referrals will decline and the weakness must be made up elsewhere. In actuality, if one of the first two segments is weak, you will not be getting quality referrals-period. However, you can mitigate the affects of the last two.
If the relationship between client and prospect is weak, use a stronger contact method. Moreover, if the contact method is weak, convert the method into a stronger one. For example, if your contact method is a phone call to a prospect who has a weak relationship with your client, try to bring in one or two other clients the prospect may know by reputation to build additional credibility. Better yet, try to arrange a conference call between the prospect and your client.
Generating a large number of quality sales isn't done by chance or luck, and neither is generating a large number of high quality referrals. Just as you need a well thought out process to consistently sell, you need a well thought out process to generate quality referrals. You can significantly increase the volume and the success of your referrals if you understand the dynamics that generate quality referrals and then control those dynamics.
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