Referrals

The referral generation process we are about to share with you can transform your month, your quarter, your year, and your career. It should be at or near the heart of your prospecting plan. Learn it! Practice it! Use it! Share it with your organization! 

Every prospecting call pays dividends. What do we mean by that? Even if we get a no, we can ask ourselves where the potential is, where the opportunity is – and we can pursue that.

Mike Montague interviews John Rulin, author of Giftology: The art and science of using gifts to cut through the noise, increase referrals, and strengthen retention, on How to Succeed at Giftology.

Mike Montague interviews Jeff Peek, an immigration attorney, on How to Succeed at Keeping Your Clients.

Believe it or not, your parents were wrong. Money actually does grow on trees.

Skeptical? Don’t be. Just be willing to ask yourself: what kind of tree? And the answer is: a referral tree.

Back in the 1930s, in the wake of the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression, there was a social phenomenon in the United States known as the “Hoover Garden,” sometimes called a “Depression Garden.”

Not taking a defensive stance on hearsay or negative reviews is critical in overcoming a client’s initial negative opinion.

The STORY:

“What in the world are you doing?” asked Tim, seeing the thank you note cards spread out across Bob’s desk.

“Giving thanks,” responded Bob, looking up, “that all of these fine folks have contributed to my monetary success.”

The STORY:
I have no idea, thought Nick as he was reviewing his prospecting list, why I keep all this dead wood on here. I should blow them off just like that geezer, Cotter, blew me off. But then he grinned, remembering how that one had ended.

Getting started in sales, or increasing your success once you’ve established yourself, can be a very challenging task. One of the hardest parts of this process is securing leads. What’s even harder is ensuring those leads are qualified.

To grow as a salesperson, mastering this aspect of your career is key. Below I have identified three ways to get qualified referrals. Incorporating these simple tips will help you step up your referral game and uncover a path to new levels of success.

The How to Succeed Podcast is a public and free podcast from Sandler Training, the worldwide leader in sales, management, and customer service training for individuals all the way up to Fortune 500 companies with over 250 locations around the globe.

Welcome to Selling the Sandler Way, with your host Dave Mattson, the president and CEO of Sandler Training. He is a five-time bestselling author, speaker, trainer, and consultant to hundreds of international organizations. In this show, he talks to other Sandler trainers about the Sandler selling system.

Mario was well ahead of his monthly quota, so he was surprised when Jane, his sales manager, asked him to set a higher sales target for the quarter

During their meeting, Mario smiled and said, “I thought I’d get a gold medal after the good month I just had – not a higher target!”

In this episode of Selling the Sandler Way, Dave Mattson, the President and CEO of Sandler Training explores the Sandler Selling Philosophies behind the Sandler Selling System with Chuck Polin, a Sandler Trainer.

Referrals and introductions should be central to building a quality pipeline for your firm. However, in my research, most legal professionals are leaving up to 75% of the available referrals and introductions on the table.

“I just don’t understand,” said Andy, “you always seem to have referrals to work from. Where do you get them?”

If your buyers are having trouble making buying decisions the problem might be you – many professionals tend to tolerate their own buying behaviors from others.

Carl was fiddling with the bass knob on the massive TV to get that just-right level to really have prospects feel the sounds. The day before he had sold two of these because both buyers were absolutely floored with the clarity of the bass and treble.

Referrals and introductions should be central to building a quality pipeline for our business. However, in my research, most of us are leaving up to 75% of the available referrals and introductions on the table.

Juan’s sales numbers for the quarter were sharply down; lately, he felt he was struggling with his prospecting. He asked his manager Anita for help.

“There’s a lot we can talk about when it comes to prospecting,” Anita said. “But let’s start with the simplest question first. Are you asking your current clients for referrals?”

Referrals and introductions should be central to building a quality pipeline for our business. In my research, most of us are leaving up to 75% of the available referrals and introductions on the table. Most of us get referrals and introductions even if we do not ask! However, having a well-thought process and goals for pursuing them can dramatically increase our referral business.

If you always focus on how far you have yet to go, it will always belittle how far you have come.

Everyone knows someone. Actually, everyone knows several someones. Your customers - as well as the prospects you call on - have some contact with, or at the very least know of, people who can benefit from your product or service. Unfortunately, they are not programmed to automatically disclose the names of those people to you. That doesn't mean that they won't; you must initiate the action.

I had an interesting conversation at a social event that made me recognize that I, along with people in general, seem to want to make decisions for other people. This is an interesting observation from a sales perspective and it's also applicable in our everyday lives. Let me share the story

If your sales objective is to make the sale regardless, get the biggest order possible and structure the best deal for your company, then your entire focus is really on you.

As a sales trainer with Sandler Training, I spend a lot of time talking to my clients and I get paid to work with them in four areas of their business: Strategy, Structure, Staff and Skills. Because I spend hours talking to them, I learn quite a bit. And despite that fact, they still manage to surprise me with the questions they ask me.