Tweet

Fill Your Pipeline by Refining Your Referral Requests

Guest post by: Kendra Lee

Article Overview: Lately I’ve heard a lot of people talking about how to get referrals. No doubt about it, they’re one of the quickest ways to fill your pipeline. They’re definitely easier and less stressful than cold calling. They’re more accessible, and there’s less competition to close the deal. Knowing this, more and more sellers are asking for referrals as a primary approach to filling their pipelines.

Fill Your Pipeline by Refining Your Referral Requests

Lately I've heard a lot of people talking about how to get referrals. No doubt about it, they're one of the quickest ways to fill your pipeline. They're definitely easier and less stressful than cold calling. They're more accessible, and there's less competition to close the deal. Knowing this, more and more sellers are asking for referrals as a primary approach to filling their pipelines. But they aren't getting the number of high quality referrals they'd like or need.

The techniques we're hearing aren't working consistently.

That's because so often we leave it up to the client to guess who they should refer us to. If you really want to be successful building your pipeline with referrals, you need to take a step back and think about what types of introductions you really want.

Just any old referral won't get you your next hot prospect.

When you leave it up to your customer to figure out who they think would be a good referral, they won't consider all the qualification points you do.

They might not recognize that they're a great client because they're:

• focused on issues that fall within your offerings' sweet spot

• using your solutions exactly like you want other customers to

• in a specific industry or a certain size company

• treating you as a trusted advisor

Suddenly you find yourself with a referral that's less than ideal. It's too small a company, has a completely different set of needs than you address, or is outside your industry expertise.

Because the referral came from one of your top clients, you either have to figure out how to say "thanks, but no thanks" or follow-up then explain to your customer why it wasn't the best fit. It's possible you could actually waste as much time following up on this unqualified introduction as you would cold calling!

A poor referral from a great client puts you in an awkward position - all because you were trying to shorten your new business development cycle through referrals. Mediocre connections won't help you fill your pipeline.

No, you only want top quality referrals. Your desire is to get introduced to companies and contacts that really need your offerings and will want to talk with you. You're looking for new connections with the characteristics of your best clients.

Don't limit yourself to asking for referrals that are similar in size, industry, or region.

Broaden your expectations to seek introductions to people who'll implement and appreciate your offerings like your best clients do. Ask for contacts who'll want to work closely with you and welcome your expertise and recommendations.

To get referrals that fit such specific qualifications, you need to frame who is a great connection when you ask. Tell your customer what types of companies make the best match for your offerings.

There are two parts to framing your referral request.

1. Say, "someone like you who..." - and fill in the blank with the profile of your ideal referral.

2. Then add, "someone who needs ..." - and include the classic challenges, issues or needs you address.

What you're doing is creating a picture of your ideal referral for your client. Now as they mentally search through all their colleagues, they can easily determine which ones to recommend. You've taken the guesswork out of it.

Call me a referral snob if you will, but if we're going to ask for referrals, spend precious time following up on them, and then work them with due diligence, don't we deserve to get only the very best introductions? I sure think so!

Related Articles
  Filling the Sales Pipeline Whos to Blame
  The Sales Pipeline
  Improve Sales Performance with More Effective Pipeline Management
  Assessing and Building Your Leadership Pipeline
  Why You Should be Scared When Your Salespeople are Closing Lots of Business

Article Tags: asking for referrals, awkward position, best fit, bu, high quality, hot prospect, how to get referrals, industry expertise, introductions, no doubt, offerings, pipeline, pipelines, quality referrals, referral, sweet spot, thanks but no thanks



Related Forum Posts
LinkedIn for me - I've been getting requests along the following from LinkedIn: 1. Job offers by recruiters 2. request for introductions to points of Contact at my present place of employment 3. Requests to forward job offers within my network 4. requests to introduce other members from within my network
Re: How Much Of Ourselves Should We Give Away...? - Fill me in on who Mr. Green is, please.
Fill in the blank: I couldn't run my business without: _____ - Fill in the blank: I couldn't run my business without: __________.
Fill in the blank: What I love the most about my business is - Fill in the blank: What I love the most about my business is: ____________.
Fill in the blank: My favorite time of day to work is: _____ - Fill in the blank: My favorite time of day to work is: ___________________.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How To Improve Your CTA (Call To Action)

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Log On

The Golden Rule of Communications

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.