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[E21] Referral Week: Ultimate Indicator
Welcome to Week 5 of The Sales Experience Podcast and the beginning of Referrals Week.
“Wait…we have only just covered the Fundamentals. I need some strategies and tactics first before I care about referrals!!!”
If you are thinking this, you are correct – there are a
lot of sales related topics to cover before thinking about referrals. If you
cannot close deals then there won’t be referrals.
Right?
Yes and No.
While it might seem to early on to talk about Referrals
the topic is actually very important for the beginning of this podcast, the
beginning of your sales career, or if you are a veteran salesperson and want to
take your professional success to the next level.
A salesperson who focuses on referrals and can actually
be successful just from those referrals has reached the pinnacle of a sales
career.
But in order to do that you have to be intention before
you even talk to prospects and close deals.
In this first episode, I will set the groundwork for why a referral-based sales business is the Ultimate Indicator that you are providing the best Sales Experience possible.
Episode 21 – Transcript
Welcome to Episode 21 of The Sales Experience Podcast. My
name is Jason Cutter, with you as always on this journey to change the
landscape of how sales is done. This is the start of the fifth week of the
podcast, hopefully you are getting value from the topics I have been covering.
We started out a little slow, setting expectations. Then moved to as much
mindset stuff as I could cover in the episodes during week 2. I will tell you,
that one was tough to keep it so short, high level, but also impactful. Same
thing for weeks 3 and 4 where I covered the fundamentals. Those are literally
hour long courses that I teach but I promised you short episodes that you can
listen to, digest, and put into use right away.
So here we are at week 5, which you already saw is
Referrals Week. This might seem like an odd topic so early on. There is a ton
more sales related things to cover. We still haven’t touch the surface of
selling skills, customized sales strategies by behavior type, scripting,
marketing, technology, and so on. So why would I want to spend this week
talking about referrals when we have a lot to cover to help you even close more
deals? Does it seem like I am putting the cart before the horse – can’t get
referrals without closing deals…so we need to cover how to close more deals
first, right?
Yes and No. Yes, you need to close deals for people to
send you referrals. Actually…that’s not true – but I will cover that in a
different episode this week on how to get referrals from people you don’t sell
to – and I don’t mean asking your family and friends.
The reason I want to cover referrals this week is that
receiving referrals is the ultimate indicator. Receiving referrals should
always be your focus. In fact, your true goal as a sales professional should be
to have referrals be your only source of deals you close. Not cold calling,
door knocking, new inbound leads, random website form fills, not people walking
onto the lot. 100% referral business.
If you are a manager or owner then of course you want
nothing more than your entire sales team to be closing all referral sourced
deals. It makes total business sense, which you already know, but I will cover
in another episode.
But why do I call the referral the Ultimate Indicator?
Because a referral is the outward sign that things went well with what your
company promised that customer or client.
When the prospect sees your marketing or branding, calls
in or walks into your store, there is an expectation in their mind based on
what they saw, read, or heard. There is a promise already being made. Then they
get to you – the salesperson. You, hopefully, are a continuation of that
expectation and promise of what your product or service will do for them. Then
they pay your company and the fulfillment begins. Maybe they receive your
product in hand or in the mail, maybe they drive off the lot with that car, or
they get access to the service you provide, or you start working on their debt
or get them set up with insurance.
This is where the rubber meets the road, as they say. If
your marketing and sales and fulfillment are in alignment, then the customer
will be satisfied. Their fears of what could have happened and what they were
worried would happen as a result of having to deal with a sale person did not
occur. Instead they got what they wanted and were promised.
Satisfied clients aren’t enough though, which I will
cover in another episode as well. For now let’s stay on the topic of referrals
being the Ultimate Indicator. When everything goes right, the customer is
satisfied, or ideally – a raving fan as Ken Blanchard describes them – then
referrals will be generated.
A referral is the single best indicator that your company
did what it said what it would do for that person. It indicates that the sales
rep was honest, professional, and set the right expectations. It indicates that
the customer trusts your company.
At the company, ownership and management level, a
salesperson on your team who is generating referrals means that they and you
are performing above the customer’s expectations. At this point you can almost
throw away all of your other KPIs – key performance indicators. The number of
calls they take, their closing percentage, their customer satisfaction scores,
their pipeline follow up – unimportant. If your rep is generating referrals and
is meeting their performance requirements just off referrals, then that means
they are doing everything else really well.
If you are a salesperson and you are generating
referrals, that means the prospects you converted into customers see you as more
than just a salesperson. They see you as the person who helped them improve
their life in some way, make a change, buy that thing – whatever it was, big or
small. You improved their life, even in the smallest ways, and you did it the
right way. You went against their biggest fears of dealing with a salesperson.
You didn’t do what they were worried about. Instead you asked questions,
actually listened, and sent them on the right path. You blew their mind which
resulted in them wanting to tell everyone they knew about you. Then, to top it
off, the things you promised them, your company actually did!
When you are closing referral deals, especially if you
can do that more than closing new leads, then it is the ultimate indicator that
you are a sales professional.
And the reason that I am focused on Referral Week this
early on in the podcast, before getting to all the other sales topics we could
cover, is that you want to get your mind focused on generating referrals. You
might be new to sales, or with a new company and just starting out with no
pipeline. Or maybe you are a seasoned veteran looking for ways to improve your
sales skills. Who ever you are listening to this, shift your mind to what you
would need to do or say with each prospect to get them to become not only a
client but someone who is so happy that they are a referral generating machine.
When you do that, you can reverse engineer the rest of
your process to build it in such a way where it will take your prospects on the
ideal sales experience. Like Field Of
Dreams – if you build it they will come. If you build your sales process with
referrals in mind, the referrals will happen. If you aren’t intentional about
generating referrals, then you might still get some from time to time, but not
enough to live on.
That’s it for this episode. If you would like help with
how to build your sales process such that you generate more referrals, go to www.cutterconsultinggroup.com
and send me a message. I also have other resources there, and make sure that
you listened to all the episodes during the two fundamentals weeks. If you
follow those five basic fundamental sales principals, you will be well on your
way.
Until next time,
always remember that everything in life is sales and people will remember the
experience you gave them.
View all episodes
By Jason Cutter
4.9
3535 ratings
Welcome to Week 5 of The Sales Experience Podcast and the beginning of Referrals Week.
“Wait…we have only just covered the Fundamentals. I need some strategies and tactics first before I care about referrals!!!”
If you are thinking this, you are correct – there are a
lot of sales related topics to cover before thinking about referrals. If you
cannot close deals then there won’t be referrals.
Right?
Yes and No.
While it might seem to early on to talk about Referrals
the topic is actually very important for the beginning of this podcast, the
beginning of your sales career, or if you are a veteran salesperson and want to
take your professional success to the next level.
A salesperson who focuses on referrals and can actually
be successful just from those referrals has reached the pinnacle of a sales
career.
But in order to do that you have to be intention before
you even talk to prospects and close deals.
In this first episode, I will set the groundwork for why a referral-based sales business is the Ultimate Indicator that you are providing the best Sales Experience possible.
Episode 21 – Transcript
Welcome to Episode 21 of The Sales Experience Podcast. My
name is Jason Cutter, with you as always on this journey to change the
landscape of how sales is done. This is the start of the fifth week of the
podcast, hopefully you are getting value from the topics I have been covering.
We started out a little slow, setting expectations. Then moved to as much
mindset stuff as I could cover in the episodes during week 2. I will tell you,
that one was tough to keep it so short, high level, but also impactful. Same
thing for weeks 3 and 4 where I covered the fundamentals. Those are literally
hour long courses that I teach but I promised you short episodes that you can
listen to, digest, and put into use right away.
So here we are at week 5, which you already saw is
Referrals Week. This might seem like an odd topic so early on. There is a ton
more sales related things to cover. We still haven’t touch the surface of
selling skills, customized sales strategies by behavior type, scripting,
marketing, technology, and so on. So why would I want to spend this week
talking about referrals when we have a lot to cover to help you even close more
deals? Does it seem like I am putting the cart before the horse – can’t get
referrals without closing deals…so we need to cover how to close more deals
first, right?
Yes and No. Yes, you need to close deals for people to
send you referrals. Actually…that’s not true – but I will cover that in a
different episode this week on how to get referrals from people you don’t sell
to – and I don’t mean asking your family and friends.
The reason I want to cover referrals this week is that
receiving referrals is the ultimate indicator. Receiving referrals should
always be your focus. In fact, your true goal as a sales professional should be
to have referrals be your only source of deals you close. Not cold calling,
door knocking, new inbound leads, random website form fills, not people walking
onto the lot. 100% referral business.
If you are a manager or owner then of course you want
nothing more than your entire sales team to be closing all referral sourced
deals. It makes total business sense, which you already know, but I will cover
in another episode.
But why do I call the referral the Ultimate Indicator?
Because a referral is the outward sign that things went well with what your
company promised that customer or client.
When the prospect sees your marketing or branding, calls
in or walks into your store, there is an expectation in their mind based on
what they saw, read, or heard. There is a promise already being made. Then they
get to you – the salesperson. You, hopefully, are a continuation of that
expectation and promise of what your product or service will do for them. Then
they pay your company and the fulfillment begins. Maybe they receive your
product in hand or in the mail, maybe they drive off the lot with that car, or
they get access to the service you provide, or you start working on their debt
or get them set up with insurance.
This is where the rubber meets the road, as they say. If
your marketing and sales and fulfillment are in alignment, then the customer
will be satisfied. Their fears of what could have happened and what they were
worried would happen as a result of having to deal with a sale person did not
occur. Instead they got what they wanted and were promised.
Satisfied clients aren’t enough though, which I will
cover in another episode as well. For now let’s stay on the topic of referrals
being the Ultimate Indicator. When everything goes right, the customer is
satisfied, or ideally – a raving fan as Ken Blanchard describes them – then
referrals will be generated.
A referral is the single best indicator that your company
did what it said what it would do for that person. It indicates that the sales
rep was honest, professional, and set the right expectations. It indicates that
the customer trusts your company.
At the company, ownership and management level, a
salesperson on your team who is generating referrals means that they and you
are performing above the customer’s expectations. At this point you can almost
throw away all of your other KPIs – key performance indicators. The number of
calls they take, their closing percentage, their customer satisfaction scores,
their pipeline follow up – unimportant. If your rep is generating referrals and
is meeting their performance requirements just off referrals, then that means
they are doing everything else really well.
If you are a salesperson and you are generating
referrals, that means the prospects you converted into customers see you as more
than just a salesperson. They see you as the person who helped them improve
their life in some way, make a change, buy that thing – whatever it was, big or
small. You improved their life, even in the smallest ways, and you did it the
right way. You went against their biggest fears of dealing with a salesperson.
You didn’t do what they were worried about. Instead you asked questions,
actually listened, and sent them on the right path. You blew their mind which
resulted in them wanting to tell everyone they knew about you. Then, to top it
off, the things you promised them, your company actually did!
When you are closing referral deals, especially if you
can do that more than closing new leads, then it is the ultimate indicator that
you are a sales professional.
And the reason that I am focused on Referral Week this
early on in the podcast, before getting to all the other sales topics we could
cover, is that you want to get your mind focused on generating referrals. You
might be new to sales, or with a new company and just starting out with no
pipeline. Or maybe you are a seasoned veteran looking for ways to improve your
sales skills. Who ever you are listening to this, shift your mind to what you
would need to do or say with each prospect to get them to become not only a
client but someone who is so happy that they are a referral generating machine.
When you do that, you can reverse engineer the rest of
your process to build it in such a way where it will take your prospects on the
ideal sales experience. Like Field Of
Dreams – if you build it they will come. If you build your sales process with
referrals in mind, the referrals will happen. If you aren’t intentional about
generating referrals, then you might still get some from time to time, but not
enough to live on.
That’s it for this episode. If you would like help with
how to build your sales process such that you generate more referrals, go to www.cutterconsultinggroup.com
and send me a message. I also have other resources there, and make sure that
you listened to all the episodes during the two fundamentals weeks. If you
follow those five basic fundamental sales principals, you will be well on your
way.
Until next time,
always remember that everything in life is sales and people will remember the
experience you gave them.