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[E22] Referral Week: Generating Referrals
There is a formula for anything in life that you want to
do successfully. From being healthy, to making money, to building a new habit,
to chemistry experiments, to baking.
When you are working in sales there is a formula for being
successful in a selling career.
And there is a formula for generating referrals.
Like most things in the life, the winning formula is
simple but not always easy.
Want to be an Olympic level athlete? The formula is
simple. But not easy.
Want to create a referral-based sales business? Simple.
Not easy. And not quick.
In this episode I cover the three parts of the referral
formula.
Episode 22 – Transcript
Welcome to the second episode of Referral Week!. My name is
Jason Cutter and my windy path in life has led me to this point where my goal
is to share my experiences and knowledge when it comes to selling, especially
inside sales, with anyone who is in sales or thinking about a career in sales.
My vision is to change the landscape of sales so that prospects see you as a
professional instead of being afraid of getting manipulated. And at the same
time help you actually close more sales and achieve your goals while doing the
right thing for your prospects.
If you are new to the show, I am glad you are here. You are
jumping in at a fun point where I am talking about referrals. If you are a
regular listener, thank you for being on this journey with me as well.
In the previous episode I spoke about how when a salesperson
is generating most of their business by referral it is truly the ultimate
indicator that they are doing things in the right way for the customers they
are helping. But the question I always get is “How do I generate referrals?”
To me it is a simple formula. If you ever took a chemistry
class in school then you know about what happens when you have a formula you
use and mix the right chemicals in the right order and you get what you are
supposed to. And we have all had that lab partner, or maybe you were the one,
who didn’t want to follow the formula and just dumped different stuff into the
test tube and things turned out badly.
This is same way with referrals. Honestly, it’s the same for
a successful sales career and for your life. There is a success formula for
everything, and the key is to follow that blueprint.
For referrals it is simple.
The first part is to follow the fundamental principals I
covered during the two Fundamental weeks. To recap, you want to build rapport,
show empathy, create trust, provide hope, and have urgency. And the order is
important, otherwise who knows what you will get.
When you do those five areas of the sales process in the
right way for your product or service then you start the client off on the
right foot.
The second part of the formula is that the expectation you
set has to be in alignment with the marketing message and then what the company
actually does with the client. If you are selling a car, does the car actually
do or perform the way you said it would? If you help people with their debt,
does your company’s processing department actually do what is being promised?
If you sell insurance, when someone has a problem will they actually be covered
and taken care of? That fulfillment part is critical. Tell someone your knives
can cut through aluminum cans and then tomatoes, it better actually do it. Or
they wont tell anyone about it because they will be embarrassed by falling for
your claims.
The third part of the referral generating formula is to ask.
You wont get what you don’t ask for. And it is true, there are customers who
will send you referrals no matter what, even if you never ask. There are people
who love to share with other people. They want other people to have the great
experience that they had. We all have those friends who go to a movie and
without even asking them they tell us to go see it. Or they are always telling
you a new restaurant to go check out. They enjoy being that connector and get
pleasure from being the one who can point other people towards the same happy
things or experiences they enjoyed.
But you cannot rely on those customers to grow your pipeline
of referrals. You cannot predict how many of those you will have as customers
and usually as quickly as they will tell everyone when they are happy with you,
if they get unhappy for any reason it will stop even quicker.
So the best way to get referrals is to ask. That is the rule
in your life in general anyway. Unless you have the amazing pleasure of having
everything in your life come to you, you will need to ask for what you want
from time to time. With referrals you want to ask and make sure they know that
you accept and appreciate referrals.
That might seem like a weird concept because you might
assume that everyone would know you want referrals. But don’t assume. Then you
are relying on those promoters to do the work for you. Instead, let each person
who you connected with know that you would love their referrals. Later on this
week I will cover who, when, and how to ask for referrals.
For now, know that the only way to a successful referral
pipeline is to follow this formula. First follow the fundamentals. Second, make
sure your product or service will do what you have set in the new customer’s
mind. Third, ask for referrals.
An additional part of the referral formula that isn’t an
official part, but critical is that satisfied clients aren’t enough. Why would
I say that? Don’t you want satisfied clients? At a bare minimum – yes. You want
to tell people your product or service will help them in its special way, or
improve their life, or achieve a goal they have, or satisfy a want or need. And
then it must do what you said it would. Then they will be satisfied. But they
won’t be impressed enough to shout from the mountain tops about their
experience.
If I go to a new restaurant and have a hamburger like I can
get anywhere else, and its done exactly right but nothing special – then I
probably won’t be excited enough to tell people. But if I go in expecting a
hamburger, and I find something special on the menu…for me it would be a
hamburger with bacon, a fried egg, and crumbled blue cheese – now that is
something I can get excited about.
Prospects are coming to you for X. If you sell them X, they
will be happy and walk away. But if you sell them X, and they actually get
X-Plus, then they will be excited.
Satisfied is not enough. I mentioned the book Raving Fans
yesterday, by Ken Blanchard. That is a big thing he mentions over and over
again. Satisfied customers is not enough to produce raving fans. And you want
to create raving fans because they will drive the referrals to you.
That’s it for this episode. If you want to get the podcast
each day, make sure to subscribe where you downloaded this from, and if you are
getting X-Plus, mondo bacon burger goodness from this podcast, I would love for
you to go on iTunes and give the show a five star rating and a great, glowing
yummy review. If you don’t feel like you can give it five stars, email me or
send me a message through the website and let me know why. I would appreciate
the feedback, especially if there are things that could bring extra value.
But 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
There is a formula for anything in life that you want to
do successfully. From being healthy, to making money, to building a new habit,
to chemistry experiments, to baking.
When you are working in sales there is a formula for being
successful in a selling career.
And there is a formula for generating referrals.
Like most things in the life, the winning formula is
simple but not always easy.
Want to be an Olympic level athlete? The formula is
simple. But not easy.
Want to create a referral-based sales business? Simple.
Not easy. And not quick.
In this episode I cover the three parts of the referral
formula.
Episode 22 – Transcript
Welcome to the second episode of Referral Week!. My name is
Jason Cutter and my windy path in life has led me to this point where my goal
is to share my experiences and knowledge when it comes to selling, especially
inside sales, with anyone who is in sales or thinking about a career in sales.
My vision is to change the landscape of sales so that prospects see you as a
professional instead of being afraid of getting manipulated. And at the same
time help you actually close more sales and achieve your goals while doing the
right thing for your prospects.
If you are new to the show, I am glad you are here. You are
jumping in at a fun point where I am talking about referrals. If you are a
regular listener, thank you for being on this journey with me as well.
In the previous episode I spoke about how when a salesperson
is generating most of their business by referral it is truly the ultimate
indicator that they are doing things in the right way for the customers they
are helping. But the question I always get is “How do I generate referrals?”
To me it is a simple formula. If you ever took a chemistry
class in school then you know about what happens when you have a formula you
use and mix the right chemicals in the right order and you get what you are
supposed to. And we have all had that lab partner, or maybe you were the one,
who didn’t want to follow the formula and just dumped different stuff into the
test tube and things turned out badly.
This is same way with referrals. Honestly, it’s the same for
a successful sales career and for your life. There is a success formula for
everything, and the key is to follow that blueprint.
For referrals it is simple.
The first part is to follow the fundamental principals I
covered during the two Fundamental weeks. To recap, you want to build rapport,
show empathy, create trust, provide hope, and have urgency. And the order is
important, otherwise who knows what you will get.
When you do those five areas of the sales process in the
right way for your product or service then you start the client off on the
right foot.
The second part of the formula is that the expectation you
set has to be in alignment with the marketing message and then what the company
actually does with the client. If you are selling a car, does the car actually
do or perform the way you said it would? If you help people with their debt,
does your company’s processing department actually do what is being promised?
If you sell insurance, when someone has a problem will they actually be covered
and taken care of? That fulfillment part is critical. Tell someone your knives
can cut through aluminum cans and then tomatoes, it better actually do it. Or
they wont tell anyone about it because they will be embarrassed by falling for
your claims.
The third part of the referral generating formula is to ask.
You wont get what you don’t ask for. And it is true, there are customers who
will send you referrals no matter what, even if you never ask. There are people
who love to share with other people. They want other people to have the great
experience that they had. We all have those friends who go to a movie and
without even asking them they tell us to go see it. Or they are always telling
you a new restaurant to go check out. They enjoy being that connector and get
pleasure from being the one who can point other people towards the same happy
things or experiences they enjoyed.
But you cannot rely on those customers to grow your pipeline
of referrals. You cannot predict how many of those you will have as customers
and usually as quickly as they will tell everyone when they are happy with you,
if they get unhappy for any reason it will stop even quicker.
So the best way to get referrals is to ask. That is the rule
in your life in general anyway. Unless you have the amazing pleasure of having
everything in your life come to you, you will need to ask for what you want
from time to time. With referrals you want to ask and make sure they know that
you accept and appreciate referrals.
That might seem like a weird concept because you might
assume that everyone would know you want referrals. But don’t assume. Then you
are relying on those promoters to do the work for you. Instead, let each person
who you connected with know that you would love their referrals. Later on this
week I will cover who, when, and how to ask for referrals.
For now, know that the only way to a successful referral
pipeline is to follow this formula. First follow the fundamentals. Second, make
sure your product or service will do what you have set in the new customer’s
mind. Third, ask for referrals.
An additional part of the referral formula that isn’t an
official part, but critical is that satisfied clients aren’t enough. Why would
I say that? Don’t you want satisfied clients? At a bare minimum – yes. You want
to tell people your product or service will help them in its special way, or
improve their life, or achieve a goal they have, or satisfy a want or need. And
then it must do what you said it would. Then they will be satisfied. But they
won’t be impressed enough to shout from the mountain tops about their
experience.
If I go to a new restaurant and have a hamburger like I can
get anywhere else, and its done exactly right but nothing special – then I
probably won’t be excited enough to tell people. But if I go in expecting a
hamburger, and I find something special on the menu…for me it would be a
hamburger with bacon, a fried egg, and crumbled blue cheese – now that is
something I can get excited about.
Prospects are coming to you for X. If you sell them X, they
will be happy and walk away. But if you sell them X, and they actually get
X-Plus, then they will be excited.
Satisfied is not enough. I mentioned the book Raving Fans
yesterday, by Ken Blanchard. That is a big thing he mentions over and over
again. Satisfied customers is not enough to produce raving fans. And you want
to create raving fans because they will drive the referrals to you.
That’s it for this episode. If you want to get the podcast
each day, make sure to subscribe where you downloaded this from, and if you are
getting X-Plus, mondo bacon burger goodness from this podcast, I would love for
you to go on iTunes and give the show a five star rating and a great, glowing
yummy review. If you don’t feel like you can give it five stars, email me or
send me a message through the website and let me know why. I would appreciate
the feedback, especially if there are things that could bring extra value.
But until next time, always remember that everything in life
is sales and people will remember the experience you gave them.