800-CEO-READ Blog

It’s All About Referrals

Thanks to Jack and Todd for inviting me to host the blog today. I wrote No More Cold Calling: The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust from Warner Business Books, to transform the way every salesperson, sales executive, and sales organization works.

The book is about more than why cold calling doesn’t work, but it makes a catchy title. The book is really about getting more business by becoming a referral-selling organization.

When I reflected on my sales career, I realized that my best business had come from referrals. When I started working with clients ten years ago—when I founded my company—it was glaringly apparent that they had fabulous relationships with not only their clients, but their peers, vendors, and associates. But, all of these relationships were underleveraged. Many of us become friends with our clients, but are we asking them to help us? No. Let’s start changing that. Here’s how to begin:

• How many clients do you have? With how many do you have excellent relationships? If you haven’t asked them for a referral, now is the time
• Make a list of 100 other people. List those you know best at the top..
• Set a goal for how many people you will contact each week. You should have a minimum of five. (That’s only one per day.)
• Tell people that you are building your business through referrals. Tell them specifically about the results you deliver and the type of client you want. Don’t forget to ask how you can help them.

You can read a sample chapter from my book on the Hachette website.