Referral selling works. Really. When you receive a referral introduction:
- You are pre-sold.
- Your sales process shortens.
- You ace out the competition.
- You convert prospects to clients more than 50 percent of the time.
No other lead generation or business development process comes close to these results. Referral selling works.
However, sales success is a strategic process. You must actively use all of the tools at your disposal. Use social media and sales 2.0 tools to find out who people are, who they know and how you're connected. Then, pick up the phone, talk to your referral source, ask for the referral introduction, get the meeting at the level that counts, and boost your close rate to more than 50 percent.
Regardless of your level within a sales group, cold calling is a cloud hovering over your head. If you're the vice president of sales, you receive cold calls several times a week. If you are the account manager, then you have a set number of calls to make or a list of companies you should be "hunting." In either of these scenarios, the call is never appreciated. Getting interrupted or interrupting someone else is always the result.
