Salespeople agree referral selling is hands-down their best sales strategy. But it's a completely different animal to implement a referral strategy. "Where do I start?" salespeople ask me. So what does it take to implement a targeted referral strategy?
1. Make referral selling your priority. Priority is singular. Either you adopt referral sales, or you don't. Yes or no. "Maybe's" don't exist in sales. Put a stake in the ground and decide referral sales is your knock-your-socks-off, way-to-go, top-of-the-heap business-development strategy. Period.
2. Define your goals: Set referral goals for your company. Keep it simple. My definition of a goal: It's achievable with a little bit of stretch. Take 20 minutes to write down your big goals. Don't quote me, but I read an article that said something like if all you do is write your goals, put them in a drawer and never look at them again, you have a 70 percent better chance of achieving them than if you never wrote them down.
3. Review and reset your sales goals: Begin with an annual timeframe, and then break those goals into months. It's OK to blow past your goals. Bravo to you. Set new ones and go for it.
