"I was so busy this week. I neglected to make time to call and ask for referrals." That's what a client told me. But I didn't let her get away with this (a lame excuse, in my book).
Always be asking. "What else was she doing that was more important than prospecting?" I wondered. But you know the answer: nothing. My guess is that she hadn't practiced asking for referrals in the way she had had been taught and therefore had not achieved a comfort level regarding asking. She avoided calling, connecting with her clients and asking for introductions to her ideal clients.
Smart salespeople should always be asking. One of the top reasons salespeople neglect to adopt a discipline of asking for referrals is that they're afraid. It doesn't matter whether a salesperson has changed industries, has taken a job right out of school or has been in sales for 20 years, most salespeople feel uncomfortable asking for referrals…at first.
If you don't ask, you don't get. Referral selling is the most personal approach there is to sales. We're most fearful that our referral source will refuse to give us a referral. We fear the "no" response. So we don't ask. And if we don't ask, we don't get.
Yet, every salesperson agrees that nothing compares to referral business—certainly not cold calling. Referral selling is the most effective and highly leveraged selling system there is. Nothing else comes close.
