Selling is the best job in the world. We solve problems for our clients, become instrumental in their success, expand their thinking, and build amazing, lasting relationships. No other job gives us the opportunity to truly connect with people and to plug into the pulse of businesses around the globe. 

Picture a sales world where you only meet with clients who want to meet with you—a world in which you never again have to cold call, send cold prospecting emails, or entice prospects with special offers. Enter the world of referral selling and blow your quota out of the water. 

The Only Leads That Count

If you love sales, stop the time-wasting, irrelevant, unproductive, frustrating prospecting activities you think you should be doing. Stop sorting leads into cold, warm, and hot. There's only one kind of lead that should be in your pipeline. Only one kind of lead that counts. Only one kind of lead that management cares about. Only one kind of lead you should care about.

That's hot leads—the kind you source through referrals from trusted allies.

The ROI of Referrals

Every seller agrees that referral selling is, hands down, the most effective prospecting strategy. When you prospect through referrals:

• You bypass the gatekeeper and score meetings with decision-makers every time.
• Your prospects are pre-sold on your ability to deliver results.
• You've already earned trust and credibility with your prospects.
• You convert prospects into clients at least 50 percent of the time (usually more than 70 percent).
• You land clients who become ideal referral sources for new business.
• You score more new clients from fewer leads (because all of your leads are qualified).
• You ace out your competition.

A Referral Without an Introduction is Ice Cold

A referral means you receive a personal introduction (not just a name and contact information) to your prospect. You are introduced to exactly the person you want to meet—someone who expects your call and who actually wants to hear from you. You create a business opportunity that is yours to win. You meet with a potential client, or with someone who may become your advocate within their organization. Either way, you start with someone on your side. 

Wouldn’t it be great if all of your business came from referrals? Wouldn’t you rather take a sales call than make a sales call? You'd save time, work with people you like, source only HOT prospects, and close deals faster.

You can. But most sales organizations don’t.

Referral Selling is Common Sense, but Not Common Practice

The business case for referrals is loud and clear:

• Decision makers will always meet with a referral from someone they know and trust.
• If your competition gets to the decision-maker first, you’re out of the game.
• When you get the referral introduction, you win. 

No other sales or marketing strategy delivers such powerful, predictable results. Yet, referrals are the missing link in every company's business-development strategy. Ninety-five percent of companies do not have a written referral-selling strategy, written weekly referral goals, referral-selling skills, accountability for results, or a system to track and measure referrals.

It's time to make referrals the way you sell. Fill your pipeline with only HOT referral prospects, and you’ll never have to worry about hitting your numbers again.

Are You Tapping Into the Power of Referrals?

Take the No More Cold Calling “Referral I.Q. Quiz” to find out if you’re leveraging your referral network. And stay tuned for more blogs on how to get only HOT leads through referrals.

Joanne Black is America’s leading authority on referral selling—the only business-development strategy proven to convert prospects into clients more than 50 percent of the time. As the founder of No More Cold Calling, Joanne helps salespeople, sales teams, and business owners build their referral networks, attract more business, decrease operating costs, and ace out the competition. A captivating speaker and innovative seminar leader, Joanne is a member of the National Speakers Association and author of NO MORE COLD CALLING™: The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust. To learn more, visit www.NoMoreColdCalling.com, email joanne@nomorecoldcalling.com, or call 415-461-8763.