B2B salespeople don’t have it easy. Take the stress of survival and the monotonous repetition of a time loop from the movie, Edge of Tomorrow and you have a sense of a salesperson’s job. While salespeople can generally deal with the pressures their job entails, the lengthening of the sales pipeline has made it increasingly more difficult. A great deal of effort is spent on finding a way to speed up the sales cycle in an attempt to increase sales productivity and therefore revenue. But the simplest solution is to improve the quality of the leads entering the pipeline. Companies that have realized this are turning to referral software to scale collection of the fastest moving leads through the pipeline.

By itself, a referral comes in more qualified and so decreases the sales cycle as a result of:

• The lead being handpicked by someone who knows your product and the value it can bring.

• The prospective buyer coming to you from a trusted source makes them 400% more likely to buy, (Nielsen).

• The salesperson knowing the person who made the referral which gives them the ability to call them up, learn more about the prospect and get a warm introduction.

• Prospects who come in via a referral tend to bring less competitors into the buying cycle as they already trust that your solution is the best choice since it was recommended to them.

By adding referral software to the mix it increases the number of referral leads that come in and shortens the sales cycle further by automating incentives, nurturing, and attribution of the referral lead. It also provides advanced customer and partner insight, along with aligning sales and marketing in one program. The sales enablement that referral software facilitates syncs up marketing and sales data and allows sales to add precision to their sales strategies to organize leads by quality and pursue them. This gives Sales the tools to close more deals faster and reduce the sales pipeline.

But don’t just take my word for it. Below are ten stats and quotes that prove referral software speeds up the sales pipeline.

Prove referral software shortens the sales cycle with 8 stats/quotes

• Companies that are “Optimizing the marketing/sales relationship grow revenue 32% faster than companies that do not. As a result the most competitive sales teams are enabled by marketing, and the most competitive marketing teams are completely in sync with sales.” (Aberdeen, In Marketing/Sales Alignment 2016: Who is Agile Enough to Win?)

• “All opportunities supported by advocacy and other pipeline acceleration strategies benefit from quicker sales cycles. Advocacy can help improve overall productivity for the sales force, enabling a much more efficient sales selling environment and helping sales close more deals, which is what they want to do,” (Bob Peterson, Senior Research Director, SiriusDecisions, How to Climb to Smarketing Success).

• By implementing technology that empowers a 360 degree customer view there was, “13.2% average year-over-year decrease in (improvement in) the average sales cycle time, vs. 1.0% and 1.9% respective increase in (worsening of) sales cycles for Industry Average and Laggard respondents.” (Velocify, How Best-in-Class Sales Teams Convert More Leads). 

• Referral leads convert faster and more often than leads from other sources, (2016 SiriusDecisions Summit, Customer Advocacy: Its Impact on Demand Creation, referring to ADP case study).

• Partnership relationship/channel management technology users report a lead acceptance rate that increased by 3.6% year-over-year compared to a decrease of 0.1% by non-users decrease, (Aberdeen, Sales Effectiveness 2015: How in the world are we going to hit our number?).

• “Customer advocacy can support demand generation by increasing the velocity of identified deals. Referral deals move faster through the pipeline,” (Bob Peterson, Senior Research Director, SiriusDecisions, How to Climb to Smarketing Success).

• Partnership relationship/channel management technology users report reps achieving their quota increases by 3.3% year-over-year compared to 0.4% of non-users, (Aberdeen, Sales Effectiveness 2015: How in the world are we going to hit our number?).

• Advocacy content that helps the buyer answer questions throughout the buying cycle also helps to reduce the time spent in each stage of the process. (2016 SiriusDecisions Summit, Customer Advocacy: Its Impact on Demand Creation).

Prove the value referral software can have on your sales pipeline. Try out the ROI calculator now to discover how referral software can dramatically increase your sales productivity and revenue.

Trisha Winter brings 20 years of technology marketing and management experience to her role as CMO at Amplifinity. With a lifelong passion for brand advocacy and referral marketing, Trisha provides strategic leadership to Amplifinity’s brand presence and oversees a full range of marketing initiatives across industry sectors. She shares her expertise on the transformation of marketing as a speaker and author of numerous articles, blog posts, and white papers. When not being awesome in the office, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading and doing laps at the pool. Contact her at@Trishawinter