Turn Cold Calls Into Hot Leads With Referral Selling

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Joanne S. Black FounderNo More Cold Calling

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What’s your favorite kind of sales call?

Do you enjoy hounding total strang-ers who act too busy to listen to a single word you say?

Or do you prefer to connect with pros-pects who genuinely want to learn more about how you can help them?

One of the biggest challenges in profes-sional B2B sales is reaching busy decision makers. They rarely agree to take sales calls. And even when they do, their atten-tion spans are short.

Many salespeople try to use “warm” calls to accelerate the process. But “warm” calls don’t really exist. Every sales call is either hot or cold. Hot means you have an introduction from somebody your prospect knows.

The best salespeople know that a hot introduction is similar to skipping the first date. It allows you to fast-forward past all of the awkward, uncomfortable moments and start from a place of mutual trust.

That’s why referrals are so effective — and why top performers make it a priority to build up a steady stream of personal introductions.

Referrals convert to customers 50 percent to 70 percent of the time. No other sales or marketing strategy comes close to matching this incred-ible success rate.

But, sadly, most salespeople don’t have a system for finding referrals and following up in a natural way. So they often struggle while the “lucky few” who have mastered referral selling consistently close more deals with less stress.

It’s not magic. Anybody can learn to turn hot introductions into happy customers.

Joanne Black, America’s leading author-ity on referral selling, shares her secrets in this easy-to-digest ebook. It’s based on her popular Dreamforce presentation, “Harness the Power of Referrals to Pack Your Pipeline.”

Joanne’s proven process will help you quickly establish trust with your buyers and crush your quotas. It follows the same simple step-by-step system she outlines in her best-selling book, No More Cold Calling™.

Click here to view Joanne’s Dreamforce presentation.

Introduction

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Table of Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................2

About the Author .........................................................................................3

Lies Your Sales Coach Tells You ................................................................4

Essential Elements of a Referral Business .............................................5

Referral Follow-up .......................................................................................7

Summary & Credits .....................................................................................8

Joanne BlackFounder of No More Cold Calling —nomorecoldcalling.com

Joanne Black is America’s leading authority on referral selling. She founded No More Cold Calling in 1996 when she discovered that sales executives loved referrals, but they often lacked strategies to consistently generate the referrals they craved. She is the author of two books, which you can find on Amazon: No More Cold Calling and Pick Up the Damn Phone! How People, Not Technology, Seal the Deal.

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Lies Your Sales Coach Tells You

Stop Misusing ‘Warm’ Calls and Social Media

This might startle a lot of salespeople who have been in the game for a while: There is no such thing as a “warm” call. It is a mythical creature like a leprechaun or a jackalope. Salespeople often say, “I am not cold calling. I’m making a warm call because I have a name.” Unfortunately, a name is not enough.

If you call, email or reach out through social media with just a name, that is ice cold. It doesn’t really matter that Mike refers you to Sally, unless Mike actually introduces you to Sally. When you reach out to someone who doesn’t know you and isn’t expecting to hear from you, that’s a cold call.

Hot means you have an introduction.That is the definition of a referral. Without an introduction, your referral is colder than the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.

Many salespeople are misbehaving on social media. They forget to put the social in social selling. If you want a referral, you must build a relationship.

In person, we build a relationship by shak-ing hands, hugging, smiling or engaging in a conversation. We need to make our online interactions more personal and less salesy.

Never ask for a referral online.LinkedIn gives you the ability to ask for a referral. But these requests often annoy people because you are just assuming that your connection wants to make the

introduction. Remember, just because two people are connected on LinkedIn doesn’t mean they actually know each other. You need to have a conversation first.

When asking for a referral, explain the business reason for wanting an introduction to your prospect.

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your CRM and marketing automation. As a salesperson, part of your job is to gener-ate your own qualified leads. Referrals get integrated into the sales process.

Referrals aren’t outside the way you work; they become the way you work. Network. Ask people how you can help them. Proactively request referrals. Let people know who they should introduce you to and why. Highlight the busi-ness impact.

Build metrics around referrals.Some sales leaders think referrals are nice to have, but they can’t measure them because they are squishy. You can mea-sure referrals, as long as you understand that they take time to develop.

3 Simple Steps to Building an Effective System

of a Referral BusinessEssential Elements

Here is what you need to run a successful referral business:

1. Written referral sales plan2. Way to track and measure referrals3. Accountability for results

Let’s discuss each in a little more depth.

Have a clearly defined sales plan.Just net it out and review it every week and at the end of each month. It’s OK to change it. It’s OK to blow past your goals too.

Make referrals a priority.If referrals become your major outreach, then that is what you need to focus on. But it doesn’t negate any of your other sales and marketing strategies. You still have

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Here are six key metrics:

1. Number of people you ask for referrals each week.

2. Number of referrals you receive.3. Number of referral meetings

you schedule.4. Number of meetings you conduct.5. Conversion rates.6. Value of each referral.

Pro Tip: When you set your weekly refer-ral goals, remember that each business is different. The minimum is one because zero isn’t a real goal. Some types of busi-nesses need each rep to ask for one referral a week; others need five. Trans-actional companies generally need more than individuals who sell high-end consult-ing, for example.

Accountability for results

Referral selling doesn’t just happen; it requires a behavior change.Some people don’t feel comfortable asking or they ask in dumb ways.

So how do you get past that? Practice and build solid skills. Like anything else, you have to practice referral selling and be accountable. Why do we have a trainer at the gym? All the equipment is there. All we have to do is use it. We hire a trainer for reinforcement and accountability.

Implement your referral selling strategy. Sales leaders must coach their teams and hold them accountable. Ask questions like, “Who are you going to ask for referrals this week, and what are the conversations you are going to have with them?”

Reinforce behaviors, not activities.

of a Referral BusinessEssential Elements

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Display an Attitude of Gratitude

When somebody gives you a referral, don’t forget to follow up. As human beings, we like to be thanked. If you show your grati-tude for a good referral, your friends and associates will give you more. Always send a handwritten thank-you note and follow it up with a phone call.

Even if you have lousy handwriting, make sure it’s a handwritten note. Write a personal message on company notecards. If the company doesn’t have notecards, get some. People want that personal touch. Soon you’ll have people thanking you for thanking them.

Don’t incentivize referrals. If somebody is particularly generous, you can give a gift worth less than $50. But make sure it’s after the fact, not near a holiday, and when they don’t expect it. Lunch is always a nice reward, but the same rules apply.

Don’t disclose the dollar value of the referral. You don’t need to reveal that you signed a $1 million contract. Just mention that it was a perfect referral and describe what made it perfect.

Referral selling takes time and effort, but it pays off handsomely. It allows you to out-sell your competitors without spending a ton on marketing.

Referral Follow-up

Sales Acceleration Platform

Dialing, emailing, motivating and hiring powered by

predictive analytics and machine learning

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Turn Cold Calls Into Hot Leads With Referral Selling

Referrals turn into customers 50 percent to 70 percent of the time. No other sales or marketing strategy comes close to these results. Most sales leaders love referrals, but they haven’t built systems that create a steady stream of personal introductions. “Warm” calls don’t exist. Every sales call is either hot or cold. Hot means you have an introduc-tion. Write a referral sales plan, establish metrics, and hold your team accountable for optimal results.

CONTENT

Joanne Black | nomorecoldcalling.com

WRITER/COPY EDITOR

Leo Dirr |

DESIGNER

Scott Humphries |

Summary & Credits

Published by InsideSales.com34 East 1700 SouthProvo, Utah 84606877-798-9633

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