5-Minute Selling

CHAPTER 32ASK FOR REFERRALS

People love giving referrals, because they love being helpful.

But we don't ask for them much, so we don't get nearly as many referrals as we should and as we deserve.

When my client companies launch their revenue growth programs, we track the quantity and outcome of each communication made by all customer-facing staff. Nearly all of the actions in this book are included in the counts.

Consistently, across all of my clients, the least-utilized technique (at first) is the one that this chapter covers: asking for referrals.

And this is under my careful guidance, where we work on optimizing sales mindsets and maximizing confidence, optimism, and boldness. We take proven steps to increase positivity and dramatically reduce fear.

In these projects, my salespeople clients start calling customers and prospects by the hundreds and, over time, as a company, by the thousands. They ask countless DYK questions and rDYK questions. They follow up on quotes and pivot to the sale.

But at the start of this work, only a few of them ask for referrals. They get them. And then they develop new customers from these referrals. And then these customers buy again, becoming extremely valuable repeat customers.

With time, as we discuss these successes, more people start to ask for referrals. Eventually, we get the sales teams to a critical mass of salespeople asking for referrals.

What keeps people from asking? I'll respond to the most frequent personal discomfort with referrals ...