If you just love cold calling more than anything in the world, then you may not want to incorporate this technique into your sales conversations…

But if you’re like most of the population, this is a tool that you’re going to want to use with every single client or prospect you ever talk to!

Start Asking For Referrals!

Whether you are talking to someone for the first time, just closed the deal with them, or sold them 6 months ago, you should be asking for referrals!

There are really two ways of gaining attention for your business… Marketing (cold calling is included here) or word of mouth.

One of these things costs money and time, and the other is in no way a reliable source of new leads.

So what do you do if you want to grow your business more consistently without spending a ton of money to get net new leads?

You start asking everybody that you talk to for referrals, that’s how! This will help you gain warm leads that you can contact, and requires no more effort or money than you’re already spending!

You get more leads, an easier introduction call because you know someone that the new referral prospect knows, and already have some credibility of giving excellent service and offering a great product! Otherwise, the new prospect’s friend wouldn’t be recommending you by giving you their contact info.

So now that I’ve hopefully convinced you to start asking everybody for referrals, here’s how to do it…

How to Ask for Referrals…

This isn’t a complex process, and should really just flow with the conversation. All you need to say is this…

“Who do you know that might also be interested in what I’m doing?”

“Who else in your network would want to see this?”

“Who do you know that has this same problem?”

That’s part 1, but most of what you’ll hear back is “I don’t really know anyone else right now, but I’ll keep you in mind.“

So now you need to revert to part 2 of this question, which is this…

“If you did know someone, who would you be thinking of?”

“When I asked that, who came to mind?”

Is this making sense? You’re not asking IF they know anyone, you’re asking WHO they know that could be a fit for your product.

Most people are willing to help you if you just ask. The problem is that most people never even ask this question!

This leaves a huge opportunity for you, and will actually have people telling you things like “I need your sales training” and “That’s a great questions, and nobody has ever asked me that before.” I’ve heard both…

When to Ask

This is something that a lot of salespeople struggle with. When should you ask for referrals?

The answer is: Any time!

You could ask during your initial call/meeting, right before you close, right after you close, or at any point after the sale and they’ve become your client.

If you’re providing a great product and great service, then people will want to help you! This also helps the customer validate their own purchase by getting other people to make their same decision. Win-win all around!

Start asking for referrals today, and start building your own massive pipeline!

-Jake Martincic