Do you think generating referrals seems like the ultimate sales hack? It takes more than just asking your customers to refer you to a friend. While it’s true that referrals are coming in warmer because of the affiliation and they already carry a vote of confidence in your brand, you need to find incentives for your customers to want to talk about your brand at the right time for you.
And for that, you need to do your research and preparation to generate referrals. This is the first golden rule to generating referrals: be prepared.
4 Golden Rules to Generating Referrals
Do you think generating referrals seems like the ultimate sales hack? It takes more than just asking your customers to refer you to a friend. While it’s true that referrals are coming in warmer because of the affiliation and they already carry a vote of confidence in your brand, you need to find incentives for your customers to want to talk about your brand at the right time for you.
And for that, you need to do your research and preparation to generate referrals. This is the first golden rule to generating referrals: be prepared.
Be Prepared
- Timeboxing
Dedicated time allows you to think up questions and build your approach. Explore with your customer just what exciting opportunities have arisen from your relationship that’ve offered the highest potential growth.
- Bring suggestions to the table
Your customer might not always have organisations at the top of their mind to share referrals with. Don’t be afraid to do a little of the research for them to anticipate who they believe will be a good fit for them.
- Leverage influence
Your prospects may not feel wholly comfortable approaching the top dogs in their chosen referral companies, so use your influence here to find a list of organisations that your customer has significant ties with to add context to the outreach. Examples of these would be identifying companies that your customer’s organisation is affiliated with on a director level or holds as a subsidiary.
(psst, the Zint platform can actually do this part of the heavy lifting for you. Want to learn how you can find these opportunities? Click here to learn more)
- Qualify referral opportunities
Referrals to poor-fit opportunities can be an unnecessary drain on resources and create a negative experience for your customer and the referee. Be prepared to politely decline an introduction to organisations you don’t feel are right and guide prospects toward more appropriate options.
- Plan your agenda
Two words: follow up. Effective planning will mitigate against forgetfulness when it comes to generating a referral. Plan to go over the agenda of each call and secure their commitment to generating a referral. Failing to plan means planning to fail, so don’t leave anything out that you may have to fall back on.
Here comes the part you’ve been preparing for: the referral pitch.
Pitching
No matter the level of planning, ineffective pitching can cause your chances of a referral to run away. Top sales reps pitch in order to bolster their customers’ confidence in finding ways they can help other companies with your products or services.
- Capitalise on positivity
The best time to ask someone for a favour is when they’re in a good mood, right? It’s the same principle when seeking opportunities to request a referral. Positive experiences that the customer may have are the best times to have that conversation with them – happy customers in the moment are even more likely to say yes.
- Create scripting
It can be quite nerve-wracking to get onto a sales call to ask for a referral – and to also be confident in doing so. It also won’t help your customers’ confidence if you’re coming across like you’re unsure of what to ask. Having a tried and tested pitch on hand – and an elevator pitch for every scenario – will put you at ease. It’s worked before, so you understand the formula to getting that all important referral.
- Roleplay
You’ve got the monologue. But are you confident with where it will take you? Whilst it’s important to have an elevator pitch, roleplaying with your colleagues takes it to a new level. Revisit this exercise on a regular basis to identify gaps or movers and to help you keep on top of having that perfect referral conversation, all challenges neatly diverted.
- Ask again
The question you need to ask yourself is: who else? We can be so consumed with joy for generating the first referral that we often go straight to the next customer (while we’re still on cloud nine). But it’s important to note here that if you’re successful with one customer, and they’re happy to generate a referral for you, a second referral is easier to ask for.
Make it Simple
Senior executives are time-poor, meaning that every interaction you have with them has to be precise, and concise. Their agendas are constantly conflicting so simplicity is your secret weapon to generating referrals from the top. Here’s our top tips for making it simple:
- Offer support where you can
Much like your script you’ve built, your customers need a hand when conveying exactly what value you’ve brought to them. It may be in their mind (after all, there’s value there otherwise they won’t be a loyal customer) but putting it out on paper or scripting it takes time away from their more important business. Provide a clear and simple summary tailored to their target or buyer profile to save them time. Have these in your arsenal at the very beginning.
- Asking to reference them
Taking a referral all the way to another company can be time consuming for your customers. Making better use of time would be to have your customers open doors and you reference them on their behalf. Always have a plan B!
- Offer stories over incentives
To senior executives, generating referrals is as much for their reputation building as it is for yours. Offering tangible incentives for generating referrals can work, but focussing on personal gain for your customers (specifically in B2B) often leaves them wondering if your request for a referral is authentic. Try to sell the idea of a referral on stories – storytelling in sales connects with people on a humanistic level.
- Give feedback
Never leave a generated referral complete without giving feedback to your customers. If it’s worked to strengthen your relationship, thank the customer or prospect that requested the introduction. Common decency aside, it also leaves you both feeling positive and ready for the next engagement.
Reciprocate
Building a transparent culture in your business incentivises your customers to be open (and provide a referral). So that means to be an advocate of your customers and share what they’re doing with your colleagues and friends too. Nobody wants to be exploited, so give back what they gave to you. In his bestselling book “Influence”, Robert Cildini states ‘reciprocity’ as the number one principle; in other words, we are obliged to give back to others the form of a behaviour that we have received first.
- Bring connections together
Offering connections upfront results in prospects offering up their own network in return, often without asking. To share quality connections that match your customers business needs and challenges, listen carefully during your initial conversations to get your network together early on.
- Stay in touch
Targets are looming. The next referral is quickly making its advance toward you. It’s easy to develop a short-term view and see them as a means to a quarterly end. But it doesn’t stop there. What’s more, companies with a better than average customer experience generate 89% more revenue than those who deliver poor to standard customer service. Converting your customers into advocates will only strengthen your relationship – nurturing them long after a deal is done only has one outcome: a strengthened network. Stay informed on old customers and always look for opportunities to reconnect, either with yourself or through a customer.
Generating referrals doesn’t have to be difficult, and we hope that with this handy guide to generating referrals you’re well on your way to delivering positive results for your sales team. Want to keep this with you?
We’ve converted it into a nifty checklist that comes with the PDF version of this blog.