Why Don’t More Salespeople Ask for Referrals?

Most salespeople have all sorts of mental hang-ups about asking for referrals. However, most of those hang-ups are invalid and I find that those who ask, get!

This may be hard to comprehend for those of you that have not completely made the transition from being feature focused to benefit driven… being a product pusher to being a caring and trusted advisor.

Here’s a secret about clients who refer that can be worth a great deal of money to you and a ton of leads:

Your clients who refer once can and will refer many more prospects, many more times if you encourage them to do so. Once a client has referred someone to you, then that source of referral should be harvested like the cash crop that it is.

The average person has an immediate circle of influence of about fifty. That's fifty other people!

Take for instance your average business owner, he (or she) knows about fifty other people that are business owners. What this tells you is that each client you get could bring you as many as fifty other clients.

It's Easy to Jump from Getting Only 3 Referrals to as Many as 50!

You may also find it interesting to know that the average happy client only tells three other people about the satisfactory experience. So moving that client from telling three to telling fifty require some consistent work on your part. You need to focus on the giving of recognition and appreciation.

When a satisfied customer sends someone to you, the sender should immediately receive some recognition and appreciation. For example:

1. A quick thank you note.
2. Telephone call (do it as soon as possible).
3. However, if you want to get the best results, send a thank you gift. You will really be amazed at the positive results from this kind of action.

And likewise… you will be astounded at the negative results of not acknowledging them. If a client sends you a new prospect and he gets no recognition in return, he will probably never refer anyone ever again. OUCH!

Keep in mind… Referrals are FREE leads. If your clients or prospects receive enough of these things, they will eventually pass some on. The most effective, yet underused way to get referrals that I know of is to...simply ask for them.

Dean Cipriano is the founder and president of Insurance Selling Systems. Dean is a life lead generation expert and has helped thousands of agents get more life insurance leads then they ever though possible. Dean offers all life insurance agents a free report to review his system.