Don’t leave anything to chance and don’t surprise your client
Traditional referral selling training has been to ‘do a good job and ask for referrals.’ One of the critical parts of generating a large number of quality referrals is, of course, getting quality referrals, as opposed to just getting names and phone numbers.
That isn’t the way the high-producing advisers generate their business. They let the client know up-front that they will be expecting referrals once they have concluded business. They don’t leave anything to chance and they don’t surprise the client by a request for referrals after the sale. They let the client know what to expect and when to expect it. Not only does this eliminate taking the client by surprise at the end, it allows the client time to become comfortable with the idea of helping you by giving referrals and this also allows them time to think about who to refer.
Try: From the very beginning of getting to know your prospect, let them know that you are a referral based business and you would really appreciate their help to be introduced to other people like them that you could introduce your business to.
Get the referrals after the meeting
After the meeting, you effectively have a separate conversation with your client or prospect just to get referrals. This emphasises the importance of the referrals and allows you to gather information about each referral. You should also have a list of the type of referrals you want to be referred to that the client might know. This will ensure that if they can’t think of anyone to introduce you to, you can prompt them – for example; friends, relatives, work colleagues or people they socialise with.
Contact the referred prospect
You shouldn’t just call a referred prospect. Since you want to build a relationship with the referred prospect based on the trust and respect the prospect has for your client, find out from your client exactly what the relationship is and then use a contact method that best takes advantage of their trust or mitigates the lack of trust.
Try: Spend time getting to know the relationship between your client and the prospect. The weaker the trust and respect relationship between client and prospect, the more difficult it may be to arrange an initial meeting. This is why it is essential to make sure you are referred to prospects where there is a good connection or relationship between both parties.
