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 When I am talking to groups of sales people, I often ask them how many times in the last 90 days they have asked one of their best clients for a personal introduction to a top prospect. Typically, only 3 out of 20 will raise their hands.
It is surprising, even amazing, that so many sales people overlook the most powerful prospecting asset they have to leverage – their client base, and especially the top 20% of their clients, the ones to whom they provide the most service and, therefore, the ones in the best position to recommend them to others with high credibility.
Basically, there are three ways to get in to see a prospect: (1) cold calls, (2) referrals, and (3) personal introductions. Each has its place in your prospecting tool box, and each has its success stories. However, when you make a cold call, you are starting from scratch. Moreover, when you are simply referred to a prospect by someone who knows both of you, it is possible that your prospect by taking your call will just be doing a favor for the person who referred you, with no serious intention to consider your offer.
On the other hand, a heartfelt personal endorsement on your behalf by a client familiar with your work is much more likely to create the receptivity you need for a sale. Why, then, do so many sales people fail to leverage this asset? Part of the reason is that asking for an introduction is so personal. In my firm’s research on selling habits, we have found that sales people have mental blocks when it comes to asking their clients to endorse them to others. They may feel their work hasn’t been outstanding enough to merit it, or they don’t want to appear to need the help, or they can’t find the right time to bring it up, or any number of other excuses.
Our research also has found that clients are reluctant to make personal introductions even when deserved. They may not readily recall the great things that the sales person did for them to help get them where they are. They may feel that he or she has been helpful, but not truly exceptional enough for them to put their own reputation on the line.
So then, how do jog your client’s memory? How do you go beyond the cold call and the lukewarm referral, and advance to a red hot introduction that makes your prospect truly want to talk to you when you call? Assuming your service has been worthy, it has been our experience that most of the time your satisfied clients will be happy to introduce you personally to others.
There are numerous ways to kick start the appropriate conversation with a satisfied client. Once your client agrees to make the introduction, of course, the question becomes: What will your client say about you? What is the best 30-second commercial to use with the prospect? Let me share with you an approach we developed called SODAR™ (Situation, Opportunity, Decision, Action, Results). SODAR is a process to help you coach your client on how to sell you. Using it, your chat with your client would go something like this:
| Situation (S) – | “Remember your situation when we met, the issues that made you consider working with us?” |
| Opportunity (O) – | “How did you see us as an opportunity? How did you think we could help you? How did we approach solving your problem?” |
| Decision (D) – | “When you made the decision to hire us, how did you assess us? Are there one or two things that stand out in your mind?” |
| Action (A) – | “How has it gone since then? Did we take the right action? Do you remember the specific steps we took to improve things?” |
| Results (R) – | “What were the results? Did it affect your bottom line? Your sales? Your efficiency? Can you quantify the difference it made? Make a guesstimate?” |
Now your client can truly recommend you and motivate your prospect, not merely generalize that you are competent and maybe can do some good for your prospect.
Again, cold calls, lukewarm referrals and what we call Red Hot Introductions™ all have their place as legitimate prospecting methods. But for busy sales people with just so much time in a day, the appeal of getting results from a few strategic personal introductions as opposed to, say, 50 cold calls or 20 referrals, is strong indeed.
When you take inventory of everything you have done to prospect, have you leveraged your number one asset?
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