With all of the effort you are putting forth to excel in your career, there's nothing worse than wasting a perfectly good referral that was hand delivered to you by a happy customer (associate, friend, family member, and so on).
Whether it's due to poor follow up, poor service, a comment you made to the referral that you were better off keeping to yourself, or a sales tactic that turned the warm referral into a cold fish, these are just a few things you can do to destroy a referral and any possibility for a sale.
Think about what this is costing you? The more obvious cost would be the loss of a perfectly good selling opportunity.
However, there's much more at stake that you stand to lose.
What about the person on your referral team (a select group who
provides you with a steady stream of referrals)? This person is putting
their neck on the line for you. Once your referral source gets wind of
what happened, you can be that this would be the last time this person
ever sends you another referral.
It not only costs you one possible sale but all of the potential
future sales that you have lost because you compromised the
relationship you have with your referral source.
To take it one step further, what if it was a customer who sent you
this referral? How does this customer now perceive you? Demonstrating
this less than admirable trait to a customer may change their once
positive perception of you and tarnish the trust and confidence they
had in you. Not only have you lost the chance of getting any future
referrals from them but you now run the risk of losing this customer's
future business that you would have normally earned.
Just like your customers, referrals are a privilege, not a right.
You don't automatically deserve referrals, you have to earn them
regardless of how long you’ve been in your position, known someone or
how much work you’ve already done for a customer.
Keep in mind that the players on your referral team are doing you
the favor, so make sure that you appreciate their efforts in a
measurably visible way. They are the ones who are taking time out of
their busy schedule to help you.
Acknowledge, Acknowledge, Acknowledge
The biggest blunder people make is, once they start getting
referrals, they forget to thank the person who provided them. Thank
each person on your referral team when you:
1. Get the referral. Call or send a thank you card letting
them know how much you appreciate them thinking of you and taking the
time out of their busy day to send you a referral. Reinforce the fact
that each referral will be taken care of and given the exemplary
service and attention that every one of your customers deserve.
2. Meet with the referral. After you connect with the
referred prospect, call or send a thank you card as well as an update
on where each referral stands as it relates to your selling cycle.
3. Turn the Referral Into a Customer. Once the sale is made
and the referral becomes a customer, rather than waiting until you have
completed this project, immediately call your referral source and send
a thank you card. This way, you are the first person to let them know
their referral is now a customer of yours, rather than having your
referral source hear it from the person who they referred to you.
Before you know it, you may not have to market or prospect as much
as you think due to the influx of referrals that you are generating.
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