Mentors Magazine: Issue 2

MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 2 | 31

will most likely backfire by damaging the re-
lationship for all involved.

What your team needs are better tools in
their referral toolbox.

3. You focus on the short-term fix

Many businesses are so fixated on the now –
this month’s or quarter’s
numbers – that they devel-
op tunnel vision on growth.
It is true that receiving re-
ferrals takes longer than
some prospecting tactics.
But the better quality of
prospects more than makes
up for the additional time
or delay.

But to have a fully functioning referral strate-
gy in your business, you have to be willing to
invest some time and resources. Most im-
portantly you have to be willing to balance
the activity needed right now to generate a
new lead with the activity needed over time
to sow future referrals. Most referral explo-
sions start off as a trickle but then snowball
when the relationship with the referral
sources are handled correctly.

In my experience with the financial services
industry – the now always mattered more
than the future. It is true in many industries.

If we are fixated on a short-term, then we

miss out on doing what we need to do now

to have a different future when it comes to

referrals.

What your team needs is to know how to

balance short-term and long-term activity.

4. You haven’t trained them to have different
   closing conversations with
   referred prospects

The worst thing that can

happen to a sales profes-

sional or anyone involved in

bringing in new clients is to

receive a referral and then

not close them. A referred

prospect is always yours to lose.

The sale process is different when your pro-

spect has been referred to you. The ques-

tions you ask, and the conversation flow fol-

lows a different path. It is not about trying to

find the pain or agitate the pain in your pro-

spect. It is not about the sale pitch of your

service from A to Z or how you stack up

against competitors.

It is about knowing how to connect the pro-

spect to the trust they have in you and work-

ing together to see if you are a fit.

What your team needs is to understand how

The sale process is

different when your

prospect has been

referred to you. The

questions you ask, and

the conversation flow

follows a different path.