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! 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.