Generating customer referrals
In this week’s edition I’m going to walk you through my process for generating quality referrals from existing customers.
Referrals can be one of the simplest ways of filling your pipeline, and yet so few sellers ask for them.
I like to think of two ways you can get into a new customer - through the front door and through the back door.
The front door includes cold calling, email, and in some industries, literally turning up at the front door.
The back door includes social, partners, investors and referrals from other customers.
The back door has a much higher success rate when used correctly.
Think about your own personal life.
If a friend introduces you to a stranger - “hey this is Hannah, she played on our college hockey team….” that is the social proof that you need that you might get on well with Hannah and you skip straight past the formalities.
Two types of referrals
Before we dive into the process, there are two different referrals you can ask for:
Internal referrals
These are referrals within the same organisation.
Perhaps you already have an agreement with one part of the business and you want to jump across into another.
Perhaps you work with some junior teams and want to get a more strategic conversation.
External referrals
These are referrals that cross company boundaries.
You might want a connection into a company that a customer used to work at.
Or maybe they have some LinkedIn connections or group memberships that can link you to the right person.
Perhaps they spoke at an event alongside a contact you want to speak to.
When to ask for a referral
The short answer - always.
Too many sellers are waiting for the right time to ask for a referral.
They wait so long they never ask.
Instead, think about referrals from day 1 - during your sales process, during the contracting process, during implementation, during every quarterly business review.
As your customer goes through your positive experience, consider these are all times to ask for an introduction.
I have a calendar invite at the start of each month to remind me to ask for 5 referrals.
Set yourself a reminder
This way you will not go more than a month without asking for referrals from your customers.
However, beware of the biggest trap in referrals - the general request.
Let me give you an example.
Like most salespeople I get hit by recruiters regularly.
I’ll politely let them know that I’m very happy in my role and not looking for any other opportunities.
To which they always say, “is there anyone else in your network that you think might be interested?”
What am I supposed to do with that information? You want me to call all my friends and ask if they are looking for a move? You want me to ask to learn more about the role? I’m not going to do your work for you.
That is the wrong way to ask for a referral, and will end up with a no, and damaging your relationship with your customer.
So how do we do it?
Step 1 - Be Specific
Your customer is busy. They don’t have time to do your job for you - and so you need to be very specific in your ask.
Who you want an introduction to
Why you think it is a relevant introduction
How you will help them with the process
Let’s consider your current customer used to work at ACME.com, another account that you’d like to get conversations started with.
Use Sales Navigator, or your own research to uncover who your customer might be connected to that would be relevant to your solution. If you can’t find a direct connection into the right persona, then an introduction into someone close to that person could be sufficient and then you can move from that contact onwards.
The referral has to be into someone that your customer has a warm connection to - they won’t be comfortable referring you in to someone they don’t know.
Then consider why you are requesting this introduction.
“We have just solved your onboarding challenge, and we see that ACME.com has recently announced a new funding round and is likely dealing with the same scaling challenges.”
You are giving your customer some context to share in their referral which makes it easier for them.
You should also consider why you have asked for that specific person.
“I can see that you are connected with Leon at ACME.com - whilst it doesn’t look like he would be responsible for onboarding, I believe he would know who is.”
You want to head off the objection that Leon is the wrong person before it arises. Your customer might even offer up, “well I do in fact know the right person so why don’t I introduce you to them?”
Ideally your ask will happen on a call, and the talk track would be on the lines of:
“I see that you are connected with Leon at ACME.com.
I would like to get in contact with Leon as their company has just raised a new round of funding and is likely to be suffering from the same onboarding challenges that we helped you with.
Would you be open to making an introduction to Leon for me?”
Step 2 - The customer introduces
You’ll then want to explain to your customer how the referral process will work - you will answer their question before they ask it.
Let them know that if they are happy, you will send your customer an email requesting the introduction, including the context above about why you think the introduction is of use.
You will let your customer know that they can then forward that email on to their contact with you in cc.
In most cases your customer will be happy with this because you are doing the hard work - and the benefit to you is that the inbound email is coming from the customer.
Alternatively they might take your words and put that into a LinkedIn message, text or just pick up the phone.
The fallback is that your customer is not comfortable forwarding on and will just share the referrals contact details and say that you can name drop them.
This is not a true referral, so do push for them to make the introduction if possible.
Your email to your customer might be along the lines of:
“Hi Sam, as discussed would be grateful if you could introduce me to Leon at ACME.com.
Noticed that they just raised an additional round of funding and I suspect that they’ll be suffering from some of the same onboarding challenges that we helped you with.
Many thanks,”
You can consider this a prospecting email by proxy - make sure you include some of your research and the challenge you think you can help with in the message that will be forwarded along.
Step 3 - Follow up fast
As soon as your customer has made the introduction you want to do two things:
Firstly, reply back to/text your customer to thank them for the introduction - that was very helpful and they didn’t need to do that.
The second, is to reply back to the introduction email to the referral and introduce yourself, with a little more context as to the challenge you solved for your customer and why you think that could be relevant to them.
Move your customer to bcc to save their inbox from the ongoing conversation.
Hi Leon,
As Sam mentions, we’ve recently helped them to reduce their onboarding rate by 26%.
Noticed you have recently raised additional funding, which typically means increased recruitment and challenges with onboarding and integrating new hires quickly.
Would you be open to learning more about how we helped Sam’s team?
In my experience this process has a very high success rate because of the trusted relationship between the customer and the referral.
Step 4 - How did it end up
If all goes well you’ll then be able to support the referral, hopefully they are at the right point in their journey to kick off a buying process and even become a customer of yours.
Many sellers falter at this point and forget to keep their original customer informed with how the conversation played out - and that frustrates them - it is just good manners.
A short text, a quick voice note - “Sam, connected with Leon yesterday, going to meet next week. Thanks for the intro.” is perfect.
Letting your customer know their referral was valuable not just to you, but to their friend or colleague is the best way of generating future referrals.
So there you have it - my four step process for generating pipeline from referrals.
Be specific
Help the customer make the introduction
Follow up fast
Keep your customer informed
I hope it helps you drive referrals into your pipeline.
See you next week,
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