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Frequently Asked Questions about:
Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income:
Sales Success through Client Referrals
Q. It seems a little presumptuous to promise people that you’ll teach them how to make a million dollars a year. How can you make that promise?
A. I’m certainly not promising anyone that they can make a million dollars a year. The title comes from the content of the book: it teaches the techniques that the million dollars a year sales superstars use to generate their business. Anyone can, however, increase their production substantially by implementing these techniques. What would it mean to increase your income 200%, 300% or even a 1,000% in less than a year? That’s the promise of the book. Moreover, that’s a promise I can make because the techniques work--just look at the million dollar a year salespeople and you’ll see that.
Q. Isn’t generating referrals the simplest part of selling? I mean, how difficult is it to get a referral?
A. Unfortunately, it really isn’t that simple. Studies show that less than 15% of ALL salespeople generate enough quality referrals to impact their business. That’s an incredibly small number. The problem is that salespeople believe that that’s all they have to do--ask for a referral. For decades salespeople have been taught to “do a good job and ask for referrals,” as though that was all there is to it. But if you think about it, getting a referral is a complicated process that entails four distinct interactions: the salesperson/client relationship; the client’s purchasing experience; the client/referee relationship; and the salesperson’s initial contact with the referee. Fortunately, the salesperson has major influence on three of these interactions. So, if the salesperson learns how to build the proper relationship with the client that builds trust and insures a purchasing experience that meets both the client’s expectations and priorities, and how to then contact the referee in the most advantageous format, even if the referee doesn’t trust or respect the refer, their chances of success will be greatly enhanced.
Q. Your discussion of getting referrals is really detailed. In the book you talk about changing all of one’s marketing materials to tell people they are a referral based salesperson, you stress having discussions with the customer about giving referrals, about what a referral is, about what the customer’s expectations are, about how to communicate and follow up with the customer, about having a special meeting with the customer after the sale to get referrals, and we’ve still not finished the list of things you want salespeople to do. Is all of this necessary? This seems like a lot of stuff to do to just get referrals.
A. Yes, there is a lot of detail in the book about things salespeople need to do to generate referrals. But, first, we’re not interested in getting just a couple of referrals. The goal of all of this is to get a large number of highly qualified referrals. Secondly, all of the details is actually pretty simple to integrate into a salesperson’s normal selling process. It does seem like a lot, and it is. But once you have integrated all of your marketing materials, you don’t have to spend time doing that again. And the bulk of the book concentrates on the relationship between the salesperson and the client. The salesperson/client relationship—establishing mutual trust, making sure each party knows exactly what to expect and what the other party expects, and maintaining clear and open communication should be central to any salesperson’s selling process. Unfortunately, it isn’t a part of most salespeople’s selling system, so, I’ve had to spend a great deal of time and lots of detail on how to build that relationship. Once the salesperson has learned to integrate these items into their sales process, they are seamless and don’t require much additional time or effort on the part of the salesperson.
Q. You mention in the book that there are two common mistakes that salespeople make that cost them thousands of dollars each year. What are they?
A. In the simplest terms, communication and performance. Salespeople are notorious for not communicating negative news to customers. They believe, or at least hope, that the issue will go away and the customer will never know the difference. By the time the customer learns there’s a problem, it is too late for them to react. Rather than a customer, the salesperson has created an enemy who will let everyone know how bad the salesperson is. The second issue is meeting the client’s wants and needs. Unfortunately, the vast majority of salespeople have no idea what their client wants from a purchase. They THINK they know, but they don’t. The problem is they never ask; rather they assume they know. In reality, what they know is what they think the client’s wants should be. Today the buzzwords are “exceeding the client’s expectations.” If they don’t explicitly ask the client what his or her expectations are, the only expectations they can exceed, if they exceed any, are their own.
Q. O.K. So why do you think salespeople are so unsuccessful at getting quality referrals?
A. I don’t think, I know. Generating a large number of high quality referrals requires the salesperson to develop a relationship with the customer where the customer knows the salesperson expects referrals; what exactly a referral for the salesperson is; why giving referrals is in the best interest of the client; how many referrals the salesperson expects; in what format the salesperson wants the referrals; and at what point the salesperson will have earned them. On the other hand, the salesperson must know exactly what the client’s expectations and priorities are. Many salespeople don’t understand the difference between a client’s expectations during the sale and their priorities. They are not the same and both are crucial to a good sales event. For example, a customer’s highest expectation during the sale may be to be kept fully informed, while their highest priority might be that the software perform X function. And, of course, there would be addition expectations and priorities. The salesperson must know exactly what the client’s expectations and priorities are—and then meet them in that order. In order to successfully generate a large number of high quality referrals, both parties must know exactly what each other expects and there must be agreement by both parties. If there isn’t complete understanding and agreement, the possibility of getting a large number of high quality referrals is small, if not non-existent.
Q. So, all a salesperson has to do is read your book and do everything you tell them and they’ll make a million dollars?
A. No, that’s only half of it. Referral selling is half science and half art. Learning what to do is crucial, but practicing and implementing it is equally crucial. The techniques and strategies of referral selling are like any other aspect of professional sales; they must be practiced and honed. They must be integrated into the salesperson’s natural selling style. These techniques and strategies can work within most any selling style and system. And once they have been learned and perfected, I still can’t promise a million dollar a year income. But once they have the system perfected, they can expect to see a 200 or 300% or more increase in sales.
Q. This sounds great for an experienced salesperson. But what about the new salespeople. Do they have to beat the bushes for years before adopting referral selling?
A. Certainly not. New salespeople can adopt a referral based selling platform just as well as people who have been selling for years. Referral selling is an attitude, a process, and a particular client relationship, which can be learned and implemented by any salesperson, no matter their experience level or current client base. I’ve seen new salespeople adopt the program and become superstars in their companies within 12 to 18 months. However, rapid income growth is easier for established salespeople with a current and past client database, simply because most experienced salespeople have more commissionable dollars trapped in their database right this second than they’ll probably make in the rest of their careers using other prospect generation methods. Their problem is learning how to tap those dollars.
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