Referrals are an important part of creating awareness and finding new leads, which in turn lead to prospects and sales. While referrals are a key skill to master, not all sales people make full use of the technique, in a recent post on The Sales Bloggers Union, I discussed the fact how one way sales professional short change themselves is by waiting too long to introduce the concept.

Last week I was delivering a workshop for a B2B sales team focused on lead generation and conversion to appointments, when I was asked a question by one of the attendees that highlights another easily removed barrier to success. Just to be clear, I want to give this individual credit for asking, unlike many who would just not deal with it and miss out on the opportunity to learn and grow.

The product/service they sell can be, and is in fact used by every professional and office out there. What he wanted to know if it was appropriate for him to approach his dentist to let him know of his new position and the services he now represented?

The answer is yes.

Why would you not let your immediate circle of acquaintances know about the wonderful new service you are representing? The obvious assumption is that you firmly believe in the value your service delivers and the advantage it brings to your clients.

There was an interesting double edged aspect to his question/statement. He said “after all he has been making money off me and my kids for years.” The reality is that you would want your dentist to know about your product not to recoup monies you have spent with him to date, but rather you want him to have the advantage of the value and service you can present.

This fellow is not alone, many sales people don’t want to impose on people they know. I can understand maybe not wanting to bother the little league coach, but your dentist, lawyer, accountant and so on of course. Why would you not want them to have the best; why not share success?

Even if the dentist himself doesn’t buy immediately, or the accountant may be under contract, they have a network of people they can expose you to, and your next prospect may be in that circle.

So as the old saying goes, you don’t know if you don’t ask. As I said above, I do give credit to the participant for asking me, know he just needs to get comfortable with asking everyone else.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto