September, 2006

8 Tips for Boosting Referrals

So the housing industry has slumped. It’s time to exalt and amplify your sales techniques.

By Bill Lee

After enjoying several years of robust activity in the housing industry, the last year or so has been more of a challenge for many pro-oriented dealers and salespeople in several regions of the country. The time has again arrived in the business cycle for professional salespeople to place more emphasis on sales techniques that take business away from the competition.

Getting referrals is one such sales skill. I have never met a highly competitive and aggressive salesperson who believed that he or she ever has enough referrals—the lifeblood of new business.

So how do you get your referrals up? Here are eight tips to get you started:

1. Be generous with personal and professional favors. In the sales profession, what goes around comes around. Zig Ziglar puts it this way in his lectures on selling: “To get everything in life that you want, all you have to do is help enough other people get what they want.” And don’t forget, when you make the decision to give service or do a favor, by all means, do it cheerfully. When you complain about providing service to others, it negates the effectiveness of the service.

2. Stay close to sales “influencers.” Sales influencers are not necessarily decision-makers, but they have a lot of influence on those who do have the authority to make buying decisions. It may be a framing contractor who influences where the general contractor buys framing materials, or an architect, or a designer. Keep them on your mailing list. Look for ways to help the influencers solve their business problems.

3. Show an active interest in the interests of others. Arm yourself with an arsenal of questions that show that you have more than a casual interest in what is important to those in your network. Questions like:

• How did you happen to go into business for yourself?

• Who has had the most positive influence on your business philosophy?

• What are the primary business challenges you’re facing this year?

• What are the biggest mistakes you have made since you went into business?

• It’s perhaps no surprise that the people we find most interesting are the people who seem most interested in us.

4. Ask prospects for their business card. There’s nothing wrong with handing out business cards, but you’re more in charge of your destiny when you ask for your prospect’s business card. Don’t run the risk that your business card will be thrown away at the first opportunity. Immediately after you receive the business card, take a minute or two to write pertinent information on the back of the card, especially any commitments you made.

5. Don’t take referrals for granted. Like most business owners, I enjoy sending business in the direction of deserving salespeople. But like most referral-givers, I appreciate being appreciated. Always send a thank-you note each time you receive a referral even if it didn’t immediately lead to an order.

6. Stay prominent in the minds of those who give you referrals. I encourage salespeople to send copies of magazine articles, inexpensive but informative books, magazine subscriptions, picture postcards, etc., to the people who are in a position to send business their way.

Out of sight is out of mind, even though there are a lot more ways these days to remain in a prospect’s “sight” without necessarily being in his presence.

7. Send business leads to those who send you business. Nothing is more impressive than to receive a business lead, or better yet, an order, without having to work for it. These blue birds are worth their weight in gold with respect to marketing yourself.

8. Use postcards imprinted with your name, phone number and photograph. Top earning salespeople spend almost as much time networking as they spend selling.