Deliver valuable leads with a robust referral marketing strategy, advises Andy Lopata, freelance business networking strategist and author
In the 1992 film, ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’, about hard times in a New York estate agency, the head honcho, Blake (Alec Baldwin), gives his salesmen a strong incentive to succeed in a sales contest. First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado; third prize is the sack.
Only ‘closers’ are promised the good ‘Glengarry’ sales leads, the ones most likely to convert because the prospects have both the interest and the means to buy. The rest of the sales team have to put up with unqualified, poor quality leads. This leads to a plot to steal the Glengarry leads, which has unforeseen consequences for all the characters.
Anyone responsible for high value deals will feel more than a twinge of empathy for the salespeople vying for the ‘Glengarry leads’.
Executives responsible for big ticket sales today are under very similar types of competitive pressures like the men in ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’. In the current economy, pressure for leads that will convert is even greater. Faced with such intense pressure, salespeople want to avoid following up leads that seem poorly qualified. So how can marketers help?
A word-of-mouth strategy
Rather than facing conflict with sales teams who don’t want to follow up their leads, marketing professionals can go much further to support the process of overcoming objections and delivering high-quality leads by developing and implementing a cost-effective professional word-of-mouth marketing strategy.
The key to such a strategy is to generate leads from existing networks, rather than cold sources. For many marketers this is obvious and efforts to create more word-of-mouth through buzz marketing and customer incentive schemes are widely used.
Referrals, however, are the true ‘Glengarry leads’, the ones most likely to shorten the sales cycle and convert into business. Instead of your customers mentioning your name and you waiting for prospects to subsequently contact you, when someone has been referred, a need for the services on offer has already been identified and the prospect has indicated that they are willing to take a call to find out more.
Salespeople are bound to respond more positively to a lead if they are confident that the prospect is expecting their call and is interested. If that prospect has been recommended to their company by a trusted contact, the issues of trust and brand awareness are immediately overcome. There is an implied trust, both in the salesperson and a brand if they are recommended by a known source.
It is also easier for the salesperson to develop a rapport with someone who has been referred by an existing client. That mutual link removes much of the initial skepticism that the prospect may have if they had no previous knowledge of, or connection with, the company.
To implement an effective referrals strategy you need to answer the following three questions:
1. Who do we want to meet?
People are more likely to refer you if they have a clear idea of the introductions you seek. So you have to understand who your ideal referral is first.
The ideal referral for a company may be a single high-value client, someone with whom you can strike a long-term relationship, or even someone in a position to recommend you to a large number of new clients. It’s unlikely to be one short-term or low value transaction.
Once the characteristics of ideal referrals are identified, they should be communicated across the company so that everyone is in a position to recognise opportunities when they come along.
2. Who will refer us?
Think beyond just your customers. Referrals can come from a wide range of sources; including influencers in your prospects’ industries, suppliers, networking contacts and even the friends and family of your staff.
We make a habit of pigeon-holing people by our relationship with them. More than once I have seen clients successfully approach members of their family for referrals having never considered their relevance before. Yet those family members were perfectly placed to introduce them.
For this reason, everyone in a company should be involved in the referral-generation process, irrespective of their role. Collectively you will have a tremendous reach and all the connections you need.
3. Why would they refer?
All too often, companies rush to pay incentives to inspire people to refer them. Yet if people like and trust you, and want you to succeed, do they really need paying for referrals? Have you asked the biggest supporters of your company if they would be willing to refer you?
For people to refer to your company, you need to establish strong levels of trust and develop their understanding of what you do and who would benefit from your services. Once those foundations are in place, very often it’s simply a failure to ask that leads to too few referrals.
An effective referrals culture can lead to a steady stream of ‘Glengarry leads’ coming into your business. Once they call a referred prospect to find someone who wants to speak to them and shows interest in their solution, salespeople will be eager to follow up leads they receive through referral.
