Referrals and introductions drive the business of top professional salespeople. Among the myriad of prospecting techniques, Referred Lead Prospecting makes the most sense for several reasons:
- Referrals are a low-cost lead acquisition strategy
- Referrals help prospects feel comfortable with you, because you were introduced
- Centers of Influence have a tendency to self-replicate if you keep your sales and service promises
- Once you build a referral network, your new product and service offerings spread like wildfire, because people in your network talk to each other more often than you know
- Building referral marketing technologies are relatively simple
Referral marketing works best when you NETWORK with others. Among the many networking strategies, one of the best known is BNI (Business Networking International), which organizes referral networks for sales professionals and entrepreneurs. The following comes from BNI’s website, which is www.bni.com :
“The World’s Largest Referral Organization Welcome to our website. BNI is the largest business networking organization in the world. It offers members the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly, business referrals.”
“Belonging to BNI is like having dozens of sales people working for you because [other members] carry several copies of your business cards around with them. When they meet someone who could use your products or services, they hand out your card and recommend you. It’s as simple as that! It’s simple because it’s based on a proven concept by BNI Founder, Dr Ivan Misner, called “givers gain.” If I give you business you’ll give me business and we’ll both benefit as a result.”
At this time I don’t have personal experience with BNI, but plan to join, based on two referrals last week from two different clients. If you are in sales and/or own your own company, check out BNI. If you are a BNI member, please respond to this post and share your experience.
Good selling!
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