The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Personal recommendations are a powerful thing. Good or bad, they have the power to persuade us in one direction or another. Think about it—when most of us have little to no knowledge about a particular company or product, we typically ask those whose opinions we trust: family, friends or coworkers. As we all become more and more connected, most of us have also begun to rely on digital reviews.

We all know how powerful testimonials and success stories are as a tool to open doors with prospects who don’t know you yet. But, capturing such information has traditionally been time consuming and difficult. How many times has a client promised to write a testimonial letter for you and then never did it? It's usually not because your client is insincere; more likely they just got too busy with other things that were a higher priority. Besides, who writes letters today anyway?

The other day I was talking with a sales manager who was lamenting that his people were having a very tough time getting appointments with quality prospects. We talked about all the ways we recommend salespeople warm up otherwise cold calls, but we ended up focusing on perhaps the most powerful way to get a warm reception — a referral from a current, satisfied client. The problem is, most salespeople simply do not ask for referrals because they are not accustomed to doing it. So we decided we would instruct everyone to ask five clients for a referral in the next week. Simple, yet new! You know what is going to happen here.  

Three of the best things you can have as a salesperson are also the three things that seem the most difficult to get ahold of. Referrals, testimonials and case studies have all helped a salesperson at one time or another either get a great first appointment, or to help set appropriate expectations. But, I still get asked time and time again how one can go about getting more referrals, testimonials or case studies. The challenge is, you, as the salesperson, are the only one who can make any of this happen!

Our grandson wanted desperately to go outside and play at the splash table. Of course, at one year old, he’s not allowed to do that without supervision.