A few weeks ago in Sales Club, I asked everyone if they knew what the most effective and powerful prospecting behavior is as a salesperson. 

Surprisingly, the answer lies within the lowest hanging fruit: asking for an introduction. 

If it’s so effective and powerful then, why don’t we do it? Here’s what Sales Club members had to say…

“It’s uncomfortable to ask people for things. What if they say no?”

“I’m afraid to find out that we’re not doing as good of a job as we think we’ve been doing.”

You know what they say, ignorance is bliss. After you close a new business account and hand them off to the client success manager on your team - what if they weren’t taken care of as much as you might’ve hoped? Or if you are responsible for selling and executing your service, asking for introductions could be even more acutely painful if you find out you aren’t not delivering the best product. In that situation, it’s not your team messing up, it’s you messing up which can be hard to face.

“I’m afraid I’ll remind them I’m a salesperson.” Asking for an introduction is a direct prospecting behavior. You can’t hide from that!

“I haven’t made it a habit yet.”

“I’m afraid to ask at the wrong time. Have I earned the right to ask for an introduction yet? What if I wait too long?”

In reality, every single prospect/client will have a different idea of what it looks like to have “earned” their introduction. By fearing whether or not you’ve earned the right to ask, you’re giving away all your power. The script in your mind develops “I haven’t earned that yet.” Keep in mind though, when you do this you’re taking away the opportunity for the prospect to give you feedback.

So with all of those fears about asking for introductions out on the table, how can you address these apprehensions and uncover the immense benefits of introductions into your sales approach?

Give people the opportunity to help others
It feels good to help someone out. When someone has the opportunity to help their network and support others, they benefit greatly. They get a boost of feeling good about helping others, they may even get a tangible benefit, and they validate their own decision-making when their introductions go on to have a great experience working with you.

Don’t let your stories run the show
We live within the bubble of the stories we create in our minds and convince ourselves it is reality. There are pieces of truth within these stories, but the story itself is not inherently true. When you notice a story showing up, ask yourself what data is present to support the story you’ve created. 

For example: I don’t want to annoy them by asking for an introduction.

This is a story. What evidence do you have for this statement being true? Have they told you that you are annoying them? Or are you anticipating this reaction based on previous experiences that might not even directly relate to asking for introductions? Inspect what you expect.

It’s not a referral
Have you noticed you haven’t found the word “referral” in this blog post yet? There's a good reason for it! Let’s talk about the difference between referrals and introductions.

Referrals are getting contact information, or making someone aware of a person or business. An introduction takes the referral one step further and actually does the work of introducing you. Anyone who is ready to refer your business to others will be happy to make the actual introduction and connect you with someone directly. They have the option to include you on the touchpoint, or check in with the other person before looping you in and connecting you directly. Whichever route they decide to take, be sure to understand next steps and have an agreed upon timeline for how and when the introduction will happen.

Know who to ask
As you can imagine, you shouldn’t be asking unhappy clients for introductions - you should be busy working hard to make them happy first. 

Who do you ask introductions from? Everyone else. A former client, a current client, a prospect. If you run your sales process properly, even if they don’t want to buy from you it doesn’t mean they don’t know others who would. 

While a new client is onboarding, it could be a great time to “pre-sell” the idea of checking back in later to see if they know of anyone else in their network you can potentially help. Later on when you’re asking for an introduction from a client, you’ll want to set aside time to check in to genuinely see how things are going. Asking for an introduction is a possible outcome of that call, but it is never the sole purpose of the call. 

When you approach this checkpoint in this way, you’re improving both customer success and satisfaction and potentially learning about new prospective business.

Make an action plan
Calculate the potential revenue boost by estimating the additional monthly income achievable through introductions. Determine the number of introductions required to reach your goal and identify the individuals you can ask. Define when and how you will make the request, ensuring it aligns with your existing client interactions.

So here is your invitation for the week ahead: embrace the power of asking for the introduction. 

If you are stuck with this concept, or want to talk about this some more, please book a call so we can talk it through together.