Most business owners leave money on the table, not asking for referrals from the network that they spent years or decades building up.
Those who do ask often give up, because the reply is usually "I'll let you know".
It's really easy to fix that though, and get referrals, and get ROI on your Relational Capital. How? Today's episode of SFNP explains exactly that.
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Two questions for you. Have you ever asked for referrals or introductions? Second question, how did that go? Welcome to Sales for Nice People. I am Martin Steller. I help nice people sell more. This is episode 38 and... Welcome to Sales for Nice People, the daily podcast for ethical entrepreneurs who want to sell more because of their values and not despite them. I am Martin Steller. I help nice people sell more. This is episode 38 where we are looking at the right way and the wrong way at asking for introductions. And the reason why so many introduction requests fail. So in most cases, most business owners build up their network and the value in the network and the trust and the reputation. And then at some point, somebody tells them, you know, you should really get referrals. You should ask for introductions. What most business owners then do is talk to their people in an awkward way and go, "Hey, do you know anybody who might want my help?" The other person then thinks and goes, "Not at the moment, but I'll let you know if something comes up." And the business owner then stops asking for referrals because it feels awkward and it didn't lead to anything. It didn't lead to anything because the question the request was made in the wrong way. There's three fundamental components that have to be present in every referral request. The first is... The first is the question, who do you know and not the question, do you know anybody? Because if you ask, do you know anybody, you'll get, "I'll let you know." Whereas if you ask who do you know, your counterpart is going to flip through their mental rolodex and go, "John, James, Jill, Jenny, Jenny, you should talk to Jenny." The second component that has to be present in every referral request is a very specific definition of the kind of person you're looking to connect with. The third component is... And the third... And the third component is a reason why this other person, the third party in the mix, should want to speak with you. Unless you get those three components right, the who do you know, the... Unless you get those three... Unless you get those three components right, the who do you know, the description of the avatar and the specific reason why they want to connect with you, would want to connect with you, your referral request is not going to go anywhere. So any time that you are speaking to somebody who has interesting, relevant people in their network that you would like to meet, make sure you use those three components. This is how you actually generate referrals, and this is how you get leverage and opportunities out of all the years that you've spent building a network that has cost you money. There is value in that asset in your network, in your relational capital, and if only you ask the right questions, you're very, very likely to generate... You're very likely to generate opportunities, referrals, introductions, and sales. This is Martin Steller. I hope nice people sell more. If you want to get a short daily email in your inbox, go to martinsteller.com/nicepeople, and I will see you tomorrow. [ Silence ]
