Whether you’re a front-line sales rep hunting for new business, a consultant delivering solutions, or small business owner communicating with customers, board members and employees, it’s all about selling: selling to win new business or selling to retain customers in an increasingly competitive marketplace. So what’s the deal with the buzz around emerging Sales 2.0 solutions? Which approaches are best able to fill the pipeline? How can you integrate informal networking with the latest technologies?

This White Paper by Michael Kreppein, Inquisix’s Chief Sales Officer, explores the value of referral networking by using Inquisix to combine your in-person with your online networking.

Please download the White Paper in pdf format by clicking the link below.

Inquisix White Paper on Referral Networking

Make a referral week starts next week– are you ready? March 9-13, John Jantsch (Duct Tape Marketing) and some other really great sponsors including Inquisix are getting geared up for it… are you?

Did you take the pledge?

Did you sign up for the conference call?

Did you schedule yourself to listen to the other speakers?

How about the most important? Did you get yourself ready to make a referral?

Seriously, make a list of the people you know that need a solution for their business and make a list of the people you know that can fill that solution. (or make it easy on yourself by joining Inquisix!)

The goal is 1000 small businesses receive 1000 referrals.  This is not just about getting a referral but giving one too.  Some call it “giver’s gain” but we at Inquisix call it smart.  

For example, let’s say your good customer Bob (or Sally or Sanjiv or Fido or whomever your customer might be) told you they were in desperate need of a solution to a particular problem they might have. You run into or connect (on Inquisix!) to someone who does EXACTLY what your customer needs. Now what do you think happens when Bob (or Sally or Sanjiv or Fido) is introduced to EXACTLY what they need by you– your relationship to Bob just got better.  Your business just got stronger. Your a networking star (and now Bob or Sally or Sanjiv or Fido will recommend you to anyone they know!)

So as we begin Make a Referral Week make a point to GIVE than GET– you might find that it benefits you more in the long run!

Follow the action on Twitter: add #MARW09 to the end of your tweets!

We had a great turnout to Friday Feb 20th’s Executive Club of Boston event hosted on BlitzTime. I was invited to talk on integrating your online networking with your in-person networking efforts.  While the audience on the 20th couldn’t see the attached presentation, it’s what I used to prompt me during my speech.

Brent Trethewey of the Executive Club of Boston has invited me to speak on Friday February 20th at 8.00am ET to his group. The topic of the discussion is “How To Integrate Your Online Networking with In-Person Events for Best Results”

Come join us by phone!

Brent is a member of Inquisix and runs a “speed” networking event every Friday. The concept is pretty cool, I’ve attended a bunch of his meetings. Instead of meeting face-to-face every Friday, he’s using a technology from BlitzTime that allows participants to connect via phone with up to 6 other executives, all in 45 minutes. Each week, Brent invites an expert to talk and then the participants get connected with each other to talk for 6 minutes. After your 6 minutes is up, you are connected with another participant. Hence, the “speed” in his networking.

So please come join us! It’s best to be online while on the phone.

At the moment, there’s only a US-based number to call into. I’m talking to the BlizTime founders to add a European number so our Inquisix members there can join us for the next event.

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing has a blog post today regarding the Highly Engaged Referral and the level of participation the person getting referred to is in the referral process. Obviously the higher the participation, the better the referral!

John is asking people to take a quick 5 question survey on referrals. Why not respond?

PS - thanks to wickedphobica for the picture

I’m a big fan of reading Geoffrey James’ blog, Sales Machine.  He gets to be edgier and more controversial than his articles in Selling Power magazine.

He posted a great letter from one of his readers on the value of cold calling.  The real value in cold calling is disqualifying prospects, much like panning thru dirt to find diamonds.  I’ve posted on the value of cold calling in a previous Inquisix post.

The commenter’s conclusion on the value of cold calling?

Same as what I said; the benefit of cold calling is….referrals!

John Jantsch has a great blog post about creating a systematic process for creating referrals that everyone in the company should be using.

You can find the link here.  I don’t see anything dramatically unique in his steps but they’re all important and it’s surprising how many people forget some of the steps.  Of course his big reminder is to “make giving referrals a business strategy…best way to get is to give.”

He closes with “…everybody’s in marketing…” to which I’d reply, “…everybody’s in sales!”

Happy Referring!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all. As the end of 2008 rapidly approaches, the Inquisix team hopes you are all enjoying the holidays with your family and friends. If you’re thinking of prepping early for 2009, here’s some of our most popular articles from 2008.

Why Cold Calling Doesn’t Work:

• Cold Calling Is Ineffective
• Selling to Senior Management

Cold Calling From the Buyer’s perspective:

• Referrals from the Buyer’s perspective
• Where Senior Management Gets Their Info

Generating Referrals:

• Keys to a Strong Referral-Based Business
• Marketing While You Sleep
• Customers as References Not Referrals
• The Golden Rule of Networking

Pay or Play for Referrals/Reputation:

• Paying for Relationships

Stephanie Fox Muller, one of our advisory members, sent me this email along with her comments below.

Why would anyone take a salesperson seriously when their first communication – first! – offers a freebie of four hours of work? Let’s see, I don’t yet know what you do. That means I have to take my time to go to your website and figure it out. Then decide if I want four hours free.

If your fear of the economy is showing, maybe you need to take a step or two or nine back. If your product or service had value before the economy tanked, it still does. If you don’t believe that, you can bet that your prospects won’t. Good sales and marketing people know how to position their offering to meet the current needs of their audience. If you can’t figure out how to sell whatever the heck you offer in light of the current economic conditions, the last thing you want to do is give it away. If it ain’t worth anything to you, it’s worth less to me. And I don’t buy the little disclaimer at the end – if you try us out now, you may buy us later. If I don’t need you now, I won’t remember you later.

Instead of doing the email equivalent of cold-calling with a drop-your-shorts offer, how about asking clients who DO see your value and ask them for referrals?

An interesting post on EyesOnSales by Paul McCord got me thinking early this morning.  He says to make sure you know how strong your referral is before contacting the prospect.  Just because someone gave you a referral doesn’t mean that the prospect values that referral.  Seems like common sense to find out what the relationship is and how strong it might be before acting on that referral.

But maybe it’s not common sense.  Inquisix (as you all know!) maps the process of getting (and giving) referrals online.  Just like a SFA system tracks a sale from lead to prospect to opportunity to close, Inquisix tracks referrals from search to ask to get to rate.  Our data shows that the referrals with the best rating almost always have the best exchange of information at the ask and get stage.  Why?  Because at this stage in the referral exchange is where you are networking with another person to gain a referral from them.  Thus, you are exchanging your bona-fides on why you deserve the referral and why they can deliver on the referral.

The best referrals provide you the opportunity to strengthen your reputation with not one but two parties – the person you’re asking the referral of and the person you’re getting the referral to.  Makes sense to take the time to do it right!