{"id":12984,"date":"2022-01-07T20:40:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T20:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandler.dsstaging2.com\/case-study\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/"},"modified":"2023-11-07T09:52:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T09:52:51","slug":"the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/","title":{"rendered":"The Neglected Art of Generating Referrals"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Every prospecting call pays dividends. Every single one. What do we mean by that? We mean that, even if we get a no, we can learn something and we can improve. And even if we get a no, we can ask ourselves where the potential is, where the opportunity is \u2013 and we can pursue that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Right now, we\u2019re going to share something with you about opportunity, something that may initially make you a little bit uncomfortable if you\u2019re a sales professional. It made us uncomfortable the first time we tried it. It\u2019s going for a referral, asking for an introduction…right after you hear a solid \u201cno\u201d on a prospecting discussion<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

That sounds crazy, right?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Way back when, as John was starting out as a sales trainer, David Sandler (his mentor) told him, “John, I want you to get 10 appointments a week.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

John said, \u201cGot it, David \u2013 but what do I do to make that happen?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

He said, \u201cMake 150 dials a week, and you\u2019ll set 10 appointments.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

John\u2019s first week he made 150 dials, talked to 50 people, and got zero appointments. He couldn\u2019t even do the math about how badly he was doing, but he knew he wasn\u2019t headed in the right direction. He went back to David Sandler and asked for some coaching<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sandler said: “Well, John, are you asking for any referrals once you get a no?”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cOf course not, David. No one is going to give me a referral if they\u2019ve never spoken to me before. Why in the world would they do that?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“Are you asking me that because you have asked in the past and you know that no one’s ever given you a referral \u2013 or because you just know?”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cDavid, I just know.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“Let me ask you something, John. Are you competitive?”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“Sure, I’m competitive.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“Okay, prove me wrong. Over the next three weeks, can you ask for a referral once you get a no?”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cSure, but it’s not going to work. What’s my language?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

And he gave John the language that we are going to share with you now. John said it out loud 25 times, and then used that language. And on his very first call, the woman he reached gave him three referrals! John didn\u2019t even have to believe it was going to work!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

To this day, John remembers the name of the woman he reached that day. It was Helen Alex. She was listed first in a Chamber of Commerce directory; that\u2019s why she got John\u2019s first call. Here\u2019s what it sounded like for him \u2013 and what it could sound like for you when get a \u201cno\u201d<\/a> answer to a prospecting call:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

You: Hey, listen, it doesn’t sound like I can help you right now, but I appreciate your time, maybe you could help me. If you were me in my industry, would you have any recommendations of people in your network, in your circle who you think could be open-minded to having a similar conversation to the one we just had?<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Helen, who had just taken a pass on the chance to meet with John, heard that, went silent for a moment, and said, \u201cI can’t think of anybody.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

And John, eager to follow through on the coaching he\u2019d received, heard himself saying, \u201cWell, Helen, maybe it’s a partner company. Maybe it’s one of your suppliers, maybe it’s one of your customers.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Helen said, \u201cI only have three customers.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

John said, \u201cOkay, who do you deal with?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

And she gave John the names of the presidents of three different engineering companies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

John said, \u201cDo you mind if I reach out to them? And tell them we talked?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Helen said, “Knock yourself out.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When he hung up the phone, John was shocked. He called David Sandler, explained what had just happened, and said \u201cNow what?\u201d He felt like he had just caught a bear but didn\u2019t know what to do about it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sandler said, “Don’t squander your leverage.\u201d And he told John what to say. Here\u2019s what John said:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I had the chance to talk to Helen Alex. She thought it might be important we speak, and I promised I would call.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Two of the three engineering companies John called did not go anywhere. But guess what? The first president he called said, “You know what? Your timing is great.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

That company became John\u2019s very first client. They referred him to a sister client, who then referred him to a very large multinational industrial company, who then referred him to an executive search company. Who then referred him to another industrial company? Who then referred him to a Fortune 100 company? The moral of the story is that millions of dollars of revenue that came from that call he made to Helen Alex, and from being gutsy enough and being trained well enough to ask for that referral even after the no.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Think about that for a moment. Will you implement this now? You certainly have nothing to lose. As David Sandler used to say: You can’t lose what you don’t have!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Think about the last ten calls you made. How many times, if you did get a no, did you ask for a referral<\/a>? If the answer is zero, you’re not alone, but guess what? It’s time to change. You may not believe anybody will give you any. But you need to know that, for us and for the people we train, the number is approximately one out of five.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Why would you walk away from that?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Excerpted from the book 21st Century Prospecting.<\/em> Copyright \u00a9 2021, Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Click here to download your free chapter.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every prospecting call pays dividends. What do we mean by that? Even if we get a no, we can ask ourselves where the potential is, where the opportunity is \u2013 and we can pursue that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":12985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1120],"tags":[1099,1105,1100,1141],"class_list":["post-12984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-referrals","tag-sales-process","tag-sales-referrals","tag-sales-strategies"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Neglected Art of Generating Referrals - Sandler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every prospecting call pays dividends. What do we mean by that? Even if we get a no, we can ask ourselves where the potential is, where the opportunity is \u2013 and we can pursue that.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Neglected Art of Generating Referrals - Sandler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every prospecting call pays dividends. What do we mean by that? Even if we get a no, we can ask ourselves where the potential is, where the opportunity is \u2013 and we can pursue that.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sandler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-07T20:40:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-07T09:52:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/The-Neglected-Art-of-Generating-Referrals.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"514\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Patrick Caroll\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Patrick Caroll\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/\",\"name\":\"The Neglected Art of Generating Referrals - Sandler\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/The-Neglected-Art-of-Generating-Referrals.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-07T20:40:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-07T09:52:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/665b1b299ea541985490199b19cf7f16\"},\"description\":\"Every prospecting call pays dividends. What do we mean by that? Even if we get a no, we can ask ourselves where the potential is, where the opportunity is \u2013 and we can pursue that.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/The-Neglected-Art-of-Generating-Referrals.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/The-Neglected-Art-of-Generating-Referrals.jpeg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":514},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Neglected Art of Generating Referrals\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sandler\",\"description\":\"Sales and leadership training and coaching solutions for salespeople, sales managers, and executives\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/665b1b299ea541985490199b19cf7f16\",\"name\":\"Patrick Caroll\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f7a009d5cb93cdeb87a967f6d1af67299e9abded8949dcb6c58fa5b8e7cae1a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f7a009d5cb93cdeb87a967f6d1af67299e9abded8949dcb6c58fa5b8e7cae1a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Patrick Caroll\"},\"description\":\"Patrick Carroll is the Director of Marketing and Business Development for Focus Business Development, Inc., an authorized Sandler Training\u00ae center located in Richmond, Virginia. Patrick has been involved with the Sandler Training Network for over six years. Before and during college he spent time on the front lines in various customer facing positions within the commercial landscaping, retail & entertainment industries. After receiving his degree in Rhetoric & Communication at the University of Richmond, Patrick began working at Focus Business Development, Inc. at an entry level capacity. His role has grown into an integral part of the day to day marketing, selling & training activities within the business. Patrick possesses strong interests & skills in the elements of communication, rhetoric, & psychology relative to the human dynamics in business and selling scenarios. He is fascinated with sales & marketing alignment and how technology is transforming the business world and sales landscape. Patrick is a firm believer that (sales) success all boils down to the right attitude, the right behaviors & the right techniques.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.focusbusiness.sandlersysdev.wpengine.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Neglected Art of Generating Referrals - Sandler","description":"Every prospecting call pays dividends. What do we mean by that? Even if we get a no, we can ask ourselves where the potential is, where the opportunity is \u2013 and we can pursue that.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Neglected Art of Generating Referrals - Sandler","og_description":"Every prospecting call pays dividends. What do we mean by that? Even if we get a no, we can ask ourselves where the potential is, where the opportunity is \u2013 and we can pursue that.","og_url":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/","og_site_name":"Sandler","article_published_time":"2022-01-07T20:40:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-07T09:52:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":514,"url":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/The-Neglected-Art-of-Generating-Referrals.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Patrick Caroll","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Patrick Caroll","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/","url":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/","name":"The Neglected Art of Generating Referrals - Sandler","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/The-Neglected-Art-of-Generating-Referrals.jpeg","datePublished":"2022-01-07T20:40:26+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-07T09:52:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/665b1b299ea541985490199b19cf7f16"},"description":"Every prospecting call pays dividends. What do we mean by that? Even if we get a no, we can ask ourselves where the potential is, where the opportunity is \u2013 and we can pursue that.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/The-Neglected-Art-of-Generating-Referrals.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/The-Neglected-Art-of-Generating-Referrals.jpeg","width":1000,"height":514},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/the-neglected-art-of-generating-referrals\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Neglected Art of Generating Referrals"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/","name":"Sandler","description":"Sales and leadership training and coaching solutions for salespeople, sales managers, and executives","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/665b1b299ea541985490199b19cf7f16","name":"Patrick Caroll","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f7a009d5cb93cdeb87a967f6d1af67299e9abded8949dcb6c58fa5b8e7cae1a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f7a009d5cb93cdeb87a967f6d1af67299e9abded8949dcb6c58fa5b8e7cae1a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Patrick Caroll"},"description":"Patrick Carroll is the Director of Marketing and Business Development for Focus Business Development, Inc., an authorized Sandler Training\u00ae center located in Richmond, Virginia. Patrick has been involved with the Sandler Training Network for over six years. Before and during college he spent time on the front lines in various customer facing positions within the commercial landscaping, retail & entertainment industries. After receiving his degree in Rhetoric & Communication at the University of Richmond, Patrick began working at Focus Business Development, Inc. at an entry level capacity. His role has grown into an integral part of the day to day marketing, selling & training activities within the business. Patrick possesses strong interests & skills in the elements of communication, rhetoric, & psychology relative to the human dynamics in business and selling scenarios. He is fascinated with sales & marketing alignment and how technology is transforming the business world and sales landscape. Patrick is a firm believer that (sales) success all boils down to the right attitude, the right behaviors & the right techniques.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.focusbusiness.sandlersysdev.wpengine.com"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}