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This may seem obvious, but then again, sometimes the most obvious things in life and business need a little reminder.

But as with anything, doing it really well needs focus, insights, and in some cases, the right tools.

Here are three good reasons to get your B2B referrals:

  1. Faster Time to Contact
  2. More Efficient Sales Coverage
  3. Avoid Wasted Cycles

These are all elements of the same concept, but each with a different focus:

Faster Time to Contact

Speed matters.  It matters not only because if a competitive solution starts the cycle before you, you could very well be out of luck simply because you didn’t get there in time.

Because many B2B cycles also take a long time, every day matters if you’re trying to hit a quarterly quota.  Time is your enemy, so much better to find the contact early than late.
More Efficient Sales Coverage

Related to time is space, in the sense that you may have alot more companies that you need to touch, identify, and qualify to build an effective funnel.

One person just going out and canvassing the entire territory just won’t do it.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could leverage the groundwork done by non-competitive sales reps in your territory?

The more companies you can touch and coverage, the more efficient you’ll be.

Avoid Wasted Cycles

I’ve had numerous situation where I have been pounding and pounding on a particular person.  Sometimes they are the right person but they have legitimate reasons I shouldn’t be calling them…only I didn’t know.

Sometimes they are the wrong person altogether.

Referral-based contacts give you something I’ll talk about more, which is context.  Getting context from someone who has done business with your target is so immensely valuable for success in the networked age.

I am going to continue to be updating this blog with ideas, tips, and tools on leveraging your own personal sales lead referral network.