Networking Success

By Ivan Misner, Ph.D., Contributing Writer

While it is indeed true that you want to get a good number of referrals, it is true only up to a point. Taking it to the extreme, you can get as many referrals as you could conceivably handle, but if nearly all of them are of low quality—hard to close or not very valuable when closed—you’re no better off than if you simply sat at your desk and spent all day cold-calling. The same is true if you get so many referrals that you can’t handle them at the level of quality and professionalism your prospects and your referral sources expect.

Of course, at the other extreme, you might get too few referrals to keep your business healthy and growing. You might close a high percentage of them and provide top-notch service, but if you’re not getting new referrals, your business may be stagnant and in danger of starving.

Where you want to be is somewhere between these two extremes. You want a decent number of referrals, but not more than you can comfortably handle, and you want to be able to close a good percentage of them for substantial amounts of business. You also need to have the time and the ability to turn marginal referrals into high-quality referrals using your sales skills—and this is something you’re not as capable of doing if you’re desperate with worry about the number of rejections you’re chalking up.

More...

Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media: