Brannon recently sat down with Joanne Black, America’s leading authority on referral selling. A captivating speaker and innovative seminar leader, Joanne is changing the definition of rainmaker. Referral selling generates revenue faster than any other business development method, while decreasing costs, eliminating the competition, and gaining new clients more than 50% of the time.
Joanne is the author of NO MORE COLD CALLING a book that explains how to gain business through the art of referrals. In this podcast, Joanne Black shares with listeners her expertise. She understands that business referrals solve two major issues for most business:
- Attaining more qualified leads.
- Meeting with the right person at the right time.
Joanne discusses how to create a referral culture through systematic processes in four important ways:
- Have a written strategy. You have to know your company and personal goals AND take the time to write them down.
- The head of the firm must set expectations and announce that referrals will be the new major source for generating leads.
- Set metrics for those goals so that success can be measured.
- Know your ideal client.
Joanne recognizes that attaining referrals can be a shift in thinking for many businesses and can be somewhat intimidating for many to change the way that they currently attain clients. Asking for referrals can set you up for rejection and that can cause aversion. She says, “Don’t let that risk deter you from getting good and free leads. Being a referral based business can improve both performance with your clients and client loyalty. Not to mention, it is effective and can grow your business.”
Here are some important moments from the podcast:
1:41 – Referrals solve two major issues that everyone faces
6:50 – Black’s definition of cold-calling
8:10 – Creating a referral culture
10:30 – The metrics for successful referral acquisition
13:39 – How referrals can be motivating
16:00 – Referral success story
19:30 – What gets in the way of asking for referrals
21:17 – The best time to build skills is now
24:13 – What counts as “face-to-face”
26:00 – About Black’s book
27:03 – Learn more about Black’s LinkedIn course
28:12 – Black’s ideal client
30:10 – Book recommendations:
- SNAP Selling by Jill Konrath
- Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
- How to Work a Room® by Susan RoAne
- Stop Selling and Start Leading® by Deb Calvert
Please click here to listen to this podcast in full.
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
- Individual Referral Selling Master’s Program includes access to Joanne’s OnDemand course and five coaching sessions.
- LinkedIn Learning Her course is on the LinkedIn Learning platform. It’s close to the content on the OnDemand course, but it doesn’t include any strategy work on coaching and reinforcement. (That can be added.)
