This is the most common question I get when conducting prospecting workshops. My most common answer is: “What have you done to deserve more referrals?”

Referrals are the most powerful tool in any sales personal arsenal. A referred prospect is much more likely to be ready to listen to you, trust what you say and ultimately to buy from you. Referrals make your job easier, and help you sell more with less effort and in less time. What else could any sales person ask for?

If you want to increase your referral rate, however, you have to start not by looking to your existing customers, but by asking yourself a number of questions about how you conduct business on a daily basis. The most important question is: How likeable are you?

Here is a quick test to help you decide whether you referrals:

1) Do you do what you said you were going to do?
2) Do you show up on time ..always?
3) Do you complete every task you start…fully?
4) Are you gracious – do you thank people everyday for their time, efforts and help?
5) Are you polite? – Do you say please.

If people like you, they will think you referrals. Its as simple as that. Sadly the majortiy of sales people are not likeable. For more on how to be likeable and increase referrals visit the Engage Selling Article Archive

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

As far as I am concerned, Dan Kennedy is the smartest direct marketing guru around. I recommend his “No B.S.” Series of books to everyone. If you work, you should read them all. Especially the No B.S. Guide to Time Management

So this week I received my monthly newsletter form Dan and in it he references a study done for Virgin Mobile on cell phone use. Its states that 5% of cell phone users answer their phones during sex. INSANE!

When I am coaching sales people to make prospecting calls I insist that they turn cell phones, email, and pagers off, to only focus on the phone for that 1-2 hours. I believe that nothing is so important it can’t wait for 1-2 hours. You can get to everything else in your work day once you have done the most important thing for your business – find new customers! Focusing on the task at hand, without the distraction of email, cellphones or your backberry/treo is the key to success.

Focus and discipline is the key to success. Not just in sales. Look to professional athletes. Those that are disciplined, block out distractions, and focus on their specific job at that time, win.

In sales, those in the top 10% guard their time jealously, focus on profitable sales activities everyday and make lots of money. Mediocre sales people continue to get distracted by less important items, waste time with unprofitable tasks and don’t continuously generate new business profitably. They remain mediocre.

So back to those who get easily distracted during sex. My guess is that with that little focus and discipline to get the job done, they also never achieve greatness!

To help you snap out of a slump and get your year back on track, try some of the following ideas submitted from Engage Selling

Dan Seidman is a great friend of mine. We met over 6 years ago at a conference where I attended one of his presentations. His material is hilarious and I love reading the horror stories… in fact, I contributed a few to his website myself. They didn’t make this book but they were worth laughing about anyway! I think that if you are in sales, and want a good chuckle or at the very least a really big smile, you should buy his new book.

http://www.salesautopsy.com/bestseller.htm

Many Sales managers and business owners think that having a channel program rather than a sales team will increase their sales more quickly while helping them to avoid the “headaches” of hiring and managing a sales team. I think this is a big mistake for companies that don