Pump Up Your Pipeline with the 5 by 5 Referral Method
By Paul McCord

You're probably aware that it's getting tougher to find qualified prospects
and turn them into clients. It's getting tougher to make your numbers, and
to maintain, much less increase your commissions. Working the phones,
sending out direct mail, faxing fliers, buying ads, haunting the halls of the
chamber networking night aren't producing what you need.

It's time to look inward. No, I'm not suggesting you look inside yourself,
although that's also a good idea; rather look inside your database of clients.
Your database has more sales locked up in it than you will probably ever find
through any prospecting or marketing strategies you employ.

There simply isn't a more effective or profitable prospecting or marketing
strategy you can use than generating quality referrals from your clients.
Your database is the single most valuable asset you own. Right this second
your database of clients has a lifetime of commissions locked up in it. That's
true whether your database has 200 clients or 20,000.

If that's true, how do you unlock those sales? To tap your database and to
build a referral-based business you must learn a comprehensive, disciplined,
logical, effective referral generation process. Learning such a process takes
time, energy, commitment and work.

But you don't have the time to learn a new process, you need sales now,
you say. Well, here's the good news. You can begin to tap your database
and generate quality referrals–and new business--while you learn the
process of referral generation that will keep you from being in the position
you are now.

The 5 by 5 Referral Generation Short cut

Although you must learn a disciplined referral generation process if you want
to put your sales business on solid ground where you don't have to
scramble, dig, and discount for business, you can put a nice pop in your
pipeline by instituting the 5 by 5-method of getting referrals from your
clients.

The 5 by 5 method is not a permanent solution to your pipeline woes. For
most, this is a short burst of new blood in their pipeline. A permanent
solution only comes from learning and instituting a full referral generation
process. However, the 5 by 5-method allows you to generate 15 to 25 highquality referrals in a matter of less than a week. If you work the referrals
correctly, you should see a nice jump in your sales very quickly.

Here are the steps you need to take to make the 5 by 5-method work:

1. Sit down with your database and find 5 of your best clients. These are
not necessarily the 5 biggest clients you have. Look for 5 clients that you
know well, have an excellent relationship with, and that fit what you
consider to be your ideal client profile.

2. Once you have identified your 5 clients, think about whom each of these
clients know or probably know that you know you want to be referred to.
You may have to do a little research on potential prospects that you believe
your client may know. For example, if your client were the owner of a small
engineering company, what other engineering companies would you like to
be referred to? Don't know? Do some research. What vendors of your
client do you know you want to be referred to? Again, you may have to do a
little research. What customers of your client do you want to be referred to?
Yes, you may have to do a little research.

3. Once you have your list of 5 potential referrals from each of your 5
clients, it is time to approach the client. At this point, we are assuming
you've selected your clients and your potential referrals carefully. The more
care you take in your selection of each, the better the results you will have
in both getting the referrals and converting the referred prospects to clients.

Since these are clients that you know well and with whom you have an
excellent relationship, simply call and ask for a short appointment. Your
request for referrals will be more successful, more comfortable, and more
professional if you ask in person rather than over the phone or through an
email.

When you meet with your client, explain that there are some folks you've
been trying to connect with but haven't had success and it dawned on you
that your client might well know them. Ask your client for permission to ask
them about each of your 5 potential referrals. If you've selected your
potential referral prospects well, you client will probably know anywhere
from 3 to 5 of them. If they know them, they will give you the referral.

By the end of the week, you should have at least 15 to 20–and possibly as
many as 25–referrals to people or companies you know you want to be
referred to.4. Once you have your referrals, don't rush off and call them. Ask your
client for a direct introduction through a letter (written by you for your
client's signature), a phone call to the prospect (with you on the call also),
or a lunch meeting with the three of you. You don't want a "referral," you
want an introduction from your client directly to the referred prospect.

5. After the introduction, keep your client informed of what is happening
with the prospect. Your client wants to know what is going on not only
because they want to know they have helped you, but also because they
want to know that you haven't messed up with someone they referred you
to. Reassure them that all is well.

If you would like more detail on how to execute each of these points, you'll
find much more detail in Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales
Success through Client Referrals. However, if you follow the above process,
you should be able to generate a large number of high quality referrals
fast–and pump some new blood into your pipeline in no time at all.

By the way, you can expand this to 5 X 10 or even a 10 X 10 method if your
relationships are strong and you are willing to invest the time in giving
serious consideration to whom your client might know that they can refer
you to.


Paul McCord is a leading authority on prospecting, referral selling, and personal
marketing. He is president of McCord and Associates, a Houston, Texas based sales
training, coaching, and consulting company. His first book, Creating a Million Dollar
a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals (John Wiley and Sons,
2007), is an Amazon and Barnes and Noble best-seller and is quickly becoming
recognized as the authoritative work on referral selling. His second book,
SuperStar Selling: 12 Keys to Becoming a Sales SuperStar has just been released.
He may be reached at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com or visit his sales
training website at www.powerreferralselling.com or his highly popular Sales and
Sales Management Blog at http://salesandmanagementblog.com


Copyright 2008, Paul McCord. May be reproduced without change, with proper
attribution and brief bio. Notice of when and where article is to appear to
pmccord@mccordandassociates.com