Handling Reference Requests

Quite often when I am talking to a prospective new client I’m asked to provide references.  Which is a good thing.  I want to know I’ve been vetted by the client and selected as the best consultant for the project.  How I handle reference requests is a bit unique and I’ve found it to be extremely effective.

I reply to the prospect, “I’m going to have three clients call you and give you a reference on my services.  I’ll also provide you with their contact names and phone numbers, but because of your busy schedule I will ask them to reach out to you and hopefully you’ll avoid playing phone tag.”

This always impresses the prospect.  Some version of “Gee, she’s got clients willing to call ME and give me a reference.  She must be very good,” is what goes through their head.

Then based on the project,  I select the most appropriate three clients and ask them to be a reference for me.  If I get voice mail, I leave a message and follow up with an email saying something along these lines:

“I was hoping you could be a reference for me.  I’m being considered for an opportunity that is similar to what I did for you.  In deference to your busy schedule, and so you can avoid playing phone tag, I’m providing the contact info below for my prospect.  At your convenience, could you please call this person and provide a reference for me?  If you get voice mail, just leave your opinion of my services in the voice mail message.  If my prospect wants to follow up, s/he will. ”

Now my clients, who are happy to provide a reference, are able to do so at their convenience.  And if they get voice mail (a likely occurence), they are still able to leave a message voicing their opinion of my service.

Here is why this works – everybody feels like I’m being respectful of their busy schedule.  My clients are happy to give references, and usually leave glowing voice mail messages.  The prospect is impressed because I have obviously built relationships strong enough to ask my clients to pro-actively give references instead of waiting for a call.  On more than one occasion, I’ve been awarded a contract when the prospect never actually TALKED to one of my references.  But between the voice mails from my clients and the video testimonials on my website, they felt like they HAD spoken to several clients.

Try this for yourself some time, you’ll be amazed at how efficient and effective this can be as a sales tool.

Pipelines & Pipedreams

When developing marketing strategies for clients,  one of the first things we do is learn about the company’s sales process.  This includes going on sales calls, sitting in on sales meetings, viewing the pipeline reports, finding out how the sales cycle works — basically absorbing everything we can about the sales function within the organization.

One common complaint heard from CEOs time and again is centered around the pipeline (or lack thereof) and the shortfall that occurs every quarter.  The pipeline never seems to live up to its promises.  I’ve sat in enough sales meetings now to quickly figure out if a company has a real pipeline or a pipe-dream.  The four most common mistakes I see are listed below:

1.  Lack of a common sales methodology:

There are a lot of great sales methodologies out there and many are equally effective.  Whether you adopt Spin Selling, Sandler, or something else it is important that you make sure everyone is following the same one.  The strength of any process comes in everyone speaking the same language and following the same methodology.  That way every opportunity is being managed in a similar fashion and the entire sales team is moving in unison.

2.  Lack of common descriptions for stages of the sale:

As with adopting a common methodology, you want everyone on the sales team to use the same definitions and stages for the sales cycle.  It doesn’t have to be complicated.  Here is a five stage system we often set up for our clients:

Stage 1 – This is a “suspect.”  You have not begun the qualification process.  You got this contact from a networking event, participation in a webinar, an online inquiry, etc.  You “suspect” this company/person may need your services and want to start a dialog.

Stage 2 – The first level of a prospect.  You’ve had at least one conversation, you are starting to understand the prospect’s “pain” and how you might provide a solution.  The prospect is interested in learning more about what you have to offer. Read more

What was old is new again

It seems we’ve come full circle when it comes to communicating with our prospects and clients. I noticed recently that I’ve been paying a lot less attention to online newsletters and those pretty HTML announcements that arrive in my in-box every day. There are a few exceptions of course. But for the most part I’m interested in the CONTENT of what is being delivered, not the design or graphics. When given the choice I no longer ask for the HTML version of anything – instead I choose the text-only version.

There was a time when it was unusual to receive anything but plain text into your email box. Then we moved to designing branded newsletters and “postcard-like” invitations that would capture the attention of our readers. Now, thanks to ever-improving SPAM filters a lot of those fancy invitations, announcements and emails aren’t even making it to our desktop. And for those that do get through the fire-wall, we’ve become jaded and tired of looking at all those designs. We just want the information – short, sweet and simple.

Playing on this hunch we recently experimented with a client that has been holding a series of seminars. As is typical, invitations had been sent out using HTML and branded design. But registrations were down and we were looking for a way to drive attendance. So we sent out another announcement about the event, except this was a simple text email. Read more