Have you ever gotten a referral to call someone? When you called, how often did that person not know you were going to call and really had no interest in talking with you?

Many sales people are confused as to what is really a valuable referral. A recommendation to call someone or a list of names and telephone numbers from you networking buddy are typically no more valuable than a cold call.

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The best referrals are introductions - situations where your clients or network partner actively introduce you to someone they think would benefit from talking to you.

There are two steps to actively generate introductions:

First, ask your client or network partner about a very specific prospect profile, in a manner that prompts them to deny your question. For instance, if you are a business broker looking to find business owners who are ready to sell their businesses, you might ask something like “you probably don’t know someone who founded their own business and has figured out that they aren’t going to be able to pass it on to the next generation?”

Second, if your client or networking partner does know someone who might be interested in talking to you, coach them on how they might introduce the idea to their contact. Something like “I’d hate to call someone who wasn’t interested in taking my call. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to share with them a little about my business, and why you thought they might be interested in talking with me?”

One more tip on referrals - work hard to give introductions whenever possible. The law of reciprocity states that people will feel they owe you whenever you do them a favor. The rule is “give more to get more”.

And remember, amateurs get referrals, professionals get introductions.

Joe Marr is a public speaker, sales and management consultant and trainer, and runs Sandler Training - Ann Arbor. Contact him at (734) 821-4830 or visit his Web site.