I recently scored a meeting with the CEO of a Fortune 500company. It took me one call to get on his calendar. Why? Ireceived a referral introduction from his trusted friend andadvisor.

During our 30-minute call, I learned what this CEO expected fromsalespeople and what initiatives he was driving. He referred me tohis Global VP, who has been more than willing to help me makeconnections within the company.

That’s the beauty of referral selling.

When you get referrals, you:

• Bypass the gatekeeper and score meetings with decision-makersevery time.

• Earn trust and credibility with your prospects, who are pre-soldon your ability to deliver results.

• Convert prospects into clients at least 50% of the time (usuallymore than 70%).

• Land clients who become ideal referral sources for newbusiness.

• Score more new clients from fewer leads (because all of yourleads are qualified).

• Meet with hot prospects while your competitors are stillfiguring out how to get in.

The business case for referrals is loud and clear.Decision-makers will always meet with salespeople who’ve beenreferred by people they know and trust. If your competition gets tothe decision-maker first, you might be out of the game. But whenyou get referrals, you win.

A referral isn’t a referral without anintroduction

A referral means you receive a personal introduction to yourprospect, not just a name and contact information. Without anintroduction, your outreach is ice cold. The prospect doesn’t knowyou and doesn’t expect to hear from you.

I’ve heard sales experts say it takes seven to 10 touches formost reps to reach prospects. Is that how you want to spend yourselling time? Sure, sometimes it works, but everything changes whenyou receive an introduction. All it takes is one call or email fromyour prospect’s trusted friend or colleague, and you’ve scored ameeting.

When you receive a referral introduction, you create a businessopportunity that is yours to win. You meet with a potential client,or with someone who may become your advocate within hisorganization. Either way, you start the conversation with someoneon your side.

What does your sales future look like?

Picture a sales world where all yourprospects want to talk to you — a world in whichyou never have to cold call, send cold prospecting emails, orentice prospects with special offers. When you get referrals,you blow your quota out of the water. Your prospects expect to hearfrom you and happily take your call.

Instead of feeling like a pesky telemarketer, you become atrusted expert and advisor. You also save time, source only hot prospects, land your idealclients, and close deals faster.

Yet, while every sales professional understands the unrivaledvalue of referral leads, 95% of companies do not have a writtenreferral-selling strategy, written weekly referral goals,referral-selling skills, accountability for results, or a system totrack and measure.

It’s time to make referrals the way you sell. Stop thetime-wasting, irrelevant, unproductive, frustrating prospectingactivities you think you should be doing. Stop sortingleads into cold, warm, and hot. There’s only one kind of lead thatshould be in your pipeline. Only one kind of lead that counts. Onlyone kind of lead that management cares about. Only one kind oflead you should care about.

That’s hot leads — the kind you source by getting referrals.

Related: Do you know the building blocks of insurancereferral selling?