Get More Client Referrals with LinkedIn

Brynne Tillman |
client referralsGet More Client Referrals with LinkedIn
Typically, a good business development person will tell you that much of their business comes from client referrals. They ask for referrals all the time, and it may sound something like this:

Salesperson: “Ms. Client, thank you very much for your business. Are you happy with the products and services we have been able to help you with over the last few months?”

Client: “Oh, yes Mr. Salesperson, we have been very happy and we love working with you and your company.”

Salesperson: “That is terrific, Ms. Client, the way we grow our business has always been through introductions and recommendations from our happy clients, by chance, do you know of anyone else that could use our products and services?”

Client: “Hmm, let me see, I can’t think of anyone off hand right now, but if I do think of someone I will certainly be happy to introduce you.”

Bummer – not exactly how we had hoped it would go.  But now we have LinkedIn as a powerful tool and this conversation will be much more productive.  Before you go out on the client visit, do the following:

1.Connect with your client on LinkedIn

2.Suggest they look through your connections as you would be happy to make introductions on their behalf

3.Check out their contacts from the search bar as we discussed in the networking section

4.Make a list of 5 prospects that meet your criteria and bring the list with you

 And here is how the conversation may go now:

Client: “Hmm, let me see, I can’t think of anyone off hand right now, but if I think of someone I will certainly be happy to introduce you.”

Salesperson: “Ms. Client, when we connected on LinkedIn I noticed that you were linked to a few folks who would be great introductions for me, would it be alright if I ran them by you?”

Client: “Of course, I would be happy to help!” (you may end up with 2 out of the 5 that they are willing to introduce you to for one reason or another)

Salesperson: “Thank you so much for offering to make these introductions, you can just copy us both in an email and I can take it from there. To make it easier for you would you like me to send you a short introduction paragraph that you can use?”

Client: “That would be great, thanks.”

Salesperson: “I will get that to you by the end of the day. Also, I would be happy to make introductions for you as well, who are you looking to meet?”

If we did just this for each of our clients our pipeline could easily double or more and the business will follow!

CLICK HERE to watch SSL’s LinkedIn for Business Development Video – 5 tips so you NEVER have to cold call again!

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