Devoted to lead generation, lead generators, and successful lead gen campaigns

Here's the rest of author Bob Burg's answer to my question, "Why don't salespeople work hard to get referrals?"  If you missed part one of his answer, go back and read it.

Here's ther rest of his thoughts on the subject:

"I remember being brought in by a very big insurance company to work on helping to get their agents to be totally independent in terms of generating business. Up to that time, company-generated leads had been their biggest source of new prospects. However, things had begun to change and the company-generated leads were becoming fewer both in terms of quantity and quality.

 

The company wanted to teach them how to get really great at generating referrals. What I quickly found out was that the “mechanics” (the how-to) was the easy part. The difficult part was getting them over their fear. From that point on, the first thing I began to teach at my “Endless Referrals” seminars is how to overcome the fear. Once they do that, the how-to is easy. And, fortunately, the company’s referral-based business began to explode."

For me, this was really thought provoking.  I don't know if I would have identified "fear" as a reason I didn't get referrals in the past...but it makes sense.  We're afraid to lose the sale...we're afraid to "bother" the decision maker...on and on and on.

Don't let fear handcuff your referral efforts.