Get offline to get your referral.
Social media lead generation can work. But clicking buttons to forge new relationships is a waste of time, and digital referrals are a myth.
Why is asking for referrals on social media a bad idea? And why does taking these conversations offline give your sales team a competitive advantage?
4 Reasons Not to Ask for Referrals on Social Media
1. Referrals are your reputation.
When you introduce someone, you put your reputation on the line. You must have a strong enough relationship to feel confident that this person will follow through, earn the prospect’s trust, and take care of your contact just as you would. You want to know this person will be informative, insightful, and leave your contact with information they can use, even if they don’t buy.
Simply put: You want to be sure the person you’re referring won’t embarrass you and jeopardize your relationship with the buyer.
The same is true for your referral sources. Clients tell me it ticks them off when they receive automated requests for referrals on social media. It’s not only presumptuous; it’s rude—and a big sales mistake.
An exception: It’s OK to write to someone on LinkedIn or send an email asking if they know the person you want to meet. That’s not cold calling. But that’s where digital referrals should stop. Use social media to identify potential referral sources, but then have a conversation to get the referral. If you don’t know someone well enough to pick up the damn phone and talk to them, you don’t know that person well enough to be asking for referrals.
2. You have no clue about the connection.
Nearly half (46%) of LinkedIn users have less than 500 connections, and 27 percent of users have between 501 and 999. Tell me, do you know even 100 people well enough to introduce them to a salesperson?
A LinkedIn connection is not a relationship; it’s a contact name. Granted, everyone’s connected to some people with whom they have actual relationships, but many people accept every LinkedIn invitation, even from perfect strangers.
(Image attribution: Werayuth Tessrimuang)
Until your salespeople actually talk to potential referral sources, they don’t know how those people are connected to their prospects.
3. Your referral source needs to know the business reason for the introduction.
Buyers take referrals when:
- They’re wrestling with a problem, and someone they trust has explained how your company might be able to solve it.
- The referral comes from a trusted colleague who has always sent good people their way. They know they won’t get a pitch from the sales reps this person introduces. Instead, they’ll learn best practices, get insights, and hear stories about what’s going on in other companies in their industry.
Referral sources can’t explain the business reason for talking to your salespeople if they don’t know it, nor can they be sure your sales team will provide relevant insights. At least not without a conversation.
4. You miss key business insights.
When your reps automate referral introductions, they lose the chance to learn more about their prospects. When they take these conversations offline, they don’t just get the referral. They get valuable sales intelligence. They conduct a discovery call with the referral source—the same as if they were speaking directly with a prospect.
How does the referral source know the prospect? What are they like? How do they prefer communicating? What’s important to them, both personally and professionally? Those are the kinds of insights that help seal deals, and you only hear them if you actually talk to the referral source.
(Image attribution: Thanakorn Lappattaranan)
I’ll Let You in on a Secret
I automate my LinkedIn invitation responses. That might come as a surprise if you’ve spent much time on my blog, where I typically discourage automating sales communication. But I only automate responses to people who send automated requests. Send me a personal invitation, and I’ll review your profile and send you a personalized response. Otherwise, this is what you’ll get:
“Many thanks for your invitation to connect. LinkedIn is a place to begin a conversation. Let me know what questions you have about referral selling, and we’ll begin a dialogue.”
You might think this is duplicitous, and that’s OK. Remove my connection. After all, if you received this message, it only took you a couple seconds to add me in the first place.
My goal is to begin a conversation, and many people respond with questions that I’m glad to answer. Some questions are more complex, and we’ll arrange a phone call. Either way, we’ve begun a conversation and started a relationship. That’s what social selling is about.
The Truth About Digital Referrals
There’s a saying in sales that people buy with emotion and justify with fact. If we don’t connect with people on a personal level, we’ll never get the sale—or get referrals. And salespeople stand a far greater chance of learning who their prospects are by talking to people who know them than by reading their LinkedIn profiles.
You can automate your sales process, but you can’t automate relationships. You can’t automate culture. You can’t automate people. And you can’t automate referral lead generation by asking for referrals on social media. You must earn the right to get the referral.
Carefully examine your social media lead generation strategy and include asking for referrals … the right way.
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(Featured image attribution: Khunkorn Laowisit)
