The Perfect Referral Response

A friend of mine, Jennifer, emailed me to ask if I knew of any printers in her area with online ordering capabilities, like she once had when she worked at IBM. I immediately thought of Peter and sent him an email.

Within three minutes, I received a message from Jennifer: “Holy cow! Peter just called me and is on his way!”

Pretty impressive, wouldn't you say? But seriously, Bill, is this story blog-worthy?

It is, if you consider these additional factors:

1. It was snowing.
2. Wicked hard.
3. The request was for just one thing: Business cards.

All of us would slide down the fireman's pole and race out the door if given the chance to service a large account, but very few would give equal attention for the chance to land a business card order.

So why bother?

First, because Peter recognizes that he has received a gift from within his network. It's a story that I will tell to others (even if I didn't have a blog platform). It encourages me to send the next referral his way. And the next.

Second, it’s a story that Jennifer will tell to others.

And finally, the obvious: this might start as a small order, but Peter now has the inside track as this startup grows.

Respond immediately, both to the referral and to the one who gave you the referral.

Treat everyone like a Rockefeller (wait, this is Massachusetts. Make that a Kennedy) until you know otherwise.

There is never a day when it is not in your best interest to demonstrate your highest and best service. Terrible English, perhaps, but it's the blog subject matter that is perfect, not the blogger.

**********

The next Sales Challenge begins on the first Monday of every month. Go to www.TheSalesChallenge.com and use Promo Code “30for30” to try the program out for 30 days and pay just $30.