If you would have referrals, you need clients that feel so strongly about you and what you do that they are willing to talk to other people about you. If you would have referenceable clients that you can use as proof of your ability to produce better outcomes, you need clients for whom you have produced real, tangible, measurable, and significant results.

The way to build referrals and referenceable clients is to win dream clients and then to perform for them.

Something Less Than a Dream, Something Less Than a Reference

When you need a reference, who do you ask to provide it? Do you ask the client for whom you are doing acceptable work? Or do you ask the client that recognizes that you are doing head-turning, jaw-dropping, breath-taking, earth-shattering work?

This is the difference between dream clients and simple prospects.

Your company’s churn rate for these clients is probably very, very low. And large or small, these are the clients that appreciate you, that value you the work you do, and who are more than happy to share their experience with others.

Lets Give Them Something to Talk About

Gaining access to referrals means producing the kind of results that are worth talking about. People only talk about one kind of experience: the exceptional. That is true whether the experience is exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. People don’t talk about the perfectly mediocre, simply acceptable, or passable experiences that sit between poor performance and breath taking.

No one says: “Jane, you should call John if you need help in this area. His work is perfectly mediocre and you will find him to be minimally acceptable.”

If you want referrals, you have to do the kind of work on the far end of the range, the remarkable work that people will want to talk about and share with others.

Hence, Dream Clients

Building the ability to ask for and obtain referrals means building a client portfolio of dream clients. Your dream clients are the clients for whom the work you do is meaningful enough that it is worth sharing with others.

Spending time with prospects for which you can produce results that are something less than remarkable means building a business that will not produce referrals and recommendations. There is nothing worth sharing with others.

Questions

What do you have to do as a salesperson to create a remarkable experience about which your clients will want to share it other people?

Who are the clients that make up your reference list? How many of them will describe you and your work as something more than acceptable?

Would you describe the clients on your reference list as dream clients?

Which of your clients provides you with references without you requesting them? What do you different for this client?

For more on increasing your sales effectiveness, subscribe to the RSS Feed for The Sales Blog and my Email Newsletter. Follow me on Twitter, connect to me on LinkedIn, or friend me on Facebook. If I can help you or your sales organization, check out my coaching and consulting firm, B2B Sales Coach & Consultancy, email me, or call me at (614) 212-4729.

Related posts:

1. Building Your Quota-Busting Prospecting Plan If there is only one activity that you can take to immediately improve your sales results, it is prospecting. Some salespeople run into trouble with prospecting because...
2. The Real Secret to Explosive Sales Growth You might think that your company is a manufacturer. You might think it is a service organization. You may even believe that you are a...
3. What If You Were Great at Cold Calling? “I hate cold calling.” “Cold calling is dead.” “Cold calling doesn’t work.” It’s interesting the effect a core set of beliefs can have on your...
4. In Pursuit of a Sales Life of Mediocrity Yes there are two paths you can by, but in the long run, there’s still time to change the road your on. Led Zeppelin Stairway...
5. Invest Your Time Where It Counts: Your Sweet Spot Nothing produces results faster and with greater certainty than selling within your sweet spot. Your Target List Is Necessarily Difficult Some salespeople bounce from one...