Episode 3: 3 Ways to Use Sales Navigator to Get Referrals

Stan Robinson, Jr.  00:00

Welcome to the Sales Navigator live show with Stan and Brynne. Join LinkedIn expert and sales professional Brynne Tillman, and me, Stan Robinson, Jr, Chief coaching Officer here at Social Sales Link, as we bring you the best tips and strategies for leveraging Sales Navigator for your sales success. Enjoy the show!

Hello, Brynne. How are you today?

Brynne Tillman  00:41

I am great, Stan, so excited to talk about this topic. It's one of my favorites.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  00:48

Yes, indeed, referrals are our gold. And I think people will be excited about it because I think for a lot of us, it's one that we're not using as much as we can and should, especially given the numbers that are out there in terms of people's willingness to give them and thank you for just popping that right in so everyone can see it. 

Brynne Tillman  01:19

And for those that are listening, we're going to talk about some statistics that we got from Kinsta kinsta.com/blog/linkedin-statistics. So I'm sending that your way, Stan.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  01:38

Yes. Thank you. So I think you all know us, Stan Robinson, I’m a Chief Coaching Officer here at Social Sales Link, and excited to be here with Brynne Tillman, LinkedIn whisperer, LinkedIn expert, and founder here at Social Sales Link.

Brynne Tillman  01:58

Fun! So let's get started with this party.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  02:04

Yes, so one of the reasons we wanted to talk about referrals is because they are so powerful, and looking at some of these statistics, even more so than I realized, and it looks like they're becoming increasingly powerful. So roughly 84% of buyers are strongly influenced by recommendations from friends and family. In this context, of course, we're talking about business colleagues, but the concept is the same. And here's the one that blew my mind, about 91% of customers said they'd be happy to give referrals. But conversely, only about 11% of sales people actually asked for them. And that, that is sad. So it's leaving money on the table.

Brynne Tillman  03:05

So repeat that, again. 91% of customers are willing to give referrals, how many are getting them?

Stan Robinson, Jr.  03:13

And about 11% of salespeople are asking for referrals.

Brynne Tillman  03:20

Stan, that's huge. There are 80% referrals that are not happening that could be.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  03:31

That could be happening. So yeah, so it's money that is being left on the table, and most of us can't afford to leave money on the table. So that is why referrals are.. that's why we wanted to talk about these because we could see it's an area that if you want a quick way to increase your revenue, build relationships with people who already know you, which is our best source of new business, ideally, referrals are one way to do it. 

Now, a couple of things about referrals. Number one, when you look at a low cost way of generating leads, it's hard to beat the minimal amount of time it takes to ask for a referral. So asking for a referral is free. You don't have to spend money on ads, you don't have to try to do things with SEO but all you have to do is ask. 

So number one is a low cost way of generating leads. Now statistics also say that up to 50% of referrals convert to actual conversations and when you think about other prospecting methods, In what percentage of your outreach turns into conversations with other forms of outreach?

Brynne Tillman  05:09

You know what's so interesting about this, Stan, when they think about what you're talking about, so many people will say, I don't have the time. I don't have the time or when I ask for referrals, they don't know who to introduce me to, we're gonna fix that but you know, when you you talk about this opportunity that's here that so few people are taking advantage of, I'm blown away at those opportunities that are being left on the table and I think that, you know, you talked about low cost of client acquisition. If you're, and this isn't labor too, we think of client acquisition, we're paying our sales reps to, you know, to cold call, you know, we're paying for software for campaigns, we're paying, when, really, especially if you have a seasoned sales team, that have had amazing clients that love them. Why are we cold calling? Why are we spending money on Google ads? Why are we not leveraging the people that already love us? And you're right, it's, it's really free. I mean, I don't want to jump ahead, but you keep going you're totally blowing my mind with some of these stats.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  06:53

Now, John, I see John here in chat makes a really good point, you have to perform. In other words, your product or service has to do what you say it's going to do in order to earn referrals. So that's a great point, you can't have a terrible product and expect people to refer to you just because they did business with you. So thank you. That's an excellent point, John. It is.

Brynne Tillman  07:20

And if I can add to that, unless your client is thrilled with you. Don't ask for a referral. Make sure you're fixing what's going on internally, you know, we want all our clients to be as happy as possible to be as you know, as and, you know, asking for a referral is when we hit Nirvana with them. So I love that.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  07:51

Yep, exactly. And another thing about referrals, and these two are related, is that when someone refers you to one of their colleagues or peers, they're basically transferring their credibility to you and that saves a huge amount of time and building that know, like trust relationship.

Brynne Tillman  08:20

Repeat that that was a magic moment. When someone refers you they’re…

Stan Robinson, Jr.  08:26

They're transferring their credibility with the person that they're referring you to, to you. Now, yeah,

Brynne Tillman  08:35

Go ahead, go keep going. This is magic.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  08:37

Oh. So it saves you a tremendous amount of time, in terms of building that know, like, and trust relationship, because a lot of salespeople will agree that the hardest thing is getting that first conversation. And if someone refers you, and Brynne, will be talking about different ways to refer such as name dropping, the golden, is when someone makes a phone call with you right there. But that's not going to happen all the time but regardless, though, one of the most powerful things about referrals is that transfer of credibility, so you don't have to start from scratch. The relationship that's already been established between the person giving you the referral, and the person you're being referred to.

Brynne Tillman  09:33

That yeah, there's so much traffic in this. And, you know, the way my brain works is I hear you and I start like, building my gears are going, but let's take a look at how vital this is right? We have built credibility in our network. This is key to why we cannot be out, connecting and pitching. Why we have to be a resource. We have to be a value to our network. We have to be seen as a strong networker. Because people are, we need to create relationships where people are willing to leverage their credibility for us to meet new people. So, you know, you know, you could ask for referrals all day long, but if they don't feel comfortable referring you, it's not going to happen. So I love that. So that's gonna go back. And you know, as Stan and I go, weeks and weeks and weeks we're going to often talk  about how being a resource first will help us convert but what's the next point here for today?

Stan Robinson, Jr.  10:50

So, related to that is the fact that referrals can help you shorten your sales cycle. Now, obviously, it depends on the type of product or service that you're offering. But just the fact that you're saving time and building trust and credibility, it will save you time in your sales cycle. And the other is that referrals are a gift that can just keep on giving. As long as you keep asking for referrals, you have a source of great leads, Brynne, any any thoughts on that?

Brynne Tillman  11:26

So let's think about this, right? If we're starting, and this is gonna help seasoned professionals, significantly more than the brand new rep, right? Like this is important, because you've got these relationships, the brand new rep can build it over time. But if you've been in business for few years, and people know you, and they've bought from you and you to John's point, in comments that you've brought enough value to the table, we're now hitting that 91% of these folks that are willing to refer us and willing to refer us is not one to one necessarily. And we'll get into how to do this in a little bit. But one client, well, let's say you have one client and one buyer that has many connections, you have one client with one buyer and three influencers with many connections, you have one client with one buyer, three influencers and five users with lots of connections. So from that point, it's not one to one, right? 

There are many people within an organization where we've brought value that we can get referrals from. And there are many referrals that we can get from each person. So if you go to your book of business, and over the last three years, you serve 10 clients, there might be 50 people to reach out to and of those 50 people, maybe there are 10 names that we want referrals to. So now is that 500? Am I doing the math, right?

Stan Robinson, Jr.  13:05

If we're doing it like that, yep. If we're doing the 50X10.

Brynne Tillman  13:09

So now we have 500 people to reach out to and if you're good at what you do, and what you sell has a need. You're going to close business in those 500, which will now be more people, for you to get referrals from.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  13:26

Yep, thank you, because it is a never ending building source of leads for you. John, thank you for sharing those resources. I did want to shout out to Rob, I haven't seen you in a while. So thank you for joining us. John, Chantel. Everyone else. Thanks so much. So let's dive into Sales Navigator. What makes Sales Navigator special as far as our ability to use it to generate referrals. 

Now, one of the aspects is, of course, the search filters and the additional search filters beyond LinkedIn. The one we'll start by talking about is just once you've set up your ideal customer profile, you can search based on second degree connections and see those shared connections,  why LinkedIn and Sales Navigator call mutual and shared connections different words? 

Brynne Tillman  14:32

Because they're siloed. And they don't talk to each other. Don't talk to each other but shared connections are perfect.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  14:39

Yes, so you can see exactly who those are. And then put together a strategy for how you want to reach out to them. Brynne, any thoughts on that just in terms of using Sales Navigator’s capability like that? 

Brynne Tillman  14:56

Yeah, there's so many amazing filters. We’ve talked a little bit about that in our a previous Sales Navigator Insights Live, but there are a few I just want to point out. My favorite is it used to be called spotlights on some people it’s still spotlights on other people it keeps moving, but you want to look for the filter that's shared on LinkedIn in the last 30 days. And the reason we want to do that is because these are active folks, right. And so as we're going to reach out, it's much better to engage with active folks than people than people that don't show up on LinkedIn a whole lot. So I love that, depending on what you do for a living. Ultimately, there are other things like change jobs in the last 90 days. 

So if you are someone that you know, maybe a financial advisor with a 401ks to rollover, or maybe you have a hard time getting into companies, because they're really happy with their vendor and switching is difficult. Well, if someone is new in a job, they may be more open because they want to make a change. So using some of those filters, and the second degree connection is magic. And what happens is you now get a list, let's say of active people or job title change. And you get a whole list of all the people that meet your ideal customer profile. And you can see how many people you have in common. 

So I see Stan Robinson and I go, Oh my gosh, we have 42 people in common. Now I can go through that list. Highlight or identify, go, Oh, Bob woods. I know Bob woods, Bob knows, Stan. I'm going to reach out to Bob and say, “Hey, Bob, hope you're well noticed you're connected to Stan Robinson. I'm going to be reaching out to him in the next few days but before I did, I was wondering how well do you know him? Do you have any insights you might be able to share?” And then I go to the next shared connection. Gunnar Hood, I know Gunnar Hood. Okay, I want to meet Stan, Gunner, same message, “I notice you're connected to Stan Robinson, I'm going to be reaching out to him in the next couple of days before I do. I'm wondering how well do you know him?” 

So of these 42 connections, maybe there's eight or 10 that I actually send that note to? And two or three are going to come back and say, “Oh, yes, Stan, he's great. I worked with him years ago. We went to the same college, (which is a really good college by the way, both of them, go check out Stan’s college) Yeah, or whatever, you know, and a few might say, you know, I see Stan’s stuff, but I don't know that he's gonna, you know, I don't know if he's gonna know me, right? Like there's. 

So as we go through this list before you two becomes two, or three or four. And then based on my relationship, let's say with Gunner, I can either someone like Gunner, I could say, you know, Would you be open to making an introduction, but let's say, the people that come back to me, I don't know really well, they don't know what I do really well, but we're connected. I may just simply say, “Hey, thanks for the insights, you know, when I reach out to Stan, should I tell him you said hello.?” And all of a sudden, they're like, either they're like, oh, yeah, sure. I just took the pressure off them, because they thought I was gonna ask for an introduction, and I don't know them well enough. I maybe have not built up enough of that credibility yet with them but I still want to leverage the connection. So I reach out and I'm like, “Stan, I was chatting with Bob Woods on LinkedIn. Your name came up. When I was telling him a little bit about what I'm doing. He thought I should reach out and introduce myself. He says hello.” And you know, he says hello, and like, oh, or if I didn't tell him at all what I was doing with you. I could just simply say, “Hey, Stan was chatting with Bob woods on LinkedIn. Your name came up, he said, Hello. The reason I'm reaching out is because I love your one click vote on a poll. I'd love a quote for any book that I'm doing.” Don't say I'm reaching out to sell you but I'm reaching out because I want your thoughts and your value. Your perspective on something. And it's a higher level of credibility. And I'm making you matter, right? 

So Stan is gonna definitely say, “Sure, we'll talk.” And by the way, it feels like a lot of work when I'm saying it. It's not a lot of work. And if the number one objection we hear is “I just don't have time.” Well, the amount of time it takes to do this, to get a 50%, schedule rate, talk rate, Conversation rate. How do you have time not to do this? Whatever you're spending your other time in, as Stan said earlier, there is no way I believe there is absolutely no way you're getting an ROI better than this for your time.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  20:55

Yep. Yep. And, this should stay up on LinkedIn. So it's a good question.

Brynne Tillman  21:04

Yeah. Jay had a question for our listeners. Do you archive those previous insights? If you go to Stan's live LinkedIn, you can look at his events in his activity, and they'll all be there. This will also be and if you're listening, you're like it already is a podcast. So we'll have that where you'll be able to subscribe to the podcast as well. And if you're listening to the podcast, which is probably weeks after we've recorded this, please subscribe. And follow us.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  21:40

Yes, Jay, I'm glad. Yeah, Gunnar is awesome. I think we can all agree on that. So yeah…

Brynne Tillman  21:49

You want to read this or shall I?

Stan Robinson, Jr.  21:52

So real quick, great question, Rob. I've been thinking about referrals a lot. Since I've only been in my territory for less than a year and still building relationships with current customers. I'm scared to ask for the connection. So Thanks, Rob because I know you're not the only one who'll be listening to this with that question.

Brynne Tillman  22:11

Can  I tackle this?

Stan Robinson, Jr.  22:13

Absolutely.

Brynne Tillman  22:13

Okay, thanks. So I guess the question is, do you have happy clients yet? And if you don't, what I'd love for you to do is when you're talking with prospects, ask them who their other trusted advisors are, that sell to them, but are not competitors and you just can say to them, “Hey, I'm looking to build my network of really strong acts.” Like for us, it's sales trainers, or marketers, right? There are a lot of different folks that refer to sales trainers as our largest referral source, because this is typically a gap in the LinkedIn Sales Navigator, right? That's typically the gap that sales trainers don't have. So we fit into that perfectly. So we know that's a great place to prospect. 

So if you're talking with a prospect, and maybe it's a weak prospect, you're just building a relationship, you don't know where it's going at you and you're building rapport, you can say, “Hey, you know, I'm just, I'm looking to meet X people. I noticed when we connected on LinkedIn before this meeting, you were connected to quite a few of them. Are there any that you know well enough, that you think would be someone that I could network with at a high level of credibility?” And so use your connections to find referral partners. And then it's like, at that point, you'll, you'll start making introductions for one another, you've been here a year, hopefully, you've got a lot of the right connections. And if they haven't closed for you, maybe by reconnecting them with someone else, it will get them remembering how great you are. And it could open up opportunities again, as well.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  24:08

Thank you, Rob, that was a great question. Did want to because this time, always flies did want to talk about one other capability. And you may say, Well, you can do this and LinkedIn, why do you bring it up here. That fact that you can search someone else's connections. So if you have someone that you have a great relationship with, maybe you've done great work for them. You can plug their name in like search gunner hoods connections, and see who they're connected to, based on Sales Navigator filters, which are so much more extensive than LinkedIn.

Brynne Tillman  24:55

Yeah, keep going. You're on a roll.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  24:58

So the point being that you can really narrow down your search because all of you who've been using Sales Navigator know that the challenge is never not having enough prospects, it's always okay, how do I get this list from 1500, down to about 200, that I can actually go through without feeling overwhelmed. So the ability to search your connection’s connections based on some very specific filters.

Brynne Tillman  25:32

Some of the filters that we talked about some of those spotlight, not spotlight anymore, but some of the filters at that point, sometimes, like, you and I are in the greater New York area. But sometimes like that you have this huge list. So maybe I'm gonna say, Linden and Westfield and Clark and right, and I'm going to look at five downs. Or this is what you can do on Sales Navigator that you can't do in the free, a 10 mile radius. So we can bring that down, especially if we're back on the road and we want to visit people in person.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  26:15

Yep. Exactly. Exactly. And one other thing that we did want to point out also is that in Sales Navigator, when you're in an account, you can look at your first degree connections within that account as well. So any of you if you're doing Account Based Marketing or account be selling, when you're in your account, because sometimes people change companies. And you may think, Well, you know, I know where my good buddy John Smith is, is working or what he's doing. But it's impossible to keep up with, especially once you've started to build significant network. So sales, nav can easily surface people for you at your target accounts, you can easily just look for your first degree connections, that accounts that you're trying to penetrate.

Brynne Tillman  27:09

Yeah, and you know, this is a filter that went away from Sales Navigator, and I begged them, I'm like me, this is so important. So I'd like to think I brought it back. But I'm sure it didn't. The bottom line though, is, you know, whether the right person or the wrong person, they're in the right account. And so having that in that can champion and even make some internal introductions, is so powerful. I did this years ago, with Sungard, a friend of mine, or  it's my boy's friend, Paige, her mother worked at Sungard. I reached out to her actually, I saw it on LinkedIn but I reached out on Facebook, because I had never had a LinkedIn engagement with her before. And we were friendly. 

So I reached out to Jean, and we had a wonderful conversation. And she came to class and then brought me in to meet the right people. It's a longer story than that, but then Sungard became my client. So you know, she was not the decision maker, but she had enough relationships internally to get me there. So I put up real quick, if you guys have deeper questions that you want to get answered, if you go to socialsalelink.com/events and scroll down once a month, we have a group coaching call, that's open to everyone. And you could come in and ask Stan or myself, any of your Sales Navigator questions. So I just wanted to say.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  29:01

We actually covered what we promised. Along those lines. I'd encourage you to go back and listen to some of these because one of the things I love about working with Brynne is the ideas that she talks about. They sound great when you listen to them the first time. When you go back and listen to them again, you say oh my goodness, because she's all about being authentic. And I don't know if you know many of you may have mothers like mine who basically said, you know, always tell the truth, because then you don't have to remember what you said. So a small example, if Brynne is talking, is direct messaging with someone on LinkedIn, in her outreach. She says I was chatting on LinkedIn, with John or Sue, specifically on LinkedIn, so it doesn't make it sound like she was on the phone with the person. So something as small as that. And when you go back and listen to the recording again, you'll see exactly what I mean. So you'll pull some, some more nuggets from that.

Brynne Tillman  30:13

Yeah, and if you happen to be on a phone call, you could say I was on a phone call, I was on a zoom call, but you're right. If it's just LinkedIn messaging, you need to be authentic. So thanks for bringing that out. We live in a world of a lot of in, inauthenticity, and doesn't mean that we need to follow suit. That's why we're anti automation, everything, you know, no one is answering my messages, but me. And sometimes it takes a little longer for me to get to them, but know that it's me. You know, and I think it's really, really important that we, I love that you said that, that this is our voice. It's authentic, and that when we show up, it's exactly the person we match exactly the way we sound on LinkedIn is the way we're gonna sound gonna sound. So I gotta write go to, instead of going to, because that's how I sound. Right? But ultimately, we're going to sound the same way that we do. It's just, it's just important. So I appreciate that you brought that up. And by the way, that's one of the reasons I love working with you because you are as authentic as it gets.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  31:29

So thank you very much. Appreciate it. And thanks to all of you for joining us, John. Rob. Great question. Yep. Kurt J. John, for the resources that you shared. And look forward to seeing you next week, same time, same place, and let your friends know. Thank you, bye now! 

Outro:  22:50

Thanks for listening and join us again for more insights on Sales Navigator and social selling strategies that will differentiate you from your competitors and accelerate your sales success. In the meantime, you can go to socialsaleslink.com/library for free content on LinkedIn Sales Navigator and social selling.