Copyright 2013 by Bill Cates. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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This book is dedicated to my daughter, Jenna Cates,
who continues to show me the joy and power of unconditional love,
and to the loving memory of my sister, Linda Cates.
The moment you permit your mind to dwell with dissatisfaction upon things as they are, you begin to lose ground. You fix attention upon the common, the poor, the squalid, and the meanand your mind takes the form of those things. You will then transmit these forms or mental images to the formless. Thus, the common, the poor, the squalid, and the mean will come to you. To permit your mind to dwell upon the inferior is to become inferior and to surround yourself with inferior things. On the other hand, to fix your attention on the best is to surround yourself with the best and to become the best.
The grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best. Therefore, it tends to become the best; it takes the form or character of the best and will receive the best.
Wallace Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich (1910)
CONTENTS
SECTION I
Get More Referrals: Leverage
Your Successful Relationships
SECTION II
Get More Introductions:
Create Connections to Your New Prospects
SECTION III
Get More Appointments: Reach Your New
Prospects and Begin the Conversation
SECTION IV
Get More Clients: Confirm the New
Relationship with High-Value Clients
APPENDIX 1
Whats Your Referral Confidence Quotient?
APPENDIX 2
Professionals Never Stop Practicing
APPENDIX 3
Get Your Assistant or Staff Involved
FOREWORD
It is a real pleasure for me to write this foreword for my friend and colleague Bill Cates. Bill and I have known each other and worked together for years in the exciting business of selling and personal success. He is now the foremost authority in America on helping professionals acquire more and better clients through referrals, faster and easier than ever before, and helping companies build a thriving referral culture.
When I began selling in my early twenties, I received no training except the words go out and talk to as many people as you can. I worked for many months, making calls and going from door to door, making very few sales, and feeling both frustrated and inadequate. Finally, I began asking the question Why is it that some salespeople are more successful than others? The answers changed my career and my life. Once I learned how to sell professionally, my sales increased dramatically. Soon I was recruiting and training other people with my sales ideas. By the time I was 26, I was responsible for six countries and had 95 people under my control, each one of whom I had recruited and trained personally.
Since those early days, I have developed sales training systems that have now been used in 60 countries to train more than 2 million salespeople. Many of the graduates of my programs have gone on to lead their fields, become the top income earners in their professions, own their own businesses, and become self-made millionaires.
One of the factors I discovered was that top salespeople were professionals. They understood every part of the selling process, and they followed a definite plan and schedule to achieve exceptional sales results.
Another key factor I discovered was that top salespeople were extremely good at getting referrals from each customer or non-customer. These referrals led them to more and better sales, faster, and easier. Eventually, the top professionals I worked with developed their careers so that they worked by referral only.
I only wish that I had known the wonderful strategies and techniques that Bill Cates teaches in this book earlier in my career. By following these ideas, salespeople, small business owners, and professionals of all types can create more referrals and stimulate more word-of-mouth sales than they ever thought possible.
It turns out that the highest-paid salespeople in every field, and the highest-paid professionals, are all excellent at getting referrals from one client to another. And the good news is that this is a skill that you can learn, and quite quickly. If you ask properly, referrals are easy to get. Referrals cost nothing. Referrals dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes for you to get in front of a prospective client. Your closing ratio with referrals is higher. The sales process is faster. A good referral will lead you to other referrals from the customers personal and business circle. Referrals are truly the keys to the kingdom of sales success and high income.