Warm referrals > cold outreach

Referral selling is powerful. 90% of all buying decisions rely on peer recommendations and 84% of buyers start their buying process from a referral.

But not all referrals are created equal.

Most notably, there is a big difference between cold and warm referrals.

Cold referral = recommending your product to a new lead
Warm referral = recommending your product to an existing prospect

From the perspective of your supporter, cold referrals "cost" much more social capital. They're asking their contacts to evaluate something brand new.

In contrast, warm referrals are easy: your supporters are simply encouraging their contacts to proceed with something they're already evaluating.

We recommend having two different approaches to referral selling to accommodate these different referral types.

Here’s our suggestion:

1. Use Cabal to sync your CRM.
2. Create two separate lists: Current Pipeline and Target Accounts. Current Pipeline is for warm referrals; Target Accounts is for cold referrals.
3. Create two referral email templates customized for warm and cold outreach.
4. When your supporters visit your Deal Board, they will be able to toggle between these lists and have a better understanding of the deal context.

Remember: your investors, advisors, and other contacts want to help. Moreover, they love having a hand in facilitating a closed-won deal and they love it even more when you recognize them for it.

Condition this behavior by focusing your initial Referral Selling efforts on pipeline conversion.

If you’re at the beginning of your Referral Selling journey, we’d love to help. Grab time with us or drop us a line at help@getcabal.com.