I’m on a theme, and since I can usually count on my good friends for some great comments (I never thanked y’all for the comments on focusing your time, so Thanks Jer & Justin, it really helped). But now my theme is… what does it take for you to recommend someone or something? Of course this is a loaded question, but I’m looking for my sales force among my readers and friends. Why? well, it’s simple. I can’t afford a sales team right now, and everything is based on “commission”, so if I have to pay big bucks, I’d rather pay it to my friends… which is what I consider all of you.
So that being said, what would it take for you to remember a company or a product well enough to recommend it to your boss? your client? your previous client? etc… I always hear that cash is king, and one my good friends Jeff reminded me of that a while ago. I initially put out a campaign saying that I’d give anyone 5% of the sale if they referred me and someone bought my stuff. Well, he pointed out that 5% doesn’t mean anything… if they don’t go to the trouble to see that I sell a product for $50, or $50,000, well %5 is a whole different meaning. So he encouraged me to pick a dollar amount… a big dollar amount, and I said ok… $10,000 if you get me a sale (and by that, I’m only looking for a lead that turns into a sale). Sadly, I only got one response, and I was never able to talk to the lead… so that got me questioning… what would it take. If you’re reading this right now, what would encourage you to recommend or at least give me a name of someone that might be interested? Is it a paid vacation somewhere? Is it $10,000? Is it $20,000? is it 50% of the sale price? or is there any amount that could get you to pimp something for me or anyone else for that matter?
Now I know that every person is different. For me, if I had a friend doing this, I’d do it for nothing more than some reciprocity in the future. so… what’s your number? how well do you need to be connected to the product before you’d be willing to say, “Hey Joe, have you seen this product? I know you do this stuff, think it might be a fit for you?”. Would you have to be a user/buyer of the product before you’d ever talk to someone else? Or is it something you personally would never do unless it was your own business/product?
Again, I’d love to hear from you guys out there. Don’t even lock yourself into an industry. Just tell me what it would take for you to direct someone to a product…
Thanks for reading.
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike