The right guide for content Marketing and how you can get more leads..

1. The Secret Ingredients Collection
The
No Fuss Recipe for
Hot Referral
Leads
Hot Referral
Leads
Get your revenue cooking with the ultimate B2B referral program

2. Table of contents
Introduction · 3
Getting started · 5
Step 1: Take stock of your ingredients · 7
Joanne Black’s Secret Ingredient · 9
Matt Heinz‘s Secret Ingredient · 14
Step 2: Equip yourself with the right tools · 15
Jill Rowley’s Secret Ingredient · 18
Step 3: Get some cooks into the kitchen · 19
Trish Bertuzzi’s Secret Ingredient · 21
Step 4: Prep your most important ingredient -
your advocates · 22
Jim Keenan’s Secret Ingredient · 23
Now you’re cooking · 24

3. Referrals shorten sales cycles, reduce customer acquisition costs, increase deal sizes
and attract more loyal customers.
This is why it’s so surprising that the vast majority of B2B companies don’t have a good
system in place to consistently generate qualified referral leads from their customers,
partners, investors and other fans.
You can grow a business without a referral program in place, but like bread without
yeast, your organization won’t rise to same heights as companies that have made
referrals a critical component of their sales, marketing and customer success
strategies.
Not all referral programs are created equal, however. Without the right ingredients, or
if you don’t pay enough attention to how they’re mixed together and served to your
customers, you may risk leaving an awful taste in their mouths -- one they’re not likely
to forget.
This recipe book is designed to help B2B sales, marketing and customer success
Introduction
What is a referral?
Simply put, a referral is a lead passed to your company through
an existing relationship. It’s more than contact information. The
signature of a solid referral is that someone is willing to put their
reputation on the line for the warm introduction or hot lead
they’ve provided. Referrals come in many forms, but the most
valuable are those passed to you from happy customers, partners
and employees.
3

4. professionals work together to whip up a referral program that results in happier,
more engaged customers and a surge in revenue influenced by your company’s
biggest fans.
After all, whether you call them happy customers, promoters, referrers, or advocates,
like we do, these people are the key ingredient in this referral recipe.
2xMORE
RESPONSIVE
83
percent
29
percent
16%
HIGHER
83% of satisfied customers
are willing to refer services
to friends, colleagues and
industry peers. Yet, on
average, only 29% do.
– Advisor Impact
Peer-recommended
leads are 2.5x more
responsive than leads
generated by any other
marketing channel.
– American Marketing
Association
A referred customer has a
16% higher customer
lifetime value.
– Journal of Marketing
Did you know?
4
You can follow this recipe book to the letter, or add in a dash of your own ingredients
here and there along the way to spice things up. Either way, your company’s bottom
line will benefit from these best practices as well as the secret ingredients shared by
Jill Rowley, Joanne Black, Matt Heinz, Trish Bertuzzi, Jim Keenan and more.

5. Most referral programs at B2B companies today don’t amount to much more than
keeping your fingers crossed and wishing, hoping and praying that one of your
customers will recommend you, out of the blue, to someone in their network. (In fact,
the term ‘bluebird’ in sales refers to an opportunity, or actual sale, that presents itself
to a salesperson without any direct sales effort.)
Getting started
Influitive’s referral program
You wouldn’t treat any other critical area of your business this way, so why take such a
passive stance on referrals?
5

6. If you have the sudden urge to email every last one of your customers to ask them to
refer you to everyone in their contact list, just take a few deep breaths and hold on.
That’s not the way to go about it.
Your customers are used to asking you for favors, not the other way around, and
requesting a referral is a big one.
You’ll have to do a bit of preparation to build toward an ask like this.
6

7. As with any recipe, if you don’t have the the right ingredients from the outset, your
referrals program will come out all wrong. Some are more important than others
(you’ll notice that strong relationships are #1 on the list and raving fans are a “key
ingredient”), but when you have all five, you know you’re cooking.
Step 1: Take stock of your
ingredients
Ingredients
- Strong relationships
- Simple, easy and fun advocate experience
- Clear communication that sets expectations
- Recognition and rewards
KEY INGREDIENT:
- Raving fans, evangelists and advocates
7

8. Strong relationships
Referrals are all about relationships. People give us referrals because they like and
trust us. According to referral sales expert Joanne Black, the most successful referral
programs are based on strong relationships, particularly with our current and former
clients, who know first-hand the value we can provide.
“Some companies don’t even touch their clients except through technology,” she says.
“Start by reaching out to current clients, especially if you haven’t talked to them in a
while. It’s amazing what happens when you start to have those conversations.”
“Some companies don’t even touch their
clients except through technology.”
– Joanne Black, Founder of No More Cold Calling
When that relationship is established, your customer can be confident that everything
is up-to-date and you’re providing value to them. Then, all you have to do is: ask!
Simple as pie.
“All we had to do to get customer referrals was (1) ask customers and
(2) make it easy for them,” says Bo Bandy, Marketing Communications
Manager at ReadyTalk. “They want to share the awesome experience
that they’ve had with ReadyTalk.”
In the first 10 weeks of ReadyTalk’s advocate marketing program, Bo was able to
generate 183 referrals from the company’s advocates. Five of those become sales-
qualified opportunities and two actually closed – in record time compared to most of
ReadyTalk’s sales opportunities.
INGREDIENT
8

9. TWEET THIS: We need to tweet less and talk more to the
customers and contacts who really matter.
Joanne Black
Founder of No More Cold Calling
Author of Pick Up the Damn Phone!
How People, Not Technology, Seal the Deal
SECRET INGREDIENT: Relationships seal the deal
SECRET INGREDIENT: Relationships seal the deal
It’s easy to get enamored with and distracted by technology. But the
personal touch is the best deal maker that exists. The digital world,
as great as it is, threatens personal connections. Email, texting, social
networking – these certainly have a place in business today, but none of
them replaces the power of a personal connection! It’s not technology,
but rather the person using the technology, that sets you apart from your
competitors. Your customers want to do business with you, not with your
keyboard.
When you see TWEET THIS, click the Twitter icon to
share the quote with your followers.

10. Simple, easy and fun advocate
experience
Getting your advocates to refer new business to you should not be an arduous
process for you or your customers. Jill Rowley, Social Selling Evangelist at Oracle, says
the first step she recommends for building a great referral program is to make it
easy, fun and collaborative to participate.
“Look at where you may have other potential customers in the groups and associations
that your current customers belong to, and then make it easy for customers to invite
people in their network to learn about your solution,” she says.
“Make it easy for customers to invite
people in their network to learn about your
solution.” – Jill Rowley, Social Selling Evangelist at Oracle
“When you do that, you make it easy, fun and collaborative - meaning that you do it
together rather than sending them off to do it on their own without any input or help
from you.”
A positive advocate experience means that your customers will actually be happy to
refer you because they’re not only helping you, but also someone they know with a
challenge they have in their business.
INGREDIENT
10

11. Clear communication that sets
expectations
Don’t scare off your advocates before they refer a single lead to you by leaving too
much to their imagination. At the outset, make it clear to your customers and other
potential referrers:
- Who they should refer
- How your referral process works
- The status of their previous referrals and next steps
- What they can expect in terms of recognition or rewards
When you do this, they will be confident that they are sending you the right people.
You’ll help them look smart while ensuring only high-quality leads are referred to you.
INGREDIENT
Tell your advocates who your ideal customer is
Invest some time in educating your advocates about what an
ideal customer looks like and why. “The best thing you can do
is share with people what you’re looking for,” says Jim Keenan,
President and CEO of A Sales Guy Inc. “Let them know the type
of person or company you want them to refer you to – you have
to do the work for them.”
11

12. Recognition and rewards
Should you or shouldn’t you reward customers, partners and other fans for referrals?
It’s a hotly debated issue. On the one hand, why would anyone refer a customer to you
if there’s nothing in it for them?
At the same time, however, you don’t want people dumping a bunch of bad leads into
your funnel just to cash in on the rewards.
“There are certain people who will start referring their aunts, cousins,
uncles and the guy next door to you if they want something badly
enough and it’s easy enough to attain,” says Liz Richardson, Social
Media Marketing Manager at Bomgar, who manages the company’s
advocate marketing program. “We want to reward long-term
interaction with us much more than a three-day sprint.”
There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all rewards model for B2B referral programs –
your best bet is to provide rewards that resonate with the customer or other advocate
who provided the referral. This means you’ll have to be flexible in terms of the rewards,
perks or prizes that you offer.
INGREDIENT
12

13. Raving fans, evangelists and
advocates
Ask anyone, including the sales and marketing experts featured in this recipe book,
why their customers refer new business to them, and chances are they’ll tell you it’s
because they provide exceptional products, services and customer support.
These are the three primary ways B2B companies typically create promoters,
evangelists and advocates who are willing to contribute to content, present at an
event, speak to analysts or media, provide customer references and, of course, give
referrals.
In fact, Jill Rowley says she treats everyone that she works with as a potential future
advocate. “I have eliminated the word ‘prospect’ from my vocabulary,” she says.
“I’m always thinking about how I can make them so successful that they become an
advocate of my product, of my company, and of me, Jill Rowley.”
Don’t overlook non-customer referrals
Referrals from delighted customers are often the highest-
converting leads (at Influitive, they convert at a rate 854% higher
than all other leads), but solid referrals can come from many
other sources as well. Employees, partners and investors are also
passionate and knowledgeable about your company, and have a
strong interest in helping your company succeed.
KEY INGREDIENT
13

14. TWEET THIS: Make your customers look good by providing
immediate value to the person they referred you to.
Matt Heinz
President of Heinz Marketing
SECRET INGREDIENT: Adding value
When I get a referral, my job is to establish rapport, provide value and
build business with the person who’s been referred by sharing as much
insight as I can right away. People should know that, if they bring their
referrals to us, they’re going to get value no matter what.
Matt’s referrals rockstar: Oracle Eloqua
People like Jill Rowley and others in the Oracle sales organization do a
nice job of building value. Before they ask for introductions, they tell me
how to make a referral, what they’re looking for and what problems we
can solve. Once I make the referral, I know there’s value there.

15. While strong one-on-one relationships with customers are undoubtedly a key
ingredient to a successful referrals program, they don’t scale very well – and that’s
often where B2B companies struggle to take their referral programs from a trickle to a
landslide.
The following tools provide a better, more productive experience for both you and
your customers, which will encourage them to refer you business more than once.
Step 2: Equip yourself with
the right tools
Tools
- Email nurturing
- Referral page
- Social media integration
- CRM integration (e.g., Salesforce)
15

16. Referral page
The easier you make it for your customers to
provide referrals, the better. They shouldn’t have
to wonder who to send their referrals to, what
you’ll do with their contact’s information, and what
happens next after they’ve submitted a referral.
Create a simple but informative referrals page
that describes the process, step by step, and
answers any frequently asked questions your
customers may have about submitting referrals.
Some advocate marketing or referral management
platforms already have this, so all you have to do is
customize the text.
Social integration
Your next customer is likely hiding in the professional network of a current customer,
so there’s no better place to look than LinkedIn.
Allowing people to connect to their LinkedIn accounts on your referrals page can
remind them who in their network might be a good fit to work with you, increase the
likelihood that they’ll submit a referral, and also boost the volume of referrals they
submit overall.
16

17. CRM integration
Use your customer relationship management software, such as Salesforce or Sugar
CRM, to track the progress of your referrals through your sales pipeline, and eventually
attribute revenue to each referral (or even each advocate).
Ideally, your CRM should integrate with your referral or advocate marketing platform
so your advocates can:
- Send referrals directly to you and into the CRM at the same time
- Get recognized or rewarded for their referrals
- See the progress of their referrals on the referrals page
Email nurturing
Keeping your advocates continually engaged with easily digestible bits and bites
of information – industry resources and best practices, success stories, the status
of the referrals they’ve sent you, company news, or other ways they can help you
achieve your goals, for example – will keep you top of mind (even when you and your
customers are too busy to meet for lunch).
17

18. TWEET THIS: My secret ingredient to referral success is
to always be providing my customers with useful, quality
content.
Jill Rowley
Social Selling Evangelist at Oracle
SECRET INGREDIENT: Content
I share content that helps my customers get smarter, improve their
teams, or understand how other customers have tackled certain
issues. Not only do I use content as my currency before, during and
after a customer signs, but I use my network extensively to connect my
customers to other customers and partners who could add value.
Jill’s referrals rockstar: DocuSign
DocuSign does a great job encouraging their customers and employees
to submit referral business. The whole company works together to
focus on their customers and make them successful, resulting in more
referrals.

19. Too often at B2B companies, everybody “owns” referrals. In reality, that means nobody
owns them and no one is motivated to set goals, work to meet them, and develop
cross-functional strategies and processes to generate more referral leads.
To make your referral program work, you’ll need three types of cooks in the kitchen: an
executive chef, a sous-chef and a handful of line cooks.
Step 3: Get some cooks into
the kitchen
Cooks
- Executive chef (CMO)
- Sous-chef (program manager)
- Line cooks (departmental allies)
19

20. Executive chef (CMO)
In an age of social connectivity when so much of the B2B buying process is conducted
as recommendations, reviews and references between trusted peers – well before
buyers engage with sales – it’s more critical than ever that CMOs and other marketing
leaders develop scalable advocacy programs, including referral programs. That’s why
the directive for your referral program has to come directly from the C-suite (usually
the CMO), and trickle across, down and throughout the organization to be successful.
Sous-chef (program manager)
Taking direction from the executive chef, the program manager handles the day-to-
day strategy and execution of the program, and acts as a central point of contact for
departmental allies. The referral program manager will most often be a customer
marketer, community manager or advocate marketer, but they can also come from
outside the marketing department, working in sales or customer success, for example.
Line cooks (departmental allies)
A referral program is more like a seven-course meal than a batch of cookies, which
means it needs more than one cook in the kitchen to be successful. Departmental
allies from sales, customer success and product management are key to connecting
your referral program manager to customers and other advocates as they come into
contact and have relationships with your company.
Ideally, one member from each relevant department will act as a referral program
liaison, collaborating with the program manager on a regular basis to generate
referrals and track them as they move through the sales funnel.
20

21. TWEET THIS: If you want more referrals, the remedy is
simple: step up and ask.
Trish Bertuzzi
President and Chief Strategist of The Bridge Group
SECRET INGREDIENT: The ask
Most businesses don’t have referral programs because everyone’s
uncomfortable asking for referrals. That makes the remedy simple…if you
don’t ask, you don’t get, so step up and ask.
Trish’s advice for sales leaders: Reward for referrals
It would be interesting if a sales leader said to his or her team, ‘We’re
going to have a six-month contest and the person who brings in the most
qualified leads from referrals wins!’

22. For most recipes, the order in which you prepare, mix and then cook the ingredients
can affect both the taste and texture of the food. When you choose the highest
quality ingredients, prepare them carefully and in the right order, your dish should be
delicious.
The same goes for referral programs and, in particular, the customers, partners
and other fans that you choose to ask for referrals. You can’t just throw your most
important ingredients in some flames and hope they’ll cook to perfection. It doesn’t
work that way.
“Timing is important if you want to get a positive response,” says Matt Heinz, President
of Heinz Marketing. “Look for indicators suggesting that someone is having a positive
experience with your product or company.”
“Timing is important if you want to get a
positive response.” – Matt Heinz, President of Heinz
Marketing
From there, you’ll want to start with smaller “asks”, such as sharing content on social
networks like Twitter and LinkedIn, reading and commenting on a recent blog post, or
providing feedback on your product.
These relatively easy activities effectively tenderize your fans, developing advocacy
behavior and habits along the way, and warming them up for larger favors, such as
product reviews, reference calls and, of course, referrals.
Step 4: Prep your most
important ingredient –
your advocates
22

23. TWEET THIS: Giving referrals is a very personal thing that’s
steeped in emotion.
Jim Keenan
President and CEO of A Sales Guy Inc.
SECRET INGREDIENT: Emotions
There’s a psychological underpinning to the whole idea of referrals. The
one company that I’ve ever seen be successful at generating referrals
also did everything they could to delight their customers, not only on
projects but also on a personal level. When you delight your customers,
you’re creating an attachment that increases the possibility they’ll want to
give you a referral.
Keenan’s recommended reading on referrals:
Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam M. Grant

24. Like any other critical business process, building a world-class customer referral
program requires careful thought, planning and organization – the right mix of
ingredients, so to speak. But that doesn’t mean it’s hard to do or that it should take
very long to implement.
Take this recipe book and the ideas presented here to get started today. Make it
a priority to generate more high-quality leads from your existing customers – they
convert faster, cost less and have a much higher customer lifetime value than any
other type of lead.
As a result, your sales team will never go
hungry again and your business will be
nourished with the most delicious dish of all:
revenue.
Now you’re cooking
24

25. Your customers love you
Help them share it with the world
Influitive’s AdvocateHub is a complete advocate management platform that helps
B2B marketers capture customer enthusiasm, and use it to turbocharge marketing
and sales efforts.
With AdvocateHub, B2B marketers build advocate communities where customers,
fans and evangelists can complete “challenges” like referrals, reference calls or
product reviews.
Visit influitive.com to learn more.
Influitive Referrals
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