How do you ask customers for referrals, and how do you make referrals a regular source of pipeline?
What the interviewer wants to hear
- Ask after delivered value
- Be specific about who you would like to meet
- Make it easy with a forwardable message
- Thank and update the referrer
- Build referral asks into your process
Model answer
I ask when the customer has seen real value, for example after a successful go-live or a strong quarterly review, often together with customer success. I make the ask specific: "Do you know other operations leaders at retail chains who face the same stock issues?" or I name a company I know they are connected to on LinkedIn. Then I make it easy by sending a short note they can forward. I always thank the referrer and tell them how the conversation went, whatever the result, which makes them more likely to refer again. To make it regular, I add a referral step to my account plan for every happy customer and track referral pipeline in the CRM. Referred deals usually close faster and at higher win rates.
Can you answer it under time pressure?
Take a timed medium round and get scored on every answer.
More medium Sales Executive questions
- A prospect says 'Your price is too high.' How do you handle it?
- How do you run a strong discovery call? What are you trying to learn?
- You have 60 open opportunities. How do you decide where to spend your time each week?
- How do you work with marketing to make sure leads turn into revenue?
- How do you make a product demo effective instead of a long feature tour?
- A prospect says, "We are happy with our current provider." How do you respond?
- How do you close a deal without being pushy?
- How do you use call recordings or feedback to improve your selling?
- Your demo breaks in front of a key prospect. What do you do?