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You're listening to the Sales Hunter podcast. My name's Mark Hunter, the Sales Hunter. We're talking about referrals and the breadcrumb strategy. And it's coming to you today from Manila, where I happen to be speaking this week. Hey, let's talk about the breadcrumb strategy. Are you ready? Because it's a beautiful way for you to increase your referrals. And the show begins right now. You're listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter where the focus is to help you as a salesman sell with confidence and integrity. And now here's your host. Who doesn't want more referrals? I know I sure do. Hey, I, I got to do a shout out real quick. I have in my hand here a copy of the book Integrity first selling. It's out, you got to grab it. Hey, I'm in Manila in the Philippines and it's even appearing on the Amazon site here very, very soon. So if you're seeing it somewhere in the world, you're listening to this, it's going to be there. It's going to be there very, very quickly. Hey, let's talk about referrals and the breadcrumb scratch strategy. What's the breadcrumb strategy? Okay. Have you ever had somebody call you up, contact you? I know I have. And they've said, hey, so and so recommended me and I need to reach out to you. Yes. And it's interesting. But then they go on to say how, yeah, you know, I checked you out on the Internet. Oh, that's the breadcrumbs. You see, the breadcrumbs strategy makes it easy for other people to refer you. Now, let's not kid ourselves. Referrals are a reflection of the level of integrity that you use in selling. It really is. Stop thinking about this. If you're not selling with integrity, you're not getting referrals. This is where I say that anybody who's been in business for any length of time should see a continuous improvement increase in the number of referrals that they get every year. Now, it's not going to be a straight line up, but over time it's going to, it's going to trend upward. And that's because they're selling with integrity and they're treating the customer right. And when you treat the customer with right, they naturally share you with others. Now, I've shared with you on other podcasts how it's so important for you to ask customers and ask people, hey, who is somebody else who could benefit from what it is that I've been able to offer you or something of that manner. What we're talking about here with breadcrumb strategies where you're not even having those conversations. Well, you're having those conversations, but those people are having those conversations with other people. In other words, the way it works is this. You've provided a great service to somebody, and they just happen to be talking to somebody else, and your name pops up, your company pops up. What it is that you do pops up, and they say, hey, if you're looking for that, you need to reach out and call Mark. Boy, he did a great job with us. Now, what's interesting is that person is undoubtedly going to check you out before they call you. They're going to go to the Internet, and what does the Internet say about you? What does the Internet say about you? And is it positive and in a manner that's attractive for them to say, hey, I want to call that person? The other way the breadcrumb strategy works is this because you're engaging with these customers you had, you're engaging with these other people. You're putting out content on social media and your website and association sites, other places, and your fans are seeing that now. It's not maybe not necessarily that they're subscribing to it. Oh, sure, you'd love to have them subscribe to your newsletter. I love it when people subscribe to my newsletter, but they're seeing it in just various places. So what does it do? It jogs your name, your company, into the forefront of their mind, and now it becomes easier for them to refer you. You see, what you're doing is you're basically doing marketing with a referral strategy. And this is why I call it the breadcrumb strategy. I've, over the years, picked up a tremendous amount of business like this. I remember one person in particular and called me and he was eager to do business with me because he said he had talked to somebody else, and they said, oh, you got to call Mark. His company is great to work with. And he made a comment. He said, I went out and watched a number of your videos. I caught some of your podcasts, and I immediately said, yeah, I'm very comfortable with this guy. And it was a very quick sale. In other words, what happens is we expedite the sale. Now some of you are saying, okay, hey, hold on, Mark, hold on. You're a speaker. You. You're out there, you do all kinds of stuff. I'm not. I'm. I'm a landscaper I, I sell insurance, I sell real estate. I do this. Hey, it doesn't matter. It's creating your footprint out there. You may be in real estate and what's your company, what's your company's website look like? Are you posting comments? Are you sharing ideas that demonstrate that you're a thought leader in that space you might be in insurance. Same thing. All it is is about having you be where you are findable. Now the measurement of this is very simply, do you even need business cards? You know, stop and think about this. I don't know about you, but I'm passing out far fewer business cards than I ever had before. It just isn't a thing. Because the joke kind of has become if you're not findable on the Internet, you're not worthy. Stop and think about that. You see, if you're not findable. So in other words, if people, when they give your name to somebody, hey, you need to reach out and they go in and Google you and you don't pop up or your company doesn't pop up, then we got a problem. You see, what you're trying to do is you're trying to make it so easy for people who already like you or people who already know you, people who already benefit from you, to be able to share you with others. Now remember, when you do this, you're also creating marketing in terms of the bigger sense that other people are going to find you, et cetera, et cetera. I'm just talking about, I'm doing this to help get referrals. And what I have found is this. When I have somebody who comes to me because somebody gave them my name, it has a much higher close ratio, much higher than even the people who I get when I ask people for a referral. In other words, I ask people for a referral, they give me a name. I get a good close ratio now, but I get a higher one when I'm not even involved. I'm silent because the validation has been done. What I'm going to ask you to do is your homework. And what I'm going to ask you to do is to sit there and say, go into an incognito browser and type in your name. Type in your company's name. Do you come up? Now if you don't come up, I'm not saying to suddenly drop everything and get into full force marketing and just inundate social media and everything else like that. No, no, it's going to take time. It's going to take time, but What I want you to do is I want you over a period of time to begin developing content that has you be recognized. This is so critically important. The reason I say it's so critically important is because it's going to serve twofold, is going to make you both easier to refer and it's going to attract marketing. Now here's the other spin on this. Google is going away. Google is going away. It's now AI. Now Google's not going away. Remember, they've got a great, great AI engine, LLM that they're plugging into Google. What I'm talking about is more and more people are now just going in and typing in names and so forth or typing in topics, typing in subjects, typing in questions, questions. And they're looking for who pops up. See, again this becomes absolutely easy for you. You know what I find fascinating about this is so many salespeople spend all of their time chasing, chasing, chasing, trying to get the next prospect, trying to get the next lead, trying to get the next lead. And they don't realize that they have a wealth of opportunities for great qualified leads already if they tap into their existing network. Now remember, tapping into your existing network does not mean that you're using your network. It means that you are nurturing your network. In other words, you're helping them. Is what I found is this. The people who refer me through the cookie crumb strategy, through the breadcrumb strategy are many times the ones that I'm referring. And I'm doing the same thing I'm doing. I did it just this week, even though I'm over here in the Philippines this week. I referred several people in the states to others and I said, check out their website, check out this. And it became very, very easy for that person to gain confidence and support in terms of what I told them and they reached out and they have actually begun already working to sign a contract with that person. That's the value of the breadcrumb strategy. I want you to be tracking this and I want you to begin tracking your referrals two ways. I want you to begin tracking your referrals, the ones that you cultivate. In other words, because you reached out to somebody and said, hey, can you give me the name? Who are some others that can benefit that you know, that can benefit from what it is that I offer. So you're going to track those, but then I want you to track your breadcrumb referrals. Now don't be alarmed if you're not getting any right now. That's okay. But as you begin cultivating the strategies, you begin, begin working just to put content out there again. Don't, don't drop everything. You got to stay in the game in your sales process. But as you begin coping with that, what is going to become is you're going to see yourself starting to get those. And I guarantee it, you will find a higher close ratio. Now remember, this all becomes so much easier when you're selling with integrity. And that's one of the reasons I wrote the book Integrity First Selling. How to Create Better Sales with Better Customers. I tell you what, people are grabbing this book already. They've had some early copies out there and they're loving it because I think it's the way we're going to change the business sales community because it's the ying. Oh, wait a minute, Mark, you've been talking about AI. Yeah, yeah, you're right. AI is not going away. That train's left the station. We know it is. But what I'm talking about is, is layering in on top of that Integrity first selling. And when you do that, that's how the breadcrumb strategy really begins taking hold for you. Hey, my name's Mark Hunter, the sales hunter. Two episodes a week, one like this, where I do a deep dive on just a single topic. Comes out every Monday morning at 8:00am Central Time. Second episode comes out every Thursday where I do a deep dive with a subject matter expert. Hey, do me a favor. If you've got a sales kickoff meeting, reach out, call me. I've already got companies that are reaching out to me right now saying, hey, Mark, would you get in here, get in here and talk to us about Integrity first selling. Talk to us about how we sell it. I want you to reach out. I want you to call me. But hey, if you can't do that, it's okay. Make sure you pick up a copy of the book. Grab a copy of the book, whether it be hardback, paperback, Kindle. It's on Amazon. Grab it. And do me a favor, also leave me a review on your favorite podcast app, would you? Hey, I'm Mark Hunter, the sales hunter. Absolutely great selling.