Many intuitively believe that referrals are the best leads to generate new business more efficiently, but what impact do formal referral programs have on sales pipeline growth and revenue acceleration for B2B organizations? Intuitive, with HeinzMarketing, surveyed B2B professionals from across North America, including sales, marketing, operations and executive leadership to help answer that question.
According to the study, referral programs make sales and marketing efforts more effective: More than half of those with formalized referral programs ranked their sales efforts as highly effective, compared to only 35% of those without referral programs in place. Another 51% of companies with referral programs rated their effectiveness at maintaining sales pipelines as very effective vs. just 32% of those without referral programs.
For companies with referral programs:
Referral programs generate more revenue, says the report. Although only one in three B2B organizations have a formalized referral program today, those that do enjoy significantly higher sales, lower acquisition costs and far better relationships between the sales and marketing organizations.
Companies With Formal Referral Programs Come Out On Top | ||
Referral Benefits | % With Referral Programs | % Without |
Sales efforts are highly effective | 87% | 42% |
Sales pipeline is highly effective | 67% | 36% |
Marketing department is “very involved” in referrals | 58% | 15% |
Source; Heinz Marketing/Intuitive, November 2015 |
Including professionals from the front lines to the C-suite, the research uncovered striking findings about the impact of referral leads on the sales pipeline and revenue growth. Referrals close faster, at a higher rate, and with greater lifetime value than other types of leads, says the report.
This study found that the most successful organizations:
Formal referral programs driven by marketing are key to:
For companies with referral programs:
Keys To Higher Performance (Less than one quarter of companies have these in place!)
Concluding, the report suggests that these findings provide specific, actionable tactics for an organization to begin increasing volume, velocity and conversion of referrals in the business:
For additional information from Heinz Marketing, please visit here.