Dr. Ivan Misner's latest article for Entrepreneur.com explains why you cannot leave your sales skills by the wayside, even if you're getting all the referrals you need.

A referral, as all businesspeople need to remember, is not a guaranteed sale. Instead it is simply the opportunity to do business with someone to whom you've been recommended. You still have to close the deal. Furthermore, anybody who's experienced and successful in referral marketing will tell you that sales skills are needed in every part of the referral marketing process--not just in closing the sale with the prospect.

Sales skills are still important in networking. Some people are better at closing sales than others. Having the knowledge and skill to generate the referral, then to close the sale, gives the business person a one-two punch. If you've created a highly efficient system of generating referrals for your business, you'll see a steady stream of referrals. This doesn't guarantee that you'll be capable of closing any of them. It takes sales skills to turn prospects into new clients, customers or patients.

The message about sales in referral marketing is this: If you're not comfortable in sales or if you haven't been professionally trained, sales training is a worthwhile investment. Keep this message in mind and it'll serve you well in every aspect of relationship marketing and referral networking.

Read the entire article in Ivan Misner's column at Entrepreneur.com to learn the number-one rule in referral marketing, and more:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingideas/networkingcolumnistivanmisner/article182990.html

Questions? Call Dr. Ivan Misner at BNI Headquarters in the USA at 1-909-608-7575.

BNI (www.bni.com) is the world's largest business networking organization, with more than 4,900 chapters in 37 countries worldwide. BNI's Founder & Chairman, Dr. Ivan Misner is the author of several book's including Masters of Sales, the latest addition to his bestselling Masters Series (www.Mastersbooks.com), and the #1 best-seller, Truth or Delusion--Busting Networking's Biggest Myths (www.TruthorDelusion.com). He is also the Senior Partner for the Referral Institute (www.referralinstitute.com), a referral training company with operations around the world.