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Every good salesperson knows the two best customers to work with are a customer who is happy with a previous purchase from you and a referred customer. If you work with these people properly, you will have overcome the huge hurdles of winning the customer's trust and have at least the seeds of relationships. If you offer valuable products and services to people who like and trust you, the sale is vastly easier than making sales to cold leads.

In The Referral of a Lifetime, Tim Templeton shares a system for building a business on continuing relationships with customers and "center of influence" referral sources, and referred customers.

The book is the story of Susie McCumber, a salesperson who is ready to quit from frustration with cold calling. Susie's friend, Chuck Krebbs, who owns the California Coffee Café and Bistro, introduces Susie to David Highground. David Highground becomes Susie's mentor in learning how to build a referral-based business. Other former students of David's spend time with Susie showing her how they have adapted the system to their individual personalities and use the system to build successful businesses.

The system is built around the Golden Rule – doing good turns for others – and building relationships.

You build a database of people that you know or meet. Rank them ABC, according to how enthusiastic they are about you, especially how much they refer clients or customers. Provide excellent service and become known as a reliable, friendly person. Keep in touch consistently, personally and systematically. Express appreciation to your customers and contacts regularly.

By building relationships and doing good turns for others, you earn the "hall pass" to ask for referrals.

Templeton provides scripts and sample letters to help in the process of implementing the system.

This is a little book, only 130 pages and a quick, easy read. Implementing the clearly explained steps will involve some effort, but building a business this way can be so much more pleasant than in the cold marketplace. This approach is certainly a valuable addition to your sales and marketing strategy.

Buy it on Amazon: The Referral of a Lifetime: The Networking System That Produces Bottom-Line Results Every Day (The Ken Blanchard Series).

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