We need more leads.
You closed 87 customers last year. How many did you ask for an introduction?
I'd have to check.
He checked. Four introductions asked for.
customers closed
introductions asked
His salespeople walk into purchase committees as strangers, while 83 customers who have already gone live sit one phone call away.
The question every Indian enterprise buyer asks first
In Indian enterprise selling, one question comes up before the PO, before vendor empanelment, and before anyone schedules a formal reference call: "Who else is using them?"
Somebody on the buyer's side has usually already asked a peer. If that peer is your customer and nobody ever asked him for an introduction, the answer depends entirely on who happens to know you. You have a customer who could vouch for you, and no say in whether he does.
Your best lead source is the 83 customers who already paid you and were never asked
Why introductions do not get asked for
Asking for an introduction feels like asking the customer to put their name behind you. It means saying, in effect, "we did a good enough job for you to vouch for us." That feels presumptuous, so it gets postponed — until go-live stabilises, until the first renewal, until the next review.
By then the moment has gone. The customer's memory of the problem you solved has faded, and the result has become the new normal rather than an improvement worth talking about.
Ask right after the result, and ask a different question
The right time to ask is just after the result lands, not after the relationship matures. And the question is not "can you refer us to someone?" — that question puts the customer on the spot to think of a buyer for you.
"Who else do you know who is dealing with what you were dealing with before we started?"
This question asks the customer to recall a problem, not to sell for you. People remember peers with the same problem far more easily than they remember who might be "in the market." Different question, completely different answer.
The 20-minute check on your own customer base
You can see how much introduction potential you are leaving unused in twenty minutes, using your 20 largest accounts by order value.
The Introduction Audit
Write what changed for each account, in their words
Not your feature list — the change the customer would describe to a peer. If you cannot write it for an account, that is your first finding: the customer probably cannot say it either.
Mark the accounts where you asked for an introduction
Asked, not "they mentioned someone once." A deliberate, specific request.
For the rest, count the days since go-live
Past 90 days, the moment is cold. The result is no longer fresh enough for the customer to talk about with any energy.
Find out who owns introductions
Not who should own them — who is actually measured on them. Sales Head, Key Account Manager, Customer Success, or the founder.
If nobody owns it, it is not a referral problem
When the answer to step four is "nobody," the company does not have a referral problem. It never built referrals into the commercial process. Introductions happen by accident — when a customer volunteers one — instead of as a step that follows every successful go-live.
The fix is the same as any other commercial outcome: give one person the job, give them a number, and put the ask on the calendar for the week after each customer's first measurable result.
87 customers. 4 asked. 83 who already paid you and were never asked
Related: Your renewal rate is 94%. Your base is still shrinking — the other revenue sitting inside the customers you already have.