What Would You Give For An Introduction to Your Ideal Prospect?

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From buying sales leads to trading trusted referrals and introductions. As we mentioned in our previous post on sales leads, we had a closer look at a new service called Inquisix.

When we reviewed Inquisix, our first thought was “Man, I wish this would have been around a few years ago”. This is pretty clever stuff.

In simple terms and in contrast to sales tools like Jigsaw or DemandBase, with Inquisix you’re not buying sales leads or trading business cards.

You’re exchanging actual referrals and introductions with other sales professionals and business owners.

Two people who have a need - to be introduced to a new prospect - and who have something to offer - a relationship with a client - and who are willing to make a trade.

To get started, you upload the names and contact information of people you know and with whom you have an established business relationship. No worries, anything you upload is private - no one can see your contacts unless you allow them.

If you remember, the lack of privacy was one of the issues we had with LinkedIn - so we were quite happy to see that Inquisix handles the contacts in our network with the same care we do.

Next, you start your search.

Let’s say you’re looking for VP level folks in the manufacturing industry in the Chicago area. Your search is recorded and automatically matched with corresponding contacts in the Inquisix database that were uploaded by others. You’ll see a first name of a matching contact and the name of the company - plus the name of the person who holds the relationship. Let’s call this lucky guy Jim.

Now, wouldn’t you love to get introduced to Mr VP in Chicago by Jim, the guy that knows him well? I bet you would - but why on earth would Jim do this?

Well, I am sure you guessed it.

Jim’s looking for quality introductions as well. And his searches are automatically matched with the contacts you uploaded. Because Inquisix made the match, Jim knows you have the contacts he wants. You know Jim has the relationship you need but neither of you you can access each others prospect contact information until both decide on a trade. It’s yet another way to keep your network safe and private.

But here’s the thing. Would you give just anyone access to a relationship you built and nourished over many years?

No, I didn’t think so.

You might share them, though, if you knew Jim was a decent, knowledgeable and professional guy who wouldn’t make you look like an idiot and who would add value to your customer’s business - and if you knew you’d something equally valuable back.

And that’s where Inquisix created a pretty ingenious system of reputation points - where you get rated on the quality of your referral and your own performance.

Do you actually really know the person to whom you referred Jim and did you prepare your contact for Jim’s call? Or did he vaguely remember you but certainly not enough to make an appointment with Jim? Based on Jim’s feedback of the referral he received, as well as the feedback of others, a rating is established.

On the other hand, you get to rate Jim as well - based on feedback from your client. Is he a consummate business professional who provided immediate value? Or did he present himself as a feature-selling door-to-door salesman? All of this feedback is summarized in reputation ratings - a clear indicator of the level of reliability and professionalism of your trading partner.

The system of trading referrals and introductions is great, the website looks fancy - but with reputation points is where Inquisix really hits bulls-eye.

You see, without a level of trust and confidence, there’s no way I would ever introduce anyone to any of my customers. And I know I am not the only one either. With their reputation ratings, Inquisix may just have taken away the main area of concern for many salespeople and business owners when it comes to sharing business referrals online.

Now, Inquisix isn’t free, it’ll cost you $49/month (correction: Inquisix is currently in Beta and still free) - but that could be fairly easy to justify in light of the introductions to new prospects you could get out of it. Much of this will depend on how fast Inquisix can grow it’s member base. If it reaches critical mass (read lots of uploaded trusted relationships) quickly, it’s hard to see why it wouldn’t be successful.

There’s a lot more about Inquisix we haven’t touched on so I would invite you to take it for a spin.

We’ll let you decide. Let us know what you think.