Why People Ask for References

If you’ve been reading this blog with any regularity you ‘ll know that I’m a big fan of Dave Kurlan.  His blog and much of his company’s focus is on how to do a better job assessing sales talent before you hire them.  What he also focuses a lot of his time on is making people better salespeople.  

On June 3, Dave wrote a blog post entitled, “Salespeople and Requests for References“.  He wrote the blog because a prospect he was hoping to sell his wares to asked him for references before they would agree to complete the transaction.  It caused him to step back and analyze why someone would ask for references.  

I read the post and gathered something entirely different from what he was hoping to get across.  That was: this absolutely explains why a potential employer would ask for references as well!  Geoffrey Smart, in the book WHO, suggests that 25% of what you’ll learn about someone will happen during the reference process.  Even knowing that, when I surveyed a room of Entrepreneurs last week that I was talking with, nearly all of them admitted to hiring someone without ever asking for references and a full 100% of them said that they had, at least once, asked for references and then never called them.  

Here are some of Dave’s points from that Blog Post.  Do any of these apply to you as a hiring manager (in the context of the interviewing and selection process)?  

Why would people ask for References?

• they are skeptical of your claims or promises;
• they weren’t referred to you by someone they know and trust;
• they haven’t previously bought from your company;
• they don’t understand what you sell;
• it’s their nature to ask (they always do that);
• they must invest more money than they had planned or feel comfortable with;
• they want to learn what it’s like to do business with you;
• they want to learn if there is anything to beware of;
• they prefer to be sold by your references, not you;
• they are simply using the reference request to put you off.

Tags: ask for references, Baseline Selling, Dave Kurlan, geoff smart, hire better, Interview, Objective Management Group, recruit don't absorb, Reference Check, talent acquisition, Topgrading, TORC, who the book