You’ve called a prospective referral source. He or she is on the line with you now. You’ve never spoken before, but you got an introduction from someone you know, so you’ve already got a connection to the person on the line.

How can you blow it now, create a situation where you won’t end up at lunch with this person, and be sure you won’t get any referrals? If you do the following five things particularly well, you’ll do just that, and you might even alienate the person who introduced you to the referral source.

1. Start selling now. Tell your contact how great you are. Tell the person why he or she should refer clients to you. Don’t worry about building a rapport or getting to know one another. Explain that you offer the best service, lowest price, and so forth regardless of what he or she says.

2. Once the person answers the phone, just start talking and keep on talking. Don’t ask any questions. Say what you need to say and roll on. Try not to take a breath. Go, go, go! If the person on the other end of the line starts to talk, just talk over him or her.

3. Try not to listen. Don’t waste time asking the referral source whether this is a good time to talk. If the person explains that he or she is in the midst of a deadline, don’t worry about it. Just keep going and don’t offer to call back at another time.

4. Don’t pay attention to your referral source’s needs. Don’t ask for ideas about how you might be able to help him or her. If the person starts to sound like he or she doesn’t have many referrals to make to you, then blow off the person. Get off the phone and don’t waste your time getting to know the person and taking him or her to lunch.

5. Insist on lunch at the place of your choosing. Don’t ask where he or she would like to go. Tell the person where you like to eat and how much he or she is going to like it.

Basically, put your interests ahead of your referral source’s, and you’ll be well on your way to destroying any hope of ever getting a referral. I hope you’re laughing because you’re so sure you’d never do these things. Unfortunately, I’m not laughing. I just hung up after getting a call just like the one I’ve described. Needless to say, I wiggled and squirmed my way out of the lunch invitation.