Increase Your Sales Prospecting Success Through Relationships

Yesterday I was moderating a panel for the Ohio SBDC on building sales as a small business owner. It was a great discussion with Mark Gilicinski founder of Mobile Expeditions, Chaz Freutel of Get-U-Connected and Jack Windsor of the Windsor Group. One of the areas we covered was how to prospect and specifically how to get a meeting.  In my experience small business owners typically don't see themselves as sales people and they let this hold them back. There is no one better positioned to sell the product than the founder/owner. They know more about the product than anyone else. However it can be kind of intimidating trying to get appointments to discuss your product but it doesn't have to be if you set the stage in advance. The key is building a relationship. Taking the time to build trust is critical. It drives me crazy when I just meet someone and they start pumping me for referrals. Why would I risk my relationship with one of my contacts by referring you to them when I don't know you? A better strategy is to build the relationship over time. Make it about them and how you can help them be more successful. This will make people more willing to reciprocate and discuss how your business might help them or who they know that might need your product. Note...This is not a quick process but if you build enough activity in your pipeline you should be able to afford to take the time to build strong relationships.

Action Step ~ Build time into your work plan to meet with new people each week and to meet with your existing contacts. Start by picking an upcoming week and set five meetings every day so that you have 25 meetings set. Split this up between new and existing contacts. If you do this I bet you will have new sales by the end of the week that you would not have otherwise had.

Any thoughts you have no making prospecting more palatable and successful? Leave a comment to share your ideas.

Comments

[Scott Ryan Jones]

Good advice, Michael. There's no substitute for authenticity and hard work when it comes to building sales pipeline. As for referrals, don't forget current clients - if you've built enough trust to earn their business, they'll likely feel good about introducing you to others in their network.