Face to face interactions are typically viewed as the single most valuable activity by any sales rep. However, opening the door and gaining a seat at the business table is tough.
“How does a sales rep in a highly connected, digital business world capture the attention of an executive buyer?”
The primary differentiator of today’s successful sales reps is their ability to prospect.
Prospecting for new business or securing more within existing clients; both difficult but this is where the potential lies.
Ask any sales representative about their strategic plan for developing business and listen for stone cold silence. Business development has become a lost art within a vast majority of sales teams.
Client retention is crucial. Flipping your client base is a sales function but has led tenured sales reps down the path of complacency. A true sales professional creates a balancing act of nurturing their current clients while adding new clients to their sales family.
Today’s business world is fast paced with highly connected networks. Digital technology is everywhere. Digital has transformed not only our personal lives but our business lives.
“If we operate in a digital society then why are we still training sales reps to prospect using analog methodologies?”
Let’s transform these old school ideologies by invigorating them with new school methodologies. Old school sales prospecting mentality such as:
• Prospecting is a pure numbers game
• It’s all about cold calling complete strangers to set an appointment to talk about how you and your company can help them
• Learn to appreciate rejection as it only hurts for a bit
• Get out there, pound the pavement, turn over some rocks and make it happen
• Dial for dollars! Don’t worry you don’t need a script just wing it while using your charm to secure appointments
• Pushing prospects through your sales process
• Making it all about you
• You won’t make any money sitting on your butt in the office go out and make some more cold calls
I am the first one to hop on the bandwagon to say “Cold calling is not dead, it is just different.” In my opinion, a true sales professional integrates strong business developments skills into their daily routine. Business development is an absolute necessity.
Let’s package prospecting into the business blender by adding some old school and new school. The business recipe is quite simple… phone, email, social selling, social prospecting and community networking events.
Crushing it as a sales rep means integrating a new school approach to prospecting
What does this look like? Research, Follow, Connect, Nurture and Meet.
• Create target lists of companies within your marketplace. Integrate modern sales tools such as Twitter, Google News/Alerts and LinkedIn to conduct research determining appropriate contacts
• Follow these targeted companies and contacts. Leverage Twitter, Google News/Alerts and LinkedIn to learn as much as you can about your prospects
• Use social listening to understand what your buyer cares about
• Connect with them on LinkedIn with a personalized invitation
• Nurture and build the relationship through educational content. Become an engagement magnet
• Engage with potential prospects with their interests
• Turn these online conversations into phone calls and thus into face to face meetings by building your credibility, value and trust worthiness
• Help potential prospects through the buying process. Make the journey about helping them solve their business problems or challenges
It is hard to keep a consistent sales pipeline without a proactive, modern method of prospecting. Furthermore, without a healthy relationship funnel how can you as a sales rep keep a consistent sales funnel? Stop trying to sell first and then build the relationship.
As sales reps we must willing to accept change. We are the face of the company in the eyes of our prospects and clients. The experience we provide as sales reps is mission critical. Therefore, without building our “relationship capital” with our prospects and clients then how can we keep a consistent, well flowing sales funnel?
Leverage the power of your network!
