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How to Find More Sales Opportuntities without Cold Calling
Written by: Dave KurlanArticle Overview: The two biggest problems for most companies right now, in this economy, are delayed closings and not enough new opportunities. I've tackled delayed closings, so today, with a little help from my friends, I'll tackle not enough new opportunities. I mentioned in my last post that (most of) you need three times more opportunities than ever before to make up for the late stage opportunities that aren't closing right now.
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How to Find More Sales Opportuntities without Cold Calling
The two biggest problems for most companies right now, in this economy, are delayed closings and not enough new opportunities. I've tackled delayed closings, so today, with a little help from my friends, I'll tackle not enough new opportunities. I mentioned in my last post that (most of) you need three times more opportunities than ever before to make up for the late stage opportunities that aren't closing right now.
Rick Roberge, The Rainmaker Maker (did you ever click the link up top to read the Rainmaker Maker Blog?) was my guest on the most recent episode of Meet the Sales Experts. Rick has had quite the sales career and your salespeople will find this show quite helpful.
Here are some of the highlights from my interview:
Rick talked at length about several additional ways to find new opportunities but stressed that they are all supplements - not replacements - for cold calling. Among them he included:
* Blog
* Hang out where they hang out
* From people who will say nice things about you or your company
* Someone else's customers
* Orphan accounts
* Centers of Influence
* Networking
Speaking of Networking, Rick's shared his Secrets to Successful Networking. He said the biggest mistake salespeople make is that they do not follow up! He said it is not part of their plan and he gave this formula for Networking Success - 2x2x48. Listen to the show to hear what that means!
Rick discussed the lessons he learned about rejection from his early days in sales. You see, the biggest obstacle he had to overcome was his shyness and since he still battles that problem to this day, he not only knows how to get around it, he shared it on the show.
Rick's view of successful selling boils down to this point: "It's not ever about you, your company, or the owner. It's what your prospect needs. Until salespeople make it all about the customer, nothing happens."
Rick also shared his Rule of Low Hanging Fruit, his Magic Sales Lesson and his concept of Clique Selling, which he learned about in B2C sales but he says still applies to B2B sales.
So while a major emphasis in sales development is to make salespeople more effective on the phone, there are other things you can have your salespeople doing to find more opportuntities today.
On the next edition of Meet the Sales Experts my guest will be Sales Development Expert Casey Coffman, CEO of The Coffman Group. Listen in on Thursday, June 25, at 1 PM ET. Click LISTEN LIVE. If you can't make it, check back after June 27th and click this link.
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Article Tags: biggest mistake, centers of influence, economy, little help from my friends, nbsp, networking success, new opportunities, nice things, obstacle, rejection, replacements, roberge, sales career, salespeople, shyness, stage opportunities, successful selling, supplements, target, three times
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About the Author: Dave Kurlan RSS for Dave's articles - Visit Dave's website  Click here to visit Dave's website   Salesperson Selection Predict Sales Turnover Visual Pipeline |
Related Forum Posts
Re: How to develop sales contacts?
- Everyone has the right idea here. Depending on your business, there are different techniques that you could use. For consultants and sales heavy businesses, there are three tactics that I have found especially useful in my business:
1. Attend Networking Events
2. Cold Calling
3. Referral Program
4. Affiliate Program (most successful)
The affiliate program was successful for me, as I hooked up with a franchise consultant, and he gave multiple unit businesses that needed my credit card processing services. I highly suggest you hook up with a sales partner, and give him a cut of the monthly revenue.
Re: Direct Mail Postcards
- Post cards would be really expensive to send from Japan...but one way to advertise that is not expensive from overseas is by Cold Calling using cheap VoIP equipment. I know Japan has a really good internet connection, so as long as you are willing to stay up late, it might be an option.
I cold call from Thailand far, far away from any city using a CDMA wireless internet connection and have had pretty good results. I find tho, that cold calling works best for business 2 business (b2b), rather than b2c products.
--matt
Re: Cold Calling
- As long as people are out of jobs, you'll probably have a lot of people who say they want to work for straight commission, but if they don't get paid fairly quickly, they usually move on. We've run into that and went through about 500 people (whose resumes looked really good) until we found about 3 good resellers. People just don't want to work for anything. Or they do a good job getting the business but don't do the follow up necessary to make the sale......so they move on thinking they need money NOW. Our business requires all cold calling as well. It's really tough for people to perfect that but there are a lot of good books out there. On is Cold Calling Techniques, by Stephan Schiffman
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
- Hi Evan,
I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
- [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan,
I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz]
I second the request...
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