While most of us like some stability in our work day, too much of doing same thing will fail to allow us to build our business successfully. If you look at your calls for last month or last week and the list is full of familiar names and places, then you could be headed toward a problem.
Nothing in this business stays the same. Neither should your call list. Referral sources change jobs, take on new responsibilities or just decide that the small problem your home care company had with a delivery last week is enough to take their business somewhere else.
With this in mind, your day needs to include some excitement and challenges. I recommend that each day include some special effort to reach out to a new lead. Possibly it could include a meeting with one of those potential contacts you received at a recent meeting or from a colleague.
The most productive and successful salespeople are continually building their list of potential contacts. You may have names on a list in your computer or a box of business cards in your desk, but it is important to make sure you work the leads.
Set some guidelines for how you are going to reach out to new business contacts by considering the following 10 strategies.
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Keep updating your lead list. Make sure you continue to add new names to the list. Ask others in the office, your present referral sources and customers to help guide you to new potential customers.
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Commit yourself to making a call each day to someone new. That could be calling them on the phone, trying to reach their secretary or reaching them directly by a visit to their office. The law of averages will be with you if you try to reach someone new each day. If you attempt to make enough contacts, your efforts will prove successful.
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If you make one new call or work one new lead each day — five days a week for four weeks — by the end of the month you should have made 20 new contacts. Some of these will generate new revenues.
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Plan to attend one association meeting each month, such as a professional association or community service meeting. Ask several of your referral sources about the meetings they attend. Make a list of the associations and meetings that have been recommended to you.
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Once you have the list compiled, you may want to share the locations with other staff members or other sales colleagues in your company. You and your organization want to become a part of several groups.
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Identify when the groups meet, and put those meetings on your calendar so you do not forget to attend.
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Take extra business cards and information about your company with you to all new meetings. Remember your goal is to meet as many people as possible and start building relationships.
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Consider attending professional meetings with one of your referral sources who would be happy to introduce you to other attendees
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Look back at the end of every day to see if there is someone new on your list that you have met or spoken to who could help your business. Just because we plan to do something does not mean we have. By looking over the day's schedule of activities, you will have a clear picture of what you actually did or didn't do.
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Never believe that one call, one gathering or one face-to-face meeting is enough. Building business is a process that takes time. Once you see on your sales call report that you have met someone new, look again to see when you will be seeing them again.
Knowing that each one of your referral sources can represent a tremendous amount of business, you cannot afford to neglect the ones who already love you or ever fail to keep reaching out to others. Rarely do our professional customers call just once.
Check throughout the year to see how much business is attributable to one of your favored accounts, and you will quickly see how important it is to stay in touch — and how sad it would be if they ever left you. When you realize the devastation you would experience if they took their business somewhere else, you will immediately go back to these 10 strategies and make them required business activities.
Louis Feuer is president of Dynamic Seminars & Consulting Inc. and the founder and director of the DSC Teleconference Series, a teleconference training program. He can be reached at www.DynamicSeminars.com or by phone at 954/435-8182.
