The most successful sales professionals tend to work long and hard. A significant chunk of those hours is typically dedicated to prospecting activities: networking, making phone calls, placing outbound emails, responding to calls/emails, hosting guests, visiting people who refer/recommend them to clients and developing raving fans who champion their cause.
Prospecting must be perpetual, and in many sales jobs, networking is an important part of prospecting.
No matter how busy you may be, it’s beneficial to get out of the office and show up at networking events. We need to reach out and engage the world around us. As a rule of thumb, you need to have meaningful encounters with people in your target market every day even on the weekends
I admit that’s a demanding standard.
The good news is that these encounters don’t necessarily have to be at formal functions held in formal venues. Your sphere of interest is ubiquitous. Strike up conversations with people around you. Reach out to people and get to know those who might refer a desirable prospect to you some day.
Many prestigious, big-time clients in the typical industry can only be reached through relationships. They do not commonly walk into your office asking to be your customer. They are hard to reach via telephone calls, and they won’t respond to your direct mail piece no matter how pretty it is. You have to go out and meet them face-to-face in the places where they live, work and play.
“Big elephant” clients know they are important, and they expect to be wined and dined, so to speak. They expect to be treated like a big deal. That requires sales professionals to go out into the world and actively communicate. Getting access to the highly desirable clients requires you to be among your sphere of interest on a regular basis (or get a referral from someone they trust).
Get out there and meet everyone you can. Ask questions. Be like a detective turning over every stone, looking for any shred of evidence that can help you make the sale.
Great salespersons are seemingly “everywhere.” They live their lives so actively that other people feel as if they see them everywhere.
If someone ever says to you, “I see you everywhere,” you know you’re doing something right.
