Big question that goes in every sales professional mind is “Where do I find my next prospect?”  My message is rather than finding your next prospect, let your prospect find you.

The time has come to leverage your time and resources. Having said that Sales Professional please strike out arcane COLD CALLING practices (Outsource cold calling) and gun for PULL practices to gain your customers and prospects respect.  So how do you practice PULL magic?  My answer would be “VISIBILITY.” Be there, where your prospects, customers and their 2^nd   and  3^rd degree connections can see you.   Hence let’s identify points of references.

1. Study BNI : I am fascinated by the BNI concept wherein a group of 20 entrepreneur belonging to different industry meet and share their products and services.  Then all twenty go out and sell their products and also talk about the other 19 wares.  The leads are shared with the respective team members.  The results are measured and achievers recognized.  Message: Assemble your team of best entrepreneur and borrow to implement the BNI idea.
2. Study Referral Systems: In this systems you reward people who refer business or bring business.  Message: Create your team of referral professional.
3. Public Events: Make it a point to attend public events that are attended by your customers and prospects.  Script your elevator speech and use this time to introduce and ask them how can you help them ?  Don’t ask for business yet and work on Zig Ziggler philosophy “If you want to succeed in life help enough people” or Steven Covey “7” habits “Seek first to understand and then be understood” Message: Do your connections a favour.
4. Business Seminar: Make it a point to attend business seminars that are attended by your customers and prospects.  Sharpen your public speaking skills and then go on to master a professional topic and deliver it during the business Seminars.  Message: Work towards achieving an expert status in your industry. 
5. Media: Write to or  contribute to industry magazine and this could be digital or hard copies. Help editors in finding right content, trends or hot topics of interest.  Provide feedback to editors on the topics covered and suggestions for improvements.  Make it meaningful. Message: Become the darling of media for your expert OPINION.
6. Forum : Visit Meetup – Take up membership of professional Meetup or similar groups or begin a professional meetup group.  Message: Participate and increase your weak connection to monetize.
7. Blog: Create your blog on professional topic and also comments and share related industry content with your prospects and customers. Use WordPress for Blogging, Twitter to tweet industry news and LinkedIn to increase your professional network and Slideshare to publish your presentations. Message: use the power of Social Media to broadcast your wares

Targeting the above agendas is to have an agenda. Hence

1. Set yourself targets for the number of business people to meet.
2. Introduce yourself and exchange business cards and just after the meet register the cards in your smart phone.
3. Engage them in intelligent conversation. Study and create repository of topics to discuss and share your opinion.
4. Ask them how you could help them. Ask them to call you if they need help guidance?
5. Measure your transaction over a period of 30 days, 60 days and 90 days.

Beging practicing PULL magic because Selling happens when you are not selling

You are visiting a prospect for the first time.  When you enter his office you notice his family photograph taken in your home town. 

1. You don’t bring up the topic of your home town.
2. You bring the topic of your home town when taking leave of your customer.
3. You bring the topic of your home town right at the beginning of discussions. 

Your correct answer reflects that you have the DNA to Connect and the wrong answer mirrors that Connect skills need polishing. 

Sales profession is the most challenging profession and also a much maligned too.  Having said that its one of the oldest profession and also one of the most demanding in todays connected world.  There are numerous sales methodologies and mantras written and propagated.  And if you Google for “SALES TRAINING” it will throw up “ABOUT 565,000,000 RESULTS” IN 0.29 SECONDS.  Having said that I would say that lets make it simpler and I would share simple process that even a 6 years old kid will understand to master the sales skills.  I call this formula   “CFIT”  Pronounced as “See fit”

1. Connect
3. Flow
4. Impression
5. Trust

Connect:  Connection is established when you find a common ground of interest between you and your prospect and that could be hobby, friend, education, culture.  This is your glue.  Use your imagination to find the common ground.   Begin your discussions with that common ground topic.  One of my close successful acquaintance uses the common mother tongue as the connect. 

Flow: Once you have connected with your prospect, you must engage your customer in a continuous dialogue.  And one of the best techniques I would share is the following statement          

That’s INTERESTING or that’s INNOVATIVE followed by

1. Tell me more.
2. Why do you say/do/ask that?
3. How do you do/say/make that? 

Impression: Impression is created by communicating “3” things.

1. Product: Knowledge about your product and services.
2. Business: Knowledge about your customer business.
3. Advise: Advising your customer how your product can help him to address his business challenges and beat the competition/make profit.  It would be nicer if you can find him a new angle or solution to his problems. The objective is to establish you as an expert. 

Trust: Trust is established through delivering on your commitment and promises BEFORE TIME. 

In conclusion I would say “Bring the topic of your home town right at the beginning of your discussions.”   And move ahead to collect your sale.

The numro uno challenge in SELLING is knowing who your target audience is?  And when you overcome your target audience challenge, the second challenge emerges i.e knowing who is the right person from the target audience ?

I will like to share one secret that I have noticed in successful networkers that would go miles to resolve your problem.  Successful networker maintain the contact details of every person they meet; no matter how insignificant they are ?  And now with the advent of smartphone you can replicate the habit with ease and much panache.           Secondly if you continue habit of recording the contact details; sooner you will realize the power of such list.  And it could be worth in gold.

Example # 1: you are visiting an event organized by Indian Consulate and you meet the key employees of Indian Consulate.  Exchange cards and record their contact details. Six months down the line, you need quick information on replacing a lost passport; take out your smartphone and call up the contact, exchange the pleasantries remind him/her how you met and then throw in the request.

Example # 2:  You drive down to Abu Dhabi from Dubai and you need a quick reference in a Bank LC department.  Take out your smartphone and search – do you know anyone in the bank or any other bank who can provide you the most pressing information?

Example # 3:  I received an RFP on Datacenter consultant.  Promptly I take out my smartphone search for datacenter consultant and pops up the name of consultant who I had met during Gitex 2011

The mystery is you never know who will be your resource; when, where and how?   To begin with the trick is not to be selective but record every contact’s names; with contact details including email id and job reference.  You would be pleasantly surprised when, where, why and how the record could save you time and opportunity.

Everyone lives by selling something… said Robert Louis Stevenson.  I would say everyone lives by selling and few understand the profession.  And when you understand selling; it becomes a craft. Today I will like to share TWO tips that I have picked up during my last 30 days of engagement.

1. LEVERAGE
2. COMPARE AND/OR ANALOGY

LEVERAGE:  Last week we were in discussions with a customer and he expressed his requirements for .Net and Java resource expertise.  We went Helter Skelter to find the right CV’s and propose them the commercials.  In the meantime the account manager said I am sure other people in client industry would need similar resources and he got in touch with them and leveraged the work done to create two more leads.  Message: Leverage your efforts to achieve more with less.

COMPARE AND/OR ANALOGY:  There is tremendous information load hence our attention span has shortened.  And if you do not have eye balls or attention of your prospects;  you have wasted your time and lost the customer to your competitor. There are various rules to catch prospects attention including one described by Heath Brothers in their best-selling book “Made to Stick”;  the SUCCES principal.  But other than the SUCCES principal there is one more i.e

• Whenever you are talking to your customer convey the message with an analogy that is already in his mind such as “Loyalty has diminished in the Y generation and they are living a Fast food life”  analogy
• Our  Skates board are the Volvo of automobile industry.
• Coffee xx will strike you like the early morning sun rays.

Don’t worry and be happy selling.

No sooner you win trust of your prospect; he is morphed into your life long customer.  But the BIG questions is how do you win trust ?  There are few POWERFUL tips on winning trust and am sharing few of them.

1. Questions: People who win trust faster; ask lot of personnel questions and use that information to express interest and reflect empathy in the subsequent dialogues.
2. Words: Flavour your communication with TRUST words such as Please, Thank you and name of the person.
3. Posture: When communicate with your prospect; appear absolutely calm rather reflect more calmness than every other person around.  This automatically generates trust and like.  There is power in the calmness; practice it.
4. Impression:  First impression is the best impression.  You can practice creating the best impression the first time.  This will imprint a impressive frame in your customers mind and he will always be awed by your presence.  Awe equals Trust.
5. Host: Be the best host to your prospect.  Show him the respect and meet him on a neutral environment outside his office domain.  This will force him to drop his defenses and open up sooner.
6. Be Present: Whenever you engage your prospect and or customer; be present; give them your 200% attention. The 200% presence creates Trust.  It will pay back when you begin realizing he willingly accedes to your request for a sale.
7. Human: And the final be human and humanize all your transactions.  Treat him as you would like to be treated.

These are simple but powerful tips to become a better salesman and the best human being.

China is the most populous country and so is the profession of selling.  Fortunately with few, selling happens consciously and with others, it happens unconsciously.  But everyone of us is a SALESPERSON; selling something to others.  And if we are not selling to others we are selling to ourselves.  I would like to share three powerful tips to build a powerful Sales persona.

1. THINK LONG TERM: Think long term and choose your customer wisely.  Identify Enterprise customers and build your relations at every level.  Because Enterprise customer have large appetite and will continue growing.  And so would your sales order value.  There are many benefits of doing so. Number # 1; you will continue reaping what you have sowed. Number # 2, even when you change your product portfolio you can go back to them and sell them your new products.
2. SANDWICH APPROACH: Think of a mechanism to connect with your customers at two different levels – Professional and Social.  When engaging your customer use the sandwich approach; begin with social dialogue followed by professional dialogue and close with a social dialogue.
3. CREATE A WEB: Create a web within your customer’s organization. Network from bottom of the pyramid to the top of the pyramid.  Even a security guard at the entry is as important as the CFO in the organization.

Hence think LONG TERM, PRACTICE SANDWICH APPROACH and CREATE A WEB to your success.

Networking is not an art but a simple rule of mathematics and statistics.  And once you have done that thereafter it evolves as an art.  Let me share four quadrants of making connections and if you adopt them mathematically, statistically you will hit the jackpot. The objective of this exercise is to increase the QUANTITY and QUALITY of your connections extending you a larger 1^st degree and 2^nd degree visibility. But before anything invest in the ticket and the tickets are 

1. Connect HIGH:  No sooner you meet a C level executive or a business professional send him or her a LinkedIn invite.  Do it at the earliest because it takes time for a connection to begin serious engagement and paying back.
2. Connect MORE: Identify 10 people a month with large connections base and connect with them thus increasing your 2^nd degree connections.
3. Connect POWER: Identify the movers and shakers in your industry and identify ways to connect with them.  Bring your talent visibility to the movers and shakers in your industry.
4. Connect DIFFERENCE:  Select two industries that are not your professional industries and connect within that industry.  If you are in sales of IT,  connect with people in the Hospitality industry;  connect with people from finance industry.  The objective is cross pollination of ideas followed by increasing your connection stregnth.

Hence begin the race now Connect HIGH, Connect MORE, Connect POWER and Connect DIFFERENT

Ten years later, in 1989, the researchers again interviewed the members of that same graduating class. They found that the 13 percent who had goals that were not in writing were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent of students who had no goals at all. Most surprisingly, they found that the 3 percent of graduates who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, 10 times more than 97 percent of their graduating class. The only difference between the groups was the clarity of goals they had set (and spelled out) for themselves when they graduated.

If you want to understand how a lion hunts don’t go to the zoo. Go to the jungle………… -Jim Stengel CMO of P&G

Similarly if you want to see how the successful companies market their products; see the digital media, see the print media .  And notice how and what words they use for their products to appeal to the readers primal needs.  Here I am listing few my favourite killer words from the Book titled “WORDS THAT SELL” by Richard Bayan.

I received a rude shock when I visited my customer’s Director of Procurement for pursuing my order.  He said your quote did not make the finals.  I asked why ?  And I got a curt response “estimators did not find your costing in line with our expectations.”

I was reminded of a famous saying by Walter Winchell  he said  “It pays to be nice to the people you meet on the way up, for they are the same people you meet on the way down” .  and I realized that somewhere in my journey a serious error has been committed and rude shock was the payment for that mistake.

The famous quote plays a profound role in every aspect of our life;  social and professional.  But staying with the professional aspect; the wisdom enunciates that in the customer organization every person is important. If you are in selling profession then the touch point who receives your proposal to the touch point who tabulates your proposals and touch point who decides on placing the order are equally important.  Because every touch point in customer organization has a role to play.  Not extending right respect to any one touch point could be fatal to you getting the business.

On the flip side I am reminded of the book  “Employees First, Customers Second” authored by Vineet Nayar created one more RUNGS; wherein every touch point for customer,  in our organization is important to ensure that organization continues to win sustained business.  And internal people supporting the touch point are also equally important because a slip on their behalf can also lose you business.

“It pays to be nice to the people”