7-9-2014
Bill?s general manager was planning his company?s spring kick-off sales meeting. He was looking for ideas for improving performance, inspire the team, and get them ready for the busy selling season. Bill said to his boss, "I?ve got a guy that goes to my church who does a great job training sales teams, want me to call him?"
If you sell a product or service, the ultimate compliment, the ultimate goal is to be "the guy/gal." If you look at your own purchasing decisions, how many times do you rely on your guy/gal? When I travel, there are certain airports where "I've got a guy" who I know drives a car from the airport to the hotel. It?s better than a taxi and usually the same price. I call my guy two or three days in advance and I don't have to worry about ground transportation when I arrive.
Need to buy a car? ?I got a guy.? Want the best steak in town? ?I got a guy.? Need a flower arrangement that will blow them away? ?I got a gal.? If you take inventory of your purchases, chances are you ?got a guy/gal? too -- several in fact.
We teach our clients the three secrets of success in sales:
1. You've got to know what you're doing.
2. You've got to know you know what you're doing.
3. You have to be known for what you know.
When you're known for what you know, people come to you for help and advice and not your lowest price. Being known for what you know is to be the "I got a guy/gal" for someone else.
I love reading Seth Godin?s blog. Sometimes it's short and powerful, like this one:
You can buy this from anyone, and we're anyone.
That's not going to get you very far when you sell stuff, raise money, look for a job...
What if instead, you created a reputation as the person or organization that can honestly say, "You can't get this from anyone but me??
In advertising and marketing, we teach the ?Four Keys Of Branding Success.? The keys apply to building your personal brand as well, so you can be the guy/gal who people gotta have.
1. Reach -- Are you working with enough customers and prospects to achieve the results you want?
2. Frequency -- Are you in contact with them frequently to make certain you are top of mind when they need your product or service?
3. Consistency -- Are you providing consistent service, consistent contact, and have you identified the ?one thing? you want to be known for . . . and are you consistently sharing that message?
4. Compelling and Creative -- Are you sharing your brand message in unique, compelling, and memorable ways?
There are plenty of tools at your disposal to make certain you are using the Four Keys to build your brand. I?m going to focus on one. We call it ?Seeding.?
In order for anything to grow you must first plant a seed. This sounds ridiculously simple. However, we are constantly trying to ?grow? business relationships without first planting seeds. Seeds can come in many different forms: People talking about you, people reading about you, or any exposure potential clients have to you in a ?non-selling? mode.
I want to focus specifically on the process of intentional and focused seeding. This is the practice of finding an article or information that you know will be of significance, relevant, or interesting to your client.
? You photocopy the article.
? Use a highlighter to mark a few of the key points.
? Staple your business card to the top left corner.
? In some white-space you handwrite a note to the client: ?Warren, thought this article may be of interest to you.?
? Sign it, put it in an envelope, hand address the envelope, and send.
Hand writing is key to standing out. It shows you took the time to do this personally, not some auto-responder or email database blast.
If you plan your prospecting and lead development with great efficiency, you will get optimum results if you send three to four ?seed? pieces before you make initial contact. Two things happen:
1. The client is already ?familiar? with you.
2. You have a specific reason to make the call (to discuss the content of one of the articles.)
A warm prospect call that starts with, ?I wanted to talk to you about that article I sent about focusing on the middle-third of your team for maximum growth potential? is much different from a cold call that begins with: ?I?m calling today to see if I can help develop your sales team with some state-of-the-art, blah blah blah?
I was honored to be ?the guy? Bill thought of first when it came to sales talent development. Don?t you want to be the ?guy/gal? known first and chosen most often when it comes to the product or service you offer?
Focusing on the Four Keys and starting a seeding system can be a great first step to becoming known before you are needed.
Jeff Schmidt is EVP and partner with Chris Lytle at Sparque, Inc. You can reach Jeff at Jeff.Schmidt@Sparque.biz
Twitter: @JeffreyASchmidt
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/schmidtjeffrey
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