One of the most effective ways to grow your business is by doing cold calls, or calling on people in their workplace. This method can work effectively when done correctly, and it can work extremely poorly if you don't do the right things, in fact if you don't do this piece right, you can actively turn people against your business, digging yourself into a hole.
10 Tips to Master the Art of Face to Face Selling
- In person, face to face - Networking meetings may be a good way to start, but they are not where you want to spend most of your time. People come to those meetings to meet people, and get leads. Most of them never get a single lead. Those meetings are great for a card grab, and you can then set up a follow-up meeting.
- People aren't going to just give you their business, or leads. You have to build trust and familiarity with those people, and that means taking time. It can take 6 months or longer to break into an account.
- Being pushy isn't going to get you anywhere. People don't like being sold to, and they especially don't like being pushed around. If you push, you're likely to establish a negative relationship with people, and will forever be digging yourself out of a hole.
- Where possible, network, and get your friends to introduce you. This works so much better than name dropping, and is much more likely to give rise to a warm lead. Just because you know my cousin, or best friend, doesn't mean I'm predisposed to like you or your business, but if you go out tandem marketing, it is harder for them to turn you down.
- Tandem marketing or sales can be a good strategy. Sometimes if you're trying to get into an account, and get past the gatekeeper, it may be easier if two of you go. It's not as easy to be rude to someone if there are two of you present.
- You have to get out and make a LOT of calls. By a lot of calls, that means 60-90 calls per week, depending on the business. A call means a face-to-face interaction with a potential client or referral source. Not just picking up the phone and calling. (If we are talking phone calls, the number is actually about 4-5 times that amount)
- Consistency is critical. For your top accounts, you need to go back as much as a few times per week. For other accounts, you may only go back a couple times per year. Each account should be rated on the potential for business, and then visits scheduled accordingly. If you are going back to an account twice a week, then go there consistently twice per week.
- Constant research is a much. Businesses come and go, and the people at those businesses come and go, which means that there is constant churn, and there are constant opportunities.
- Ask everyone you meet who else they know who might need your services. I think that you'll be delightfully surprised at how well they respond, and how many referrals you get just by asking. One challenge is to spend a day calling 100 people (and enlisting friends on linked-in and Facebook), and asking who they might know who needs your service.
- Once you have established a rapport, you need to ask for the business. Going by and visiting is lovely and all, but you need to ask for that business, or you're never going to get it.
It's important to understand that when you are calling on people, the goal is to build a relationship with the right people, and to help solve their problems. Most of them aren't going to magically give you leads, or give you money out of the goodness of their hearts. You have to take the time to build real relationships with people to build a business this way.
If you follow these tips for face to face sales, you will improve your odds of success with face to face marketing. Business is 1% inspiration and 99 % perspiration, and just sticking with it.
My name is Haley Gray and I am a business coach and successful multi-passionate entrepreneur. I own several companies of my own, including Leadership Girl Blog and Business Coaching (leadershipgirl.com). I am a graduate of Duke's Fuqua School of Business, with an MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. For fun, I love to work on business plans with clients. While I'm sure my employees don't believe it, I do, indeed, sleep.
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