Save yourself (and us)
"Have you tried cold-calling prospective clients with success? If so, do you have any tips you could share?"
"Let me ask you a question: When was the last time a colleague, friend or family member excitedly told you, 'Hey, I got this call yesterday from some guy I've never met before from a company I've never heard of selling me his insurance plan, and it sounded great. I signed up right away.' "
Finding new customers is a problem. How to find them?Let's begin by dissecting a few simple sales terms.
- Cold calls: They're cold. Impersonal. Unexpected. Jarring.
- Warm leads: They're inviting. Promising. Feel good.
- Hot leads: They're hot! The customer is ready to buy now or get started yesterday.
Our sales vocabulary is visually descriptive for a reason. So, the moral here: Stay out of the cold and go where it's warm.
How? Here are five tips to help you build new business and get started on the pathway to creating customer evangelists. More importantly, they are tips for creating warm relationships and prevent you from putting the chill on total strangers.
1. Join three associations in the next three weeks. Two of the associations should be ones in your current customers (or hoped-for customers) belong. Volunteer for at least one association committee. Apply your talent and expertise to help the associations be successful. This is how we land future work: By working directly with people who have the authority to hire you for their company, or they evangelize you to their colleagues and members in the association.
2. At networking events, focus on making three solid connections. If you're shy, practice before you leave the house: Say what you do, and say it in less than 15 seconds. Talk about the results you have delivered. Ask more questions than they do. Smile. This makes you approachable. It's about the depth of the connections you make, not the number of business cards you collect.
3. Non-mailed postcards can work magic. In a new twist on direct mail -- minus the postage -- carry postcards with you at all times that describe your work or your company's work. Give one to every person who asks what you do. Think of it as a paper-based PowerPoint slide; include a simple diagram or graphic if it makes sense to explain your business this way, or feature a customer case study. At the very least, your business card should be very descriptive about the value you offer customers. Your business card is absolutely, positively the most important marketing communications tool you own.
4. Keep in touch with previous customers. Often, we don't keep in touch with existing customers because we mistakenly believe they would call if they needed us. That's not necessarily so. If we don't stay in touch via email or phone once per month, our customers may think we've disappeared.
5. Focus on your happy, current clients. Customers who love you generate most of the heat for your business. Fan the flames. Deepen those relationships. Don't just use the customers as references; tactfully ask them if they would open up their networks and refer you to others. You may be pleasantly surprised to discover how some of them will help you find warm leads.
De-ice your sales efforts by breaking the cold calling habit. Focus on creating warm relationships first. Soon, your customer evangelists will be part of your volunteer sales force.
