How to develop sales contacts?

[gary_2000]

I’m pretty new in the business and I've just gotten into selling and yesterday I made about 35 calls. Turned with two major prospects, but I was just wondering what are some other ways that you all use to make contacts?

[santiago]

Unfortunately starting off there isn’t a whole lot of easy tricks. But when you get those 2 interested prospects from sales calls and turn them into customers, you need to develop a referral system that gets 3-4 good prospects from each of them.

That's the key to prospecting in sales, referrals from satisfied customers. Sometimes they'll give you the business without having to ask, but normally you'll have to pry a little and ask them who they know that could use your service or product.

[ChrisH]

What are you trying to promote and/or sell Gary? Can you give us more info about what you're trying to do? Are you making cold calls with a predetermined list or serving for people to call?

Will try to offer some ideas, but need more info about what you're doing

Chris

[ltrahan]

you might also visit this thread in the Sales/Marketing section of the forum:

http://www.evancarmichael.com/Forums/vi ... .php?t=309

Mostly talks about cold calling but there are a few good points that might help you out.

Other than that there is nothing like networking - get out there, meet people and spread the word.

[theodore]

You have the best plan going right now....you have to be assertive, and talk to people like people...don't sound to much like a sales person...I have been in corporate sales for over 15 years, I have sold over $15 million dollars in contract sales...here are the keys to selling:

1) Know your product better than your competitor. Not just what it does, but why your brands are better...do a comparison...be the EXPERT!

2) COLD CALL!! You have to put in your time, make your calls, build relationships, and if they tell you to follow up in 3 months, get yourself a great follow-up CRM. $15bucks a month, you can enter all of your prospects, notes, letters, etc..and they have a calendar for follow up calls...keep all your prospects in one place for daily access...

3) Did I mention COLD CALL!!? Also, once you have built your customer base, you then have the opportunity to ask for referrals. Follow-up with your customers every few months to make sure they are happy...especially with CORPORATE customers...the hotel business is a great start, you want the to think of you when they need more TV's!! I call it, "be everywhere."! Stick to corporate sales, you get more for your money...although if you want to sell to individual's try e-bay, or classifieds, but don't waste a ton of time trying to sell 1 tv, sell in BULK!

4) Nothing happens overnight, you have to earn the big money...put in your time, work your A__ off, and give great customer service!

GOOD LUCK! Hope this was helpful...

[jvprosperity]

Gary,

A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple!

In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people:

1. Strangers
2. Prospects
3. Returning Customers

You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question.

My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative).

My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him.

So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc.

The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation.

You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him.

At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation.

Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool.

Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!

[IWDCanada]

I’m pretty new in the business and I've just gotten into selling and yesterday I made about 35 calls. Turned with two major prospects, but I was just wondering what are some other ways that you all use to make contacts?

We were in the same boat some time ago. We launched a large advertising campaign and in the end we received about 3 clients from it. The marketing was good but the distribution killed us (Canada Post sucks!). Anyways, we serviced those 3 clients like you would not believe, went above and beyond for them, and satisfied everything we possibly could. Now those 3 customers have brought us a significant amount of revenue and led to more leads throughout the time they have been with us.

Our business depends on referrals and that’s how we’ve built the business. In the 2 years we’ve been running we catered to little over 250 customers world wide. We have clients in London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, and evenly distributed through North America. We started with just 4 clients in the beginning!

Keep making those calls and servicing them well!

Good luck!!

[Michael Dunlop]

Buy something from your competetors and there love you for ever. They pass on leads they dont want but you do. Great way to get free sales.

[ndasika]

Hi,

Selling is an art and need to be developed over time. Whenever you make a call, remember that you are giving out a solution not a product and the cost paid is the perceived value of the solution by the buyer. Don't be a salesman/woman be a solution provider. You are a consultant not a sales person. This makes you create a great relationship with your client/customer and you become like a doctor or a lawyer, who one cannot do without. This makes your prospects refer you to more people. Always remember that when a customer is buying a mobile phone they are not buying the gadget but a connection to their loved ones. This is called the emotional benefits which is the underlying need that make us buy anything.

[Alan Mater]

Gary,

What kind of products are you selling? Are they something you could sell online? The internet opens up a whole lot of possibilities to generate leads, prospects and eventually customers.

You've been given great advice already. The same tips can also apply online as well if you have a website or plan to start selling online.

I'm interested to hear about your business and your products.

Take Care,

Alan

[sajis@yahoo.com]

Selling advertisements on a website is one of the most efficient and easiest ways to make money online. Many bloggers and webmasters utilize ad networks like Text Link Ads and ReviewMe, both of which take a huge 50% cut of all your ad earnings.

These third party ad brokers dominate our monetization strategies because of the strength and trustworthiness of their brand as well as their advertiser reach , which gives them the leverage to demand a cut of our ad earnings.

Alternative profit schemes are not often considered because of the lack of know-how when it comes to direct advertising sales, which simply refers to the selling of ads directly to advertisers without the assistance of middlemen.

Do you really need to sign up with as many advertising networks as possible in order to make some decent money from your websites? When was the last time you actually sold a link or review through these brokers?

More importantly , why not supplement or replace these ad brokers with direct advertising initiatives?

I’ll start things off with a brief introduction to the pros and cons of direct advertising before going into suggestions on creating an advertiser sell page , which should be the first step you should take............................

[unlimited22]

Start a blog. Give free insightful information. It allows your future customers to get to know you better.

Include a capture page where they give you their email address to stay connected and receive more blog updates. You can then either send a free monthly newletter (via icontact or aweber etc) along with yout company website and contact info or send occassional promos to secure new cusomter/clients etc.

[jnwssbrg]

Everyone has the right idea here. Depending on your business, there are different techniques that you could use. For consultants and sales heavy businesses, there are three tactics that I have found especially useful in my business:

1. Attend Networking Events
2. Cold Calling
3. Referral Program
4. Affiliate Program (most successful)

The affiliate program was successful for me, as I hooked up with a franchise consultant, and he gave multiple unit businesses that needed my credit card processing services. I highly suggest you hook up with a sales partner, and give him a cut of the monthly revenue.