Co-Contribution by Mike Adler, an expert in sales development at AC LION. AC LION is a leading executive search and consulting firm specializing in building sales, marketing and technology teams for venture funded emerging growth companies. Visit them at ACLION.com.
Find Your Audience — Your prospects are out there. It’s your job to find them. Conferences, email databases, social media, referrals are all venues to find prospects. It’s safe to say, nearly everyone has a social stream — whether it’s Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn.
Attend industry conferences to identify potential prospects, and then deepen your search to LinkedIn to learn more about them. After an advanced search on LinkedIn, identify those prospects you are connected to either directly or via a common colleague or friend. Typically, the closer your connection, the more likely the prospect will consider your introduction or sales pitch credible (after all, the majority of jobs are found through networking). LinkedIn, is incredibly useful in filtering and finding prospects — as its search tools enable you to find prospects based on specific, professional criteria (i.e. CMO, education, resume, etc).
Research Everything — Making a meaningful connection is the first step in relationship building. CRM software, such as Sales Force or publicly available search platforms such as Google, LinkedIn, Facebook are rich information gathering tools to help you make the connection between you and your target. For instance, if you find the CMO of P&G likes golf, that nugget of information could help you continue the conversation beyond an initial introduction.
Begin Outreach — LinkedIn is a powerful tool for outreach. Once you’ve found your sales prospect, you could either a) upgrade to a premium LinkedIn account to send direct In-Mail or b) connect with them via a shared group. Once you have the means to reach out to the prospect — whether it’s via LinkedIn or e-mail — send a quick introduction outlining who you are and why you’re contacting them. For instance, start the email with: “Hi Jon, I noticed you are connected to David Capece. He is the CEO of Sparxoo, a digital marketing blog and we would like to get your thoughts on our latest marketing game.”
Deepening Relationships and Making a Sale — While social networks, conferences, and email repositories might be a way to find and begin the conversation, eventually you will need to pick up the phone and call. Calling takes the conversation into real-time and this is where you build rappoire and lay the groundwork to make your pitch. Sometimes you can make your pitch on the first call, and other times you need to carry on a conversation through multiple meetings to work up to a larger sale. Based on background research, past conversations and a solid rappoire, you’re ready to make the sale.
Image by Fernando Mengoni from Stock.Xchng
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My biggest learning of the past month has been the power of local connections. Get involved in your local community: volunteer, sponsor, and build relationships. People prefer to do business with those who are making a positive impact on their community.