Leadership
Sales PerformanceNot a sales hunter? No problem.
Most sales people don’t like cold calling for new business. If you are a hunter you probably cold call. If you're a farmer you probably wait for customers to call you. But what if you need to find new business and you’re not a hunter? There's another option: you can learn to be a consultant and find business your way. Here’s how.
Why should we go out to find new business in the first place? Many sales people have existing customers who are much easier to sell to than new customers. But if you are not approaching them, you can bet your competitors are. So there is business being done that you don’t even know about. And that means the business those customers are calling you about at the moment is at risk of being taken away. If you are finding new business before customers call you, chances are you are there before your competitors.
When I was in software sales one of my sales architects mentioned that it was strange we often didn’t come across our major competitor in many sales opportunities. This happened for two reasons: We focused on selling to a large base of existing clients, and we got to the customer first when there was a new opportunity. If you are there first, you have the opportunity to show the customer how you can serve them better than anyone else.
The other reason for developing new business is that it takes the guesswork out of your sales year. You are further down the scale of control and predictability in your forecasting.
If you’d like to find new opportunities but you are not the typical hunter, here is a story to illustrate another option: A story of a hunter, a farmer and a consultant.
The hunter is this tough, unshaven guy carrying a rifle in the jungle who sets traps and brings home animals in big steel cages. This is good and hard work, but sometimes a hunter will waste time on a customer who cannot buy because the hunter mistakenly thinks he can “make” a sale happen. If he does not fall into this trap, he will be successful in the jungle catching new opportunities.
A farmer is someone who stays home and feeds the animals and looks after them. The farmer relies on customers to contact him when they need something.
Then there is the consultant. Someone who simply walks along the beach on a hot day asking people if they are feeling hot and thirsty. When the client agrees that they are hot and thirsty, the consultant asks them if they would like a cold drink. When the client says that would be a great idea, the consultant offers whatever cold drink he is selling.
In practice, this takes the form of doing account reviews, partnering with other suppliers, targeting industry segments with a solution and many other person-to-person techniques that customers enjoy and respect as much as you do.
If you want help developing actions that work for you, make an enquiry below and we'll help you build a plan for consulting your way mutual success with your customers.
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