Hi All
Now you know how much I like to challenge salespeople, right? You know that sometimes I cant help but speak my mind, correct? But you also know I do so because I CARE.
One of my biggest pet peeve about us salespeople is when we complain we don’t have enough people to see. It just gets my blood boiling.
First of all if we salespeople asked and expected to get referrals all the time we wouldn’t be having this ‘problem’ right? Heck if we just asked half the time or even 25% of the time we’d have enough people in our pipeline.
But I know asking for and getting quality referrals are salespeople’s Achilles Heel and I also spent three previous posts about referrals (check them out), so I wont focus on referrals now.
So lets say we break out in hives or get an allergic reaction to asking for referrals so what do we do? How do we get people to see? How do we increase our pipeline?
Here’s a solution that EVERY salesperson can do, and do well. As a matter of fact this solution will kill two birds with one stone as it also solves the number one complaint your clients have about you.
SERVICE! SERVICE! SERVICE!
You have clients right? Some of your clients really like you and like what you’ve done for them, right? So why not spend the next week reaching out to your clients and making a service call?
It’s a win, win for everyone. It’s also one of my favorite things I like to do as a salesperson. Do you know how many good things can happen by simply reaching out, speaking and/or seeing your Ideal Client?
- They are happy to hear from you
- They make you feel good
- A chance to reinforce all the good you have done for them
- Possibility of new business, and …
- YES a golden opportunity to get referrals or introductions
So what’s the bad? NOTHING!
In working with one of my corp. clients I did a survey with their clients. One of the questions was simply asking what can their salesperson do better. The # 1 answer was, see them more. Yes your clients do want to see you.
So why don’t salespeople do it? Honesty, I really don’t know. If they are a good client there’s no rejection. What’s the worst that can happen? Perhaps they say they can’t see you at the moment, or they are busy with other stuff. So, simply put them on your calendar for a later date.
I know for some of you this represents change, and change is very challenging for us. However to grow and improve we must change. FYI, If you really want to find out the biggest change I had to go through check out ‘A Tale of Two Ricks‘ . You’d be pretty surprised on what I went through.
My Plan:
Step 1: Let your Ideal Clients/A Clients know in advance you will be doing reviews
Step 2: Set a reminder in your calendars to reach out to your clients once a quarter
Step 3: Email them
Here’s what I do …
Hi Annette,
Hope all is well. Haven’t spoken in a while. Would love to catch up and see how things are going. Lets grab a few minutes to speak. Give me some choices of days and times that are good.
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Many Thanks,
Rick
How long does that take out of your day? A few minutes per email?
If you have 30 Ideal Clients, take 5 per week. Stop by and see them. When you do, you wont have that bull&%#@ complaint about not having enough people to see.
More importantly you’ll be reminded why you got into this business in the first place.