You’re Doing it Wrong

A call with an upcoming guest on my “How to Succeed in Sales” podcast series reinforced the importance of finding ways to keep your name in front of a hot prospect.

It’s not uncommon for buying decisions to take several months—or longer—and keeping your name in their mind can help increase the likelihood of generating a solid sales opportunity.

However, how you approach that objective will influence your prospect’s decision to consider you when they finally make the decision to move ahead with the buying decision.

Here are three wrong ways to keep your name in your prospect’s mind followed by a more effective approach.

The “check-in” call

A common approach is for a sales person to make a “check-in” call—either by telephone or a face-to-face visit. The conversation usually sounds something like, “Hey, Mr Jones, just checking in to see if anything has changed or if you’re ready to discuss that project now.”

I could be wrong but I don’t know many sales people who close deals when they use this approach.

Corporate brochure

Sales people often send corporate brochures and other marketing materials related to their solution. They believe that these materials will give the prospect the information they need to make a buying decision. However, having worked in the corporate world for many years I can say that most expensive brochures end up in the circular file (aka trash can).

I’m going to step out on a limb here and suggest that if you use either of these approaches you’re probably not getting very good results. That’s because you are behaving like most of the sales people competing for the same business or that prospect’s attention.

The corporate newsletter

Many companies send newsletters to their customers. However, I have often found that the newsletter focuses on the selling company and contains information about new products, services, or other “stuff” that is largely irrelevant to the customer’s company.

It’s okay to send prospects information like this once in a while. But, if you really want to stand out from your competition, you need to give them information they can actually use to improve their business.

Become a valued resource

If you want to differentiate yourself AND keep your name in your prospect’s mind, you need to do something different.

Research trends in your industry and send your prospect an article outlining the top three trends that are affecting the industry. Even if they are aware of these trends, you will catch their attention and position yourself as more than a sales person.

You will become a valued resource.

What about you? What do you do to keep your name in your prospect’s mind and stand out from the competition?

Planning a sales conference, training program or other related event? I might be able to help. Give me a call and we can discuss strategies to help you achieve your goals. 905-633-7750