Last week I had a sales person, let’s call him Vinnie Bag-a-Donuts. Vinnie told me he looked on LinkedIn but too late.
Vinnie waited until AFTER the appointment went in the wrong direction. Then when back in the office, disappointed that the customer was going to RFP and Vinnie wasn’t going to help write it, that he then looked on LinkedIn only to discover that Vinnie and the potential customer both belonged to the very same small community church.
Sincere common interests help you look more the like person instead of a sales person. This lowers resistance and enables effective communication. It’s not like you have dig through newspapers, magazines and phone books. It’s just a few clicks.
So take a few minutes and go to Google Advanced Search or LinkedIn for starters.
If this step was not already completed before you made the first phone call – you work too hard and probably made calls that didn’t but could have gone better. Don’t neglect to do this homework before the appointment.
More on Linkedin Profiles … The Value
- Look for common connections, schools attended, previous places of employment, clubs associations and groups your contact belongs to in order to find commonality.
- Clubs & associations also help you understand this business and its’ suppliers. (You know what to do with suppliers-See my earlier blog). If you are assigned this vertical market, join those associations. This also increases the amount of warm calls verses cold calls you’ll need to make.
- Where they worked previously and where they went to school provides common interests but also helps you determine if your company has relationships or services sold to any of these businesses, their school or their suppliers. (instant credibility)
Small steps in research can save you BIG on time, effort and commissions.
