Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching
Get Creative with Your Sales Approach
I want to share a recent success story with you that involved persistence and creativity.
Jeff is a Senior Level Business Development Executive in the technology field. He has been aggressively working his territory and is having a successful year. One of Jeff’s target prospects, a VP of an automation company has been non-responsive to all prospecting attempts. The guy keeps reading Jeff’s emails but never responds and always ignores his calls. Key point – Jeff is still making prospecting calls. Unfortunately, with many salespeople out there today, this seems to be a lost art and an important tool that is avoided by too many.
Jeff has extensively researched this company and knows he can be a valuable partner through his service offerings.
So, he got creative:
- Jeff discovered through social media that the VP graduated from Ohio State.
- As an alum from Michigan State, Jeff got excited and thought of an out-of-the box idea.
- The game between these currently ranked football teams is scheduled for October 8th.
- Jeff emailed the VP and proposed a bet. If Michigan State wins, they meet for lunch. If Ohio State wins, Jeff will cater lunch for his team.
The VP took the bet!
While Jeff is more of a college basketball fan, his Michigan State football team is predicted to have a good season. He also knows how serious people from Columbus, Ohio take their college football. Best case scenario – a lunch meeting costs around $80. Worst case scenario, a catered lunch for around $300 (but the VP’s whole team will get to meet Jeff… and at some point, they probably will cater a team lunch regardless).
It's a great idea when checking out social media sites to do a deeper dive than just where people currently work or live. Look for schools attended, items posted, common interests, common work history, volunteer passions, organizations they mention, people/companies they follow or anything that could be used as an ice breaker. Those items are posted for a reason - so get creative!
Have a great sales week!