During Covid most buyers shut down their external communications with vendors and suppliers. Due to supply-chain disruptions and the lack of qualified labor to fulfill orders, the sales reps selling and servicing these accounts were turned into product expeditors, problem solvers, and, due to limited inventories, order takers. What they weren’t doing was being a salesperson bringing new ideas and better solutions to their clients and prospects.
It’s time to get back to selling as a part of the job now that inventory levels have stabilized and buyers have more competitive choices. What can your team do to do more prospecting looking for new opportunities?
A great way to prospect is to start by asking your satisfied customers for a referral. Who do they know who might also find value in the kind of help you’ve provided this customer? Just about anybody involved in a leadership role belongs to some group of their peers, whether through their industry association or local business community. Now the questions are if you’ve lowered their resistance enough and they trust you enough to introduce you to their friends and peers within their industry? Which accounts, because of your great support, do you think might provide some introductions?
Join me as I share ideas of how you can increase the selling discipline of asking for referrals after every sale…so you can sell even more!