Who will you get to know in 2006?
Written by Brandon on December 12, 2005. Leave a Comment on this Post
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Okay, so I heard a sales representative, one who is performing at an average clip for his company, utter the infamous cliche last week: “it’s all who you know.”
My question to him was this: Who do you know? It just so happens that this particular sales represenative knows…no one. No one of influence, anyway, in his city, community, neighborhood, or with any major employers. So his comment was uttered in a condemning manner. He feels “locked out” because he doesn’t know anyone, and is now forced to sell his products on a door-to-door or phone-to-phone basis. Maybe you know someone like this.
It’s a sad existence, really. There’s no one to get him jumpstarted with his target prospects. There’s no one to refer him, as a credible third-party, into a large business down the street. And it sounds like, heaven forbid he should lose his job, there’s no one looking out for him when times are tough.
If you’re going to make it long-term in sales, you’ve got to proactively, consciously begin building a network of credible, qualified, intelligent, noteworthy, influential contacts. In December, I’d like to challenge you to set aside some time to building a list of at least 25 significant individuals in your neighborhood, community, and your city that you would like to make a point of meeting professionally during 2006. Name them.
After you create your target list, then begin thinking through how you will connect with them. Where do they go? What do they do? Do they attend certain types of functions? Certain sporting events regularly? Google them to find out if there are organizations they support or volunteer for. Do they speak around town? Who knows them?
Of course, the final step, the harder step in the process is once you’ve met them, now you need to get to know them. Advice on that will come in future posts…
You owe it to yourself, wherever you are in your career, to have this contact base in place.
Who Will You Meet in 2006?
Sales Team Tools recently published a piece about a young salesperson who did not have a network to sell to. It outlines a simple strategy for thinking about developing your personal and professional network. It prompted me to start thinking