Talk to 10 People a Day
One of my early mentors was my father, Ed Garrison. He has been successfully selling for nearly 50 years. One thing he has repeated to me and two of my brothers (all of us have been in sales nearly our entire adult lives) is that ...
If you will make sure to tell ten people a day about your business, you will always be successful.
Of course, this "formula" was pre-voicemail and pre-internet, thus actually speaking with ten people a day is perhaps unrealistic. nonetheless, the philosophy is still sound and even profound.
Let's break it down. When dad said "tell" people about your business, he meant to actually have a conversation. What he didn't mean was to send letters. Today he would say that most e-mails don't count. Leaving a voicemail message does not count. Twitter does not count. Facebook does not count. Connecting on Linked In does not count. Even this blog post does not count.
Here's the point. All of these things are important "marketing" tools and they are great for becoming known, creating familiarity, and even building a trusted brand. However, in B2B sales, most of this good activity will not convert into paid business until you talk to people in real life. Don't get bogged down, distracted, and fooled by all it all.
As Einstein put it, “Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”
Finally, if you were to only track one sales metric. Only one number that would be a leading indicator of future sales. It would be ...
How many people did I TELL about my business today?
Jeff, I agree with your premise times 100. Your father was not only "smart" but also "wise". Nothing can beat the personal conversation. It is too easy to respond that you get such poor leverage, but I would say "so what". You can do lead generation and awareness programs but never INSTEAD of one on one time.
I would take one piece of your dad's truths and suggest that since today's communications are so quick and done by email, etc I have found simple, sincere hand written notes are beginning to mean something. I use 5x7 folded cards within an envelope and write thank you's to those who have given me their time, for Birthdays of employees and friends, etc. But I would NEVER do this without knowing something real about the employee and of course speaking from my heart to those I have known, met with..... Lastly, I empower every person in my Company to "tell our story"....but now I will see if we all can meet at least 10 per day! Bob Mayes
Posted by: Bob Mayes | May 27, 2011 at 11:10 PM
It is my honor and privileged to found and read your post. It made me learn a lot of different ideas. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Sales consulting services | December 19, 2011 at 12:17 AM