Ask yourself the following question: would you rather spend the day making 100 cold calls, or spend the day with existing customers to earn referrals?
Sales today has experienced a fundamental shift in philosophy. No longer is sales transactional (cold calling), simply focused on one sale at a time. Instead, sales has become more about relationship building; getting to know your customer.
According to a Nielsen poll, less than 10% of consumers trust cold calls. Conversely, 90% of consumers trust their peers. So why are you spending the bulk of your time cold calling when you should be focusing on your current customer base? These clients are a great place to obtain referrals, referrals that are more effective than cold calls at bringing in new business.
Cold calling was an effective tool before the advent of the Internet. Before, people needed you to call them to tell them about your product. Now they can get all of this information off the web. Today’s customer is more knowledgeable than ever before. This is why the sales process had to evolve.
Customers know what they want. They have done all their research online. They don’t need you to give them a sales pitch about your product or service, because they already know everything they need to know about your product or service. What they need from you is an understanding. How will you and your company benefit them, and their company? Your potential client doesn’t need to be sold on your product; they need to be sold on you.
So what are you waiting for? Get out their and start building those meaningful relationships!
If you have any questions, contact Springboard Business Development by calling 410-832-7560 or click here today!
At Springboard we offer outsourced sales solutions for businesses in the professional services arena. It’s simple, while you focus on delivery, we bring our sales expertise and connections to focus on your business development challenges.
Our approach to business development makes it easy to find new clients without the concerns of sales team turn-over, lack of sales expertise and payroll.