How to Find New Prospects for your Business by Leveraging your Network

As a sales professional or business owner, you need to find prospects you can deliver your sales presentation to. My sales mentor, Eric Lofholm, calls this process lead generation.

One of the keys to lead generation is systems. You want to develop multiple lead generation systems.

Lead generation begins with a database. Do you have a database where you are entering leads? If not, then you might be leaving money on the table.

Lead generation begins with identifying your target market. Who is your ideal client? You need to find ways to connect with new prospects, whether through networking, phone calls, or email.

A POI is a Person of Influence!

Eric's number 1 lead generation idea is POI. A POI is a person of influence. Everyone has a network. A POI is a person who has a large network where a % of that network is your target market.

Another great strategy to prospect for new leads is through Top Down Selling. This is another way of describing a POI relationship. You influence the POI to refer you, recommend you, or endorse you to their network.

So, what can you do if you want to reach a POI in an organization? You can use an approach called Climb the Ladder Selling. This is where you know someone who knows the POI. You get the person you know to refer you to the POI.

Another strategy that many people know about, but that few do well is the Reciprocal Referral Relationship. This is where you find someone that you can refer business to and then can refer business back to you. An example would be a real estate agent and an insurance agent.

What are you doing to find new prospects? Select one new strategy to implement and you will be well on your way to finding new prospects.

Sell with Confidence,

Kevin Perkins
Sales Trainer, Eric Lofholm International

Kevin delivers training through conference calls and live training sessions.

Sales Scripts: Seven Secrets of Persuasion and Influence Secrets 5: Reverse Engineering and Stage Selling

sales_scriptsSales scripts are one of the most powerful ways to persuade and influence your prospects and can help transform you into a Master of Persuasion and Influence, only if you know the secrets.

Secret #5 Reverse Engineering
Sales pros look at their Sales Cycle and Sales Presentation strategically. The strategic viewpoint yields insights as to how all the various pieces of the presentation fit together. Sales Pros transition from one section of their sales presentation to another; it is practically seamless! The prospect may not know or sense that one part of the sales presentation has been reached; however, Sales Pros definitely know what section of the presentation they are in.

How do the Sales Pros do it?
Sales Pros reverse engineer their sales presentation, and this is how it works. They start at the end of the presentation where the prospect buys; then the Sales Pros ask themselves: "What would need to happen before that?" The Sales Pro then analyzes all the components of the phase where the prospect presents an objection. Then the Sales Pro asks: "What would happen before that?" Sales Pros continue this process of Reverse Engineering from a happy customer who bought the product all the way back to when the customer was just a lead. The Reverse Engineering process in your sales presentation is what Stephen Covey calls: "Begin with the end in mind."

Each Stage of the Sales Process has its own Unique Characteristics!

Stage Selling
Stage selling is another concept that Sales Pros handle differently from most salespeople. A Sales Pro understands it at a deep level that each stage of the sales process has its own unique characteristics. They do not try to do too much too soon! At the Lead Generation stage, Sales Pros know that the only goal is to just get a lead. That's it! The goal of appointment setting is just a scheduled appointment. If your only goal is to set an appointment, this takes the pressure off and makes it much easier to make more appointments.

On the other hand, some salespeople make the error of trying to do too many things at once! When the prospect has agreed to an appointment, the salesperson then tries to sell the whole product right then and there!  More often than not, the prospects are not ready to hear a full presentation because they thought they were just agreeing to the appointment, so they become scared and cancel it. Sales pros don't make that mistake.

Be sure to check out my next blog post:
Secret #6: Handling Objections

Online Marketing Secrets: How to Market your Business Online

vanessa_summersWhat steps are you taking to market your business online? Online marketing is essential to creating an endless stream of leads to fuel your sales. Eric Lofholm is a firm believer in the need to increase your presence on the web. Over the last few months, he has launched a new website, launched a portal web page, started 2 new blogs on sales training and sales script writing, and has developed a following on Twitter.

What can you do to increase your online marketing efforts?

Do you have a website with your products or services? Is the world beating a path to your door or have you merely added another set of fixed monthly costs that consume little profit you have left at the end of the month?

According to Online Marketing Expert Vanessa Summers, "If you are willing to innovate and adapt to the way business is done today, you will lead your industry."

Do you have a systematic process on how to market and run your business? Are you receiving the results you want?

You Need to Innovate and Adapt to the Way Business is Done Today!

If not, then you need to make a shift. The key to make a shift is to discover how to leverage your skills, business experience, and knowledge using your website, blog, e-mail, video, and social media.

If you would like to learn more about how to market your business online, check out this great video by Vanessa Summers on the 7 Simple Steps To Online Marketing! The video takes you step by step through the process.

Rick Cooper
Sales Coach and Trainer

Attend the Online Marketing Academy December 4-6 in Los Angeles. See Eric Lofholm speak, along with Jairek Robbins, Vanessa Summers and other great speakers. For more details, contact Rick Cooper at (916) 724-5282, ext. 5