ADVICE
The sales DOCTOR This month, Sales Doctor, Tony Morris gives his expert advice to novices on how to get started with selling
Dear Sales Doctor, I’m completely new to sales, and don’t have any leads. How do I go about making some?
L
ead generation is one of the most important components of successful sales. My starting point is my top 100; these are a list of all the friends and family that I have. These are often forgotten, and are an easy place to start. It’s not always the people on the list that are your leads, it’s their connections. A great example of this is my best friend of 29 years; Gavin was the first person on my list. He worked for a large US bank where there was no real opportunity; however, his sister worked for a blue chip retail company that was an ideal lead for my training company. She wasn’t the right contact, but she was able to introduce me to the head of HR, and it is now a client. They say everybody knows 1,000 people; just think about all your LinkedIn connections, Facebook friends, and family members. Another key is to target the right leads. If your company hasn’t done this already, you need to grade your clients. You should look back at your company’s client base, and grade them into four levels:
GRADE A – these are your ideal clients, and you have to decide what that means to you. For example, they might pay the most, have a shorter sales cycle, be easier to covert, you enjoy working with them the most, etc. GRADE B – these are your bread and butter clients. These are the ones your company tends to do most business with, and must be targeted. GRADE C – These are your one-off clients. They’re the ones that are unlikely to buy again from you, and have minimal opportunity to cross-sell your other products/services to. GRADE D – These are your dead clients (though not literally!). These are ones you want to avoid like the plague. They are ones that spend the least, and probably create the most problems. You probably have some in mind as you’re reading this. One of the clients I took on at the start of my sales training company paid me the least, and was by far the most demanding. They took up so much of my time, and for very little reward. It was only when I grew, that I
My starting point for leads is my friends and family. These are often forgotten, and are an easy place to start was able to move away from them and invest my time more wisely, targeting the right type of client for my business. To develop your sales skills and abilities, I would strongly recommend reading sales books and watching videos; there is no need to reinvent the wheel. To get a copy of my sales book, Coffee is for Closers, email me at tony@salesdoctors.co.uk
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