101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas
IDEA 15:
CLIMB THE STAIRS
Many businesses need a constant supply of new prospects. Prospecting – and cold calling – is not most sales people’s favourite activity. The trick to ensuring that have a constant supply of new people to talk to is to have number of methods, where each lends itself to regularly producing some new names. These might include everything combing directories or association membership lists to simple observation – moving into that new building under construction.
Idea
I first observed this being done by the representative of a printing firm….
Any sales person has to create professional effectiveness in term of time. Prospecting must not take too long, and you do not want to undertake labyrinthine research when something simpler will do the job. The sales person I am thinking of here worked in central London. He wanted to find customers within tight radius of the printing works to minimize travel time, and had hit on what he called the climbing stairs method of prospecting. This he did specifically to try to find new customers close to existing ones.
Every time he visited a customer in an office block, he took the stairs (on the way down is easiest!) and checked out what other organization were operating in the building. If he found a likely prospect, it only took a moment to nip in and ask a few questions at reception. Occasionally he met a decision maker as a result. More often he got information and names, and could make a more considered approach later. It was a very time-effective method. The same sort of thing can be made to work in a variety of different circumstance, for example on an industrial estate. Sometimes the notice listing occupants in the lobby is helpful, but actually seeing the front door or going in allows a better judgment to be made about potential
In practice
- Anything like this can be made a habit. Something that takes little time but can do regularly day after day is especially useful.
- Prospecting is as much a question of attitude as of technique. Those who think about it positively are rarely short of someone new to talk to.