Organize for intelligence. In sales, finding the right contacts (and all of the necessary contacts) within the prospects is difficult and time-consuming. Intelligence and sales are complimentary. Your sales will be intelligence driven, but intelligence will come mostly from your own efforts, not a product served up by your company headquarters. So you must be organized for intelligence, and you must collect it yourself. Twenty-Eight Articles

Use all of the modern tools that are available to you to collect information. Use sales 2.0 information-gathering tactics and tools. Collect the information electronically. Keep everything; you don’t know when you will need to recall something of value that a key contact mentioned during a meeting. Make sure you have electronic access to your information when you are in the field, when you need it most.

Talk to every available contact within your prospects. Listen to what they have to say about their company, their challenges, their issues. Collect and gather this information from anyone willing to talk to you, and have a list of the right intelligence-gathering questions with you at all times. The time you spend gathering intelligence will pay for itself by increasing your speed and increasing your win ratios.

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