Selling is very much the same as diet and exercise. If you haven’t eaten right or exercised for a long time believing that your health was fine, you usually decide to change because you are staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. We tend to find religion when times get really tough and our very existence is threatened.
If you haven’t built a list of real targets, what I call dream clients, over a period of time, it takes time and effort to do the work to identify your targets and the right contacts.
If you haven’t nurtured your dream clients over a long period of time, you are still unknown. It takes time to be known and to be known as a value creator.
If you don’t have a solid pipeline of opportunities that’s three to four times the number you need to make, you have to invest time, usually more time than you think, building a solid funnel of opportunities.
But none of this is to suggest it’s too late to do anything. The best time to start was 18 months ago. But the second best time to start is now.
Get your entire team focused on building a list of target accounts. Start by going back over all of the customers you’ve had and reengage with them. Then make a list of all of the prospects you should be doing business with because you can create massive value for them. The fastest way to help yourself is to help others.
You aren’t going to have the time you need to nurture your dream clients. You are going to have to pick up the phone directly and schedule appointments. There are no “ifs, ands, or buts” here. This is life or death, and staring at the phone without picking it up is staring at your impending doom.
The only way to build opportunities is to get in front of your dream clients and have conversations that result in commitments. Commitments to explore working on challenges and opportunities together. Commitments to share ideas. And, ultimately, commitments to work together.
If you need sales urgently, the answer is to respond with an even greater sense of urgency. Nothing less will do.
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