Mack Powers

In his book Rainmaking - The Professionals Guide to Attracting New Clients, Ford Harding, clarifies that business relationships require regular and consistent contact.   With everyone being so busy, you can’t just stay in touch to stay in touch without creating value when you do.  Here are a number of value creating contact reasons that might assist you in staying in touch with other business acquaintances on a regular basis.

1. Request Advice on a project that you are working on (such as writing an article or book)
2. Thank someone for referring business to you
3. Congratulate or promote someone
4. Request the name of a vendor
5. Refer a possible job candidate
6. Thank you for their payment for services rendered
7. Offer free consultation
8. Provide assistance on a professional association project
9. Provide information on a potential customer
10. Call about a new lead or business opportunity that you have become aware of
11. Request coaching on a prospect or lead development idea
12. Forward an article that you think might be of value to the client
13. Recommend a vendor who provides excellent service
14. Invite to a workshop or webinar
15. Forward a blog post to them
16. Notify them when you or your firm posts a press release
17. Notify them regarding trade events
18. Invite them to sporting events or group activities
19. Offer to meet this person over lunch to discuss any of the above
20. Offer to share your contact list with that person to help them develop business
21. Use Social Media such as facebook, linkedin and twitter to stay connected to your network

I was talking with a financial planner this past weekend.  He told me that 5.5 trillion (with a capital T) dollars that was once in the stock market is now in cash, sitting on the sidelines.  What does that mean to a sales person?   It means that sometime, those 5.5 trillion dollars that are now sitting on the bench will get back into the game.  If past trends are an indicator, it could rebound (or spike) quickly once or several times on its way back up. 

The question for a salesperson then is, “What should my sales portfolio look like today knowing this fact?”  The answer: Invest heavily in LEADS!  When the rebound happens, if your pipeline isn’t full, you could stand to miss out on a tremendous amount of business because you won’t be able to respond quickly enough to the demand.

It is easy to get discouraged and lose energy thinking that any effort today is wasted since customers aren’t spending today like they were.  This type of thinking won’t get you anywhere.  Work diligently to develop leads and have a large lead pipeline so that when the market begins to turn and deals begin to flow, you will be able to convert those leads to opportunities and those opportunities to sales.

Buckle down, stay focused, work diligently and INVEST IN LEADS!