As an entrepreneur and business owner, you must constantly focus on expanding your professional network if you want to grow your sales. This includes professionals like bankers, CPAs, and attorneys who can provide referrals or advice. But you should also connect with potential competitors through trade associations. These connections get you out of your daily grind and allow you to take a strategic view of your business.
The majority of service-based businesses generate significant revenue from referrals. So your network plays a crucial role in fueling sales growth. If you don’t feel comfortable with direct sales conversations, focus on building genuine connections and relationships first. Anchor each new connection by learning about the person on a professional and personal level. This establishes trust and goodwill.
During sales interactions, ask questions to uncover the prospect’s wants, needs, and interests. Avoid launching right into a product pitch. Follow the mindset of making every call an “investigative information call.” Your success metric should not be whether you made an immediate sale. Rather, measure whether you built rapport and uncovered helpful insights from the conversation. This shift in mentality can ease hesitation about sales outreach for those who fear rejection.
Also, reframe “no” responses as “not now” moments. Many promising deals take weeks, months or even years to culminate. Don’t get discouraged by longer sales cycles. Stay patient and nurturing with your prospects.
As the business owner, you need to drive lead generation and the entire sales process. Relying completely on others is risky. While you can outsource certain lead gen activities, you should control the personalized sales conversations and relationship building. This establishes trust and integrity with customers.
For entrepreneurs who feel less capable with sales, start by identifying your differentiation in the marketplace. Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, narrow your niche so you can provide specialized value. Then actively expand your network through bankers, attorneys and other centers of influence who can connect you with ideal prospects. While sales may not come naturally to you, centering your business around serving others takes the focus off “selling” and makes authentic connections possible.
In conclusion, Mike LeJeune, President at Lighting the Path, along with Harry Spaight’s insightful guidance, made for an episode filled with indispensable tools for driving successful business sales at Sales Made Easy Podcast.
