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Salespeople attend networking events with the objective of
finding potential customers. Many, however, are ill-prepared for
the task. They don't have a planned strategy to properly develop
opportunities they might uncover.
The result?
As soon as someone shows an interest
in the salesperson's product or service, the salesperson drops
into "sell" mode and begins a sales pitch. In less than a
minute, the alleged prospect stops listening and begins
formulating his exit strategy. "That sounds interesting, I'll
keep you in mind if we ever need anything like that," he says as
he begins to back away.
It's important to remember that a
networking event is not a sales call. It's not a selling event.
Think of it as a "marketing" event-an opportunity to identify
people who have enough interest in your product or service to
engage in a future discussion.
Whether your sales pitch consists of
a description of the features and benefits of your product or,
alternatively, a series of probing questions to uncover the
prospect's needs, both are inappropriate for a networking
(marketing) event.
So, what is an appropriate
conversation for a networking event?
When someone asks what you do, start
with a problem-oriented description of your product or service.
We help manufacturing companies who
are having problems meeting production quotas reengineer their
manufacturing processes to increase production efficiencies and
reduce waste.
If the person shows interest,
continue with an outcome-oriented description.
Our clients typically see production
increases in the neighborhood of 15-25% and a significant
reduction in reject rates-all of which is accomplished without
increasing absolute production costs.
If the person shows further
interest, perhaps asking, "How do you do that?" or a similar
question, resist the temptation to drop into "sell" mode and, as
so many salespeople do, explain your product or process in
detail. Instead, stay in "marketing" mode and provide an example
that illustrates what you do and the advantages enjoyed by your
clients.
A recent client was under pressure
to increase production throughput. By simply speeding up the
production process, however, they doubled the reject rate, which
severely undermined the initial goal. By carefully analyzing
their production process and restructuring several key steps, we
not only enabled them to increase production by 22%, but also
reduce the reject rate to less than half of the previous low
number.
Now, if your prospect wants
additional information, it's appropriate to suggest a more
suitable setting within which to have a more in-depth
conversation. You can suggest, and schedule, a phone call or
face-to-face appointment.
If you approach networking events,
whether formal or informal, prepared to have " marketing"
conversations, you're more likely to uncover prospects with whom
to have subsequent "selling" conversations.
© Sandler
Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
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