2024 Prep Steps

During the final days of this month salespeople not only scurry to put the wraps on the sales year that is ending, but also receive their sales goals for the new year and begin to figure out how they will accomplish them. In today’s post I want to make some suggestions to help with that mission, by focusing on PROSPECTING as the best way to ensure that you achieve your 2024 sales objectives.

I regularly hear blue collar outside salespeople whine about not receiving enough leads. I can’t change that nor can they, but we can focus on self-generating leads to bridge the perceived company lead deficit. Often sellers don’t realize how many creative lead opportunities they have access to. Frankly, when salespeople take full advantage of lead generating strategies, they come to realize that company leads are not the bomb. Those leads bring lots of competition with them as most prospects end up calling several companies and getting multiple estimates. When sellers self-generate leads it’s rare for prospects to call the competition, primarily because of relationships and trust.

There are many common resources available to help salespeople become creative selling machines, but for brevity I’ll outline only four:

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Referrals – Statistics prove that about 2/3 of all the stuff sold occurs as a result of recommendations from friends and family members. However, most sellers are pretty lame at securing them. First, your customers don’t know what referrals are. Make it easy and start asking for “introductions”. Beginning in January commit to following back up with every customer, soon after each job is completed/installed and make sure they are totally satisfied. (If they’re not why send you to their best friend?) Assuming they’re happy, say something simple like this:

“Now that you have experienced what we do, I’m sure you will agree I’m the kind of guy people need to have on speed dial in their cell phones. Most of my customers come from satisfied folks like you who introduce and recommend me to a few friends and family. This is how I provide for my family, so I really need your help by introducing me to three people you’re real close with. Can I count on you to help me?”

The introductions can be face-to-face, by phone, or even text or email. What you can’t buy is your customer’s stamp of approval. If you are poor at this and only receive one intro per day, that’s 250 in 2024. And at only a 30% closure rate that’s 75 additional sales next year. Plug in your average dollar amount and look at the incremental revenue!  And by the way, if you rinse and repeat by teaching the sold introductions to do the same…well you figure it out, as I’m not that great at math.

Orphaned Customers – I don’t have to tell you that everybody wants a guy (or gal). So, ask admin to print you a complete customer list, one that includes who sold each one. Then highlight each one sold by someone no longer with your company. Each highlighted customer is an orphan, and no longer has a guy (or gal). Make contact and tell them you are opening an adoption agency and are adopting them. Explain their guy (or gal) is no longer in place and that each customer deserves to have someone reach out several times each year and make sure everything is OK and make them feel special.

If you do this you will pick up collateral sales of other services or products they don’t currently have, as well as once they begin to trust you some referrals…I mean introductions will come your way. It’s hard to put a number on that but it’s worth the time and effort it will take. Not to mention how much the company will appreciate the orphans you save from jumping ship to another company due to their loneliness.

Cloverleafing – If you picture a four-leaf clover in your mind, it’s easy to visualize that this prospecting activity is dropping by the next-door neighbors as well as the pair across the street after you sell one of your services. Most neighborhoods contain houses built about the same time and constructed similarly. This means that whatever problem you sold a solution for could possibly occur at the neighbors’ homes also. Here’s my suggested approach at all four homes before leaving the neighborhood:

“I’m Doug with (your company) and we just completed some work next door for (what you sell). I’m here to make a public service announcement that since the homes around here are very similar and built about the same time, I recommend you get an inspection within the next 30 days. Choose whoever you like, or I could schedule to come back by and do it, but you really should get your house checked soon.”

More times than not, the neighbors will appreciate your touch and ask you to come and perform the checkup. When folks aren’t home leave a doorhanger/business card with a short-handwritten message. You will quickly become as busy as a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest!

Service Leads – The most trusted and knowledgeable employees at your location are the service techs and installers. The flip side is that in most companies there is a continual turf war between sales and service. That is so foolish since techs can easily convince homeowners and business managers of conditions and issues they need to talk to you about, which come to you in the form of solid sales leads and eventual sales. Conversely, when you sell those tech leads you provide additional work and income for the service teams. So, suck it up buttercup and cozy up to your service team, and when they become convinced you are not a sniper, another steady stream of sales prospects will begin to come your way. Here are a few tips to help build tech relationships:

Spend time with service folks by scheduling an hour or two from time to time to ride with them on some service calls. Help them where you can and maybe even buy lunch. Another idea is to attend the weekly service meeting and be interested in what they are discussing. Relationships will blossom and the sales leads will follow.

I (Doug) am telling you straight up from 50 years in the selling universe that mastering these four strategies will put you in the position that you won’t really care how many company leads come your way. Your mantra will become, “A company lead is just an interruption to my well planned day.”

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