Ten Great Ways to Find New Customers

Sales is one of the most difficult of all professions. However, it doesn’t have to be hard and painful. Here are ten ways to increase your customer base by working smarter instead of just working hard.

1. Tell everyone that you are a sales person and tell them what you sell.
2. Get into the habit of first giving referrals and then asking for referrals.
3. Become the voice of your industry, write articles about your products or services.
4. Actively participate in networking by joining the local chamber, networking groups, or Corporate Alliance.
5. Ask every one of your happy and satisfied customers for referrals.
6. Find new opportunities with your existing customers (other offices or divisions).
7. Write and distribute a newsletter about your company and products.
8. Look for opportunities to submit press releases.
9. Ask for product endorsements from your customers and then share them with new prospects.
   
10. When prospecting, focus on prospects that have the same characteristics as your very best customers.

Apply these ten simple techniques and your sales will increase significantly. Remember, it is not what we do, but what we do consistently that makes a difference.

In Sales It Is The Small Things That Count

Let me recount the following story in first person to illustrate the significance of paying attention to the seemingly small and insignificant details of sales.

“As a small boy I rode the range with the men, tending the cattle and helping with the round-up, I used to look forward to the "rest stop" under the wide spreading branches of a most beautiful tree on Ash Creek. Its leafy branches provided a haven of protection for the birds that made this magnificent tree their home. The cattle sought out its cool shade and the soft pulverized ground under it for their afternoon relaxation. And we thirsty cowboys always made a stop to get a cool drink from the canteen and to stretch our tired, cramped limbs for a few moments as we rested from the hot summer sun.

As we lay on the soft cool earth looking up into the tree, we saw high in one of the limbs a little sprig of mistletoe. It stood out in contrast from the grayer leafage of the tree and was not unattractive in its dark green dress with its little whitish berries. I imagined I could hear the gigantic tree saying to the little mistletoe, ‘Ha, little friend, you are welcome to stay with me. In my strength, I can easily spare you a little of my sap, which I create from the sun and air and the water under the creek bed. There is plenty for all, and you in your smallness can do me no harm!’

Years later when I was a man, I again came up Ash Creek, again driving cattle. Imagine my sadness to find what had been a beautiful tree, now dry and dead, its long jagged branches reaching high like the bony fingers of a skeleton. Not even an uninhabited bird nest graced its forks, no cattle lazed under its branches, no foliage covered its grim nakedness, and no welcome was extended to traveler or cowboy to take shelter under its nude wretchedness; already its limbs were being hacked away by woodcutters.

The infinitely beautiful tree of my youth was now the ugliest tree on Ash Creek.
Trying to identify the cause of the tree’s devastation, I noticed hanging from the limbs of the tree great clusters of mistletoe-the parasite of the tree, the translucent, glutinous berries perhaps had been carried by a bird or the wind. The stickiness of the berry served to attach it to the tree limb or host plant until germination was complete, the little sprout always turning toward the point of attachment.”

As I pondered this story, this thought came to me: How like the little mistletoe are the small, seemingly unimportant principles and skills of salesmanship that we might neglect. We become complacent and don’t do the little things thinking that they won’t have an impact on our sales success. Things like not planning our day today, or maybe not romancing on the proper cycle, or maybe neglecting prospect data sheets, or possibly not preparing a monthly goal sheet. It might be neglecting to prospect each day, or not asking for a referral. It is only a small thing, but what if procedures are followed only ninety percent, thinking close is good enough.

As small and uneventful as each of these neglected activities may seem, the ultimate consequence of complacency to our sales success could be as damaging as the small little sprout of mistletoe was to the beautifully magnificent tree on Ash Creek.

Sales Tip: Understanding How to Compete With the “Lowest Price” Mentality

We are all familiar with the quote, “The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten,” or we have at least experienced its reality. Buyers are always looking for the lowest price. They have been trained that their job is to buy at the lowest price. Their job performance is evaluated based on how effectively they buy at the lowest price. Let me explain how to overcome the low-price buying mentality.

You will never win every sale because some buyers or decision makers will never deviate from lowest price buying. They will never be persuaded that lowest price is not in their best interest. Let me share the following quote from John Ruskin. Read this quote carefully because it is profound.

“There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey. It’s unwise to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money...that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot...it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run; and if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.”

Salespeople are their own worst enemy. They have trained buyers to focus on the lowest price by always offering a price lower than the competition. We hear these words from sales and marketing people all the time: “Guaranteed lowest price,” “Shop the competition and I will beat their price by 10 percent,” “I’ll beat any quote you have; I really want your business.” As salespeople we believe low price will win the sale and we have taught this concept to our customers. Lowest price can generate several unfavorable consequences such as low margins, poor quality, poor service and unhappy customers.

Here is the formula to deal with the buyer’s low-price mentality: Instead of offering a low price, offer value. Value is a term that encompasses but is not limited to quality, service, functionality, delivery, benefits, features, reputations of the manufacturer or seller, recognition or awards, current and past customers, your personal reputation or anything else that might be of value to the buyer. Remind the buyer of past purchases where the lowest price did not deliver the anticipated result. Rekindle the pain associated with a low price purchase gone bad. Ask them how much value they experienced in a low price purchase that arrived two weeks late, causing their manufacturing plant to shut down.

Salespeople need to re-train buyers to focus on value and not price. Over time buyers will come to understand that even when all things seem equal, including price, there is still a major difference between one product and the next, and that difference might boil down to just one thing: the salesperson. When the buyer focuses on price, the successful salesperson will sell value. Value is what the buyer truly wants.

Utah Pulse