Finding Good Prospects — Fast!

Over the years, I've kept my pipeline full by using a strategy employed by few other sellers. What's this key to my success? Triggering events.

Nothing beats a good triggering event to shorten the sales cycle and get some business without competition. The use of triggering events is one of the main "getting in" strategies I cover in my new book, Selling to Big Companies**.

Let me give you an example: Yesterday I received a telemarketing call from a copier company. The woman was using one of the most awful scripts I've heard. Clearly some well intentioned, but clueless marketing bozo had created it.

I immediately got on the phone and contacted the president of the company. He wasn't in, so I left a voicemail telling him that I'd just received a call from one of his telemarketers and I had some feedback I'd like to give him.

Within a couple hours, the VP of Marketing called me back wanting to find out more. We had a good conversation and I shared some insights about how they could get more value from their telemarketing investment.

The door of this company is now open to me. I'm sending them something to read that can help them improve their sales process. I'm not pouncing. Just moving one step at a time.

Are you leveraging all the opportunities that cross your path? Think about it.

**Download two chapters of Selling to Big Companies on my website. Read the reviews on Amazon.

Comments

[Lena]

Thanks to Jill's book, I've created my own list of triggering events. In other words, situations that should trigger me that a company needs my services. It could be something I read in a trade journal or a comment on the radio or in a TV interview that makes me say, "Ah ha! I could really show them how to overcome that problem by doing XYZ."

I don't have all my triggering events (TE's) memorized yet. Some stand out like a sore thumb - for example when companies can't get their technology systems to "talk" to one another - and then there are other TE's that are less obvious that I have to remind myself about.

So, from now on I'm going to keep my list of TE's in front of me when doing reading in trade journals so I don't miss any opportunities.

[Matthew Cornell]

Brilliant! As I continue my switch from programmer-in-cocoon to personal-productivity-consultant, I'm training myself to be aware of opportunities like this, and take advantage of them. Great example - thank you.