How to be a Professional Salesperson.©
Free Sales Training Video Series – Multiple contacts multiply your chance for success
Multiple contacts are better
I once had a prospect at a company in Pennsylvania. I called him one day to help move his buying cycle along. His assistant came on the line told me Ben would not be in that day or any other day. Ben won the Pennsylvania state lottery and was now $9 million richer. I’m not kidding. Hooray for Ben and tough luck for me.
But a very good lesson came out that situation. I learned that it’s always better to have more than one contact at any account. It’s not always possible, but you should try your hardest to get to know and develop relationships with multiple people related to your deal at the company. People get terminated, get sick, get transferred, retire and even win the lottery. There are all sorts of reasons your original contact might not end up being there when your order is signed. So need to protect your investment of time that you have in the account.
If you’re selling into large accounts where there are multiple stakeholders, get to know as many as those stakeholders as possible. More than once, I have had my ultimate decision maker be someone who started in the buying cycle as just part of the evaluation committee.
