I spent two decades in broadcast radio sales and management with some of the top media companies. I was an award winning new business salesperson because I was a great prospector and networker. As I look back now, I realize that I was building my professional brand at the same time. I didn’t know that then.
The first principle in the sales process is prospecting.
Finding new customers on a continual basis is so important today as attrition percentages skyrocket, due to our current economic cycle. How we find and develop new customers has gotten much more challenging and competitive, but also easier and more diverse, especially with how technology has impacted how we communicate.
Used to be you went “cold calling”, that numbers game, which it still is.
Going door to door in a neighborhood, business area, office building just doesn’t really work anymore. Companies and people don’t want to be “cold called anymore”. We just don’t want to be intruded on by someone we don’t know, like or trust! It’s called SPAM today.
Do you make your network – work?
The days of canvassing businesses unannounced are fading as fast as daily newspapers still trying to publish daily news that most of us have already seen in real time days ago.
How you prospect today is both about sales and the incredible opportunity to build your personal brand in the process.
Prospecting today is a blend of developing both ONLINE AND OFFLINE connections and building them into mutual relationships based on integrity.
It should be about giving people “reasons to buy” as opposed to selling them something.
Here are 25 ways to prospect and build your personal brand at the same time!
• Chamber Membership
• Networking Groups
• Professional Organizations
• Websites
• Blogs
• Social Media Platforms
• Article Marketing
• Internet Radio
• Volunteering
• Pro-Bono Activities
• Referrals
• Sponsorships
• Events
• Email Marketing
• Keynote Speaking
• Webinars
• Teleseminars
• Workshops
• Traditional Media
• Neighborhood Community
• Faith Community
• Business Community
• Grand Opening Announcements
• Press Releases
• Crowd-Funding
Prospecting gives you the opportunity to put yourself out there creatively and authentically and build that relationship first. The selling will follow if it’s supposed to. This big paradigm shift from pushing products on people who don’t know you, like you or trust you is actually passé and quite annoying.
Prospecting today should be much more focused on building a community of friends, fans and followers who naturally connect because you are the center point that they have in common. The community naturally leads to connections, which naturally leads to conversations, which will eventually leads to sales or referrals.
Are you adopting this new prospecting approach into your current sales and brand strategy?
Author:
Deborah Shane is an author, entrepreneur, radio host and expert. She is the leader of her business education and professional development company, Train with Shane, hosts a weekly business radio show, and writes for several national business, career and marketing blogs, and websites. Her book Career Transition-make the shift-the 5 steps to successful career reinvention comes out in early 2011. Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogtalkradio at Deborah Shane, or visit www.deborahshane.com.
