“None of us on our own are as capable as all of us together”
I paraphrased my favorite Japanese Proverb to make a point: Too often, salespeople stall because they’re afraid they don’t have all of the answers. The truth is that they’d be much better off if they’d adopt the attitude that, by working together, they’ll arrive at a better place.
Smart salespeople look to their colleagues, sales managers, prospective clients, customers — anyone really — for answers.
- A testimonial, for example, is an existing client telling a prospective client that you can do what you’ve claimed (or, ideally, more).
- A referral involves working collaboratively with an existing client to identify someone inside their network who can take advantage of your offering.
- A partnership is identifying someone you can work with to build business opportunities together.
- A network is a group of people looking to help each other create new business.
As we move into 2011 (and beyond) there will be more and more opportunities to collaborate. Could you partner with someone to write an e-book that would help your prospective clients buy from you? Could you find some experts in your field and coauthor a few articles together? Sure, these ideas may seem a bit far-fetched, but they could help you get discovered by a prospective client!
Are you taking advantage of online collaboration tools?
