Jul 18, 2018
Entrepreneurs can find success in online sales and marketing, but we should not forget about the more traditional methods. When you connect with prospects face-to-face (networking), invite them for coffee, or send thank you notes through the mail, it sends a more powerful, more personal message than just connecting with them through chat.
Whatever the case, if you want to be successful in sales, you need to start building and nurturing your relationships – online and offline.
Today’s guest is Lisa Haydon. Lisa is the founder and President of Pivotal Coaching Inc. She is a leadership development consultant, executive coach, and mentor sought by business owners and corporations for help in achieving professional and business growth.
The distinctive marker of her work is her growth mindset and execution focus. She leverages nearly 30 years' corporate experience in business, finance, leadership, change and revenue growth for her clients’ success.
Read Lisa’s FULL Bio https://www.pivotalcoachingservices.com/about
In this episode, we talk about
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The Value of Building Offline Connections
I’ve always done big, complex, B2B sales. As you well know, there are long sales cycles. They take a fair amount of resiliency; they ebb and flow.
The deals that I’ve done have never been easy, but it’s all I’ve known. I was comfortable in big, complex sales cycles.
In my own business, there’s a couple of things I would share. While the sales process was comfortable, the market and taking my own brand to market has been harder.
People have very distinctive views on the impact of executive coaching in the corporate world, so I have to overcome those perceptions. One of my big focuses is around using coaching programs to support the results for corporations, which is a little different.
Most times, for corporations, it would be a one-to-one. For example, you would hire me to work with one of your team, and I’m really trying to get a program approach. So it’s a different product that I’m taking to market, and that makes it a little harder.
“I lean a lot on my relationships, so I have a good network. That’s been invaluable. Referrals are huge. The testaments of my work and the clients who have experienced my work are a big, important part.”
I also do cold-calling. If I'm going to work with businesses and their leaders around true growth, as you well know, building existing relationships is more comfortable. Selling your products – when you do cold start to origination, that is a very distinct style. I do that as well because I think it’s good skills practice for both myself, but in the work that I provide my clients as well.
Getting In Touch With Your Prospects
I have a leads list, and I would say I’m a little more traditional.
There’s some people who use a lot of the digital marketing, and for me, in the big corporations that I’m cold-calling into, I still believe that you have to get in there on a personal basis.
Part of that is I know that if I can get that conversation, that’s going to be where the difference is made.
I do an email outreach, I do the phone call, I do the connection on LinkedIn. As you would well know, the success rate in working through a lead list is low, and it’s always hard on the ego, but there’s been some good conversations that have come out of that.
You just have to try; you just don’t know.
Turn “Maybe” Into A Definite “Yes” or “No”
The “maybe” place is really hard. When people drag out the maybe’s, it takes your energy and your effort from other things.
I’ve been calling on relationship-based opportunities, and because of that, some of my relationships don’t want to say ‘no’ to me and they feel like they’re going to hurt my feelings.
I’ve now gotten very direct and say, “Look, please don’t feel like you have to say yes or maybe with me. If it’s a fit, great. If not, that’s okay. It doesn’t change our relationship; I get that. But don’t feel like you have to give me hope.”
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