Opening Before Closing

So what do you do to get on the radar of a prospect? First you want to make sure that who you are calling on makes sense for your product or service. If that is the case, you are well on your way to a successful opening. Next you want to put yourself in a position to be seen. Find out where the decision makers for your prospective company accounts are going to be, and I do not mean stocking them!

This last week I had two opportunities. I’m calling in several divisions for a major company and have not made contact with someone in one of the divisions. I found out that the President of that division was speaking at a club dinner. I RSVP’d for their dinner meeting, and attended. The person I wanted to meet with was the keynote speaker. After he was done with his presentation I made my way to the front of the room and about five minutes later I met him, and had a referral to a marketing person in his division.

The next day I attended a breakfast meeting because I learned that the CEO of a prospective client was sponsoring the breakfast, and he was going to be at the event. Once there, I asked a few people who the person was in the room. Before breakfast I made my way over to his part of the room and went up and introduced myself. Before the speaker began, I had a referral to a marketing person for that company and permission to connect the CEO of my prospect to the CEO of a non-profit for which I sit in the board.

Both of these situations were well planned and executed. Of course, it very rarely happens that way, and I’m still not assured of getting meetings set up with either of these companies. What I have done is broken the ice, as they say, and opened the door to a relationship. Plan, act, execute!

What are your challenges when it comes to opening relationships? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next time...