5 Ways to Nurture Connections for Sales Growth

How good are you at connecting with people and remaining in touch with them?

Connection begins with your sales prospecting process.

I can have the best product, the best price, the best service, the best everything, but if customers and prospects don’t hear from you, it’s totally meaningless.

This blog continues our series on The 7 C’s of Successful Sales Hunting

1. Connect through gratitude and referrals.

The number of connections you’re able to have each week is a real determining factor of your sales success.

How many conversations are you having each day? Not how many emails you’re sending out, but how many conversations?

How many referrals are you giving each week? How many people are you thanking each week? Hold on, Mark, what are those last two all about?

You may be giving somebody a referral as a way of connecting with them. That’s a key part of sales. It probably isn’t going to directly result in a sale to you. You may be giving away a customer, but that connection moves you to a different status with each of the parties. You’re investing in those relationships which could pay great dividends in additional opportunities in the future.

via Angie Tribeca on GIPHY

How many people are you thanking? When we take the time to thank people, it’s amazing at how it changes our own demeanor. It even changes our level of hearing, our level of connection, adjusts our frame of mind.

2. Some connections occur without you.

The conversation becomes absolutely critical, and many times the connection is going to happen without you involved at all. All it takes is one person talking to another person.

I have this happen all the time. Somebody knows me and refers somebody else to me. I love it.

Learn How to Create a Referral Network here.

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3. Connect through following up.

Follow up is where the sale is made. I see too many salespeople give up after two or three calls. I called that person five times. They never responded, so they must not be interested.

Hold it. I’ve gone for months and even years of reaching out to a person to close the deal. I recently closed a deal with somebody who I had been pursuing for three years, and they wound up being an absolutely great customer.

What was my cadence? I reached out to them every month, every six weeks. It wasn’t like it was every week, this was a senior level person, so that type of communication was going to work for them. I was always bringing them some value-added insights and information.

I’ve got several more prospects that I’ve been reaching out to for pretty close to a year. And you know what? I’m not giving up. I bet my CRM system would show I’ve reached out to them 20 or 30 times, but I’m not giving up. I know I can help them, and I just have to be patient.

4. Connections take time.

These companies I’ve been reaching out to for almost a year, I know they’re reading my messages, but they’ve not chosen to respond….yet. But I want to be in the forefront of their thinking when it comes time to make a decision.

Sure, I’d love to be able to get them on the phone. I’ve tried many, many, many times to get them on the phone. It hasn’t worked yet, and that’s okay. I am not going to stop.

Yes, connection occurs when I reach out and you respond, but connection also occurs when I reach out to you and all you do is think about it.

via Your Happy Workplace on GIPHY

5. Connect through personalized messages.

Don’t take the shortcut and say, “Oh, Mark, this is all my way of marketing. Every one of these people I’m reaching out to, they’re on my email list. I send out a weekly email.“

I’m talking about connecting with personalized messages, not mass emails.

I’m doing that intentionally. It allows me to gain more insight, and the more personalized I make it, the greater my probability of success.

So ask yourself those three questions:

How many conversations are you having each week?

How many referrals are you giving each week?

How many people are you thanking each week?