Resources and information that matter to you. Doing Business Better, presented by Wells Fargo, are virtual, high impact sessions featuring insightful and informative presentations tackling small business owners’ greatest challenges and providing resources for their continued growth and success.
John Rosso is recognized nationally as a business-development expert, specializing in executive-sales consulting and sales-productivity training as well as the best-selling author of Prospect- The Sandler Way. John is a dynamic, enthusiastic speaker who informs, entertains and motivates presidents, CEO’s, other senior managers and sales professionals.
In this session, John discussed specific steps you can take to start optimizing your virtual networking and prospecting strategies.
Since the pandemic hit in 2020, face-to-face meetings decreased by 78%, emails sent increased by 263% and virtual meetings increased by 3,547%. As we enter year two of virtual working, it’s important to adjust our tactics accordingly, which means you might have to step out of your comfort zone and make some changes. Remember that if you want to make a change, you cannot let the way you feel control the way you act. You have to let the way you act control the way you feel.
John’s tips were based on the following KARE model for developing business.
- Keep – a very good customer, you get the lion share of their business, they’re profitable; remember, your best customer is somebody else’s best prospect – have to make sure you continue the engagement; anything you can do that is personal, significant and unexpected
- Attain – going out and getting new
- Rekindle – finding old relationships and revisit
- Expand – key relationships/accounts into new lines of business
John shared three things to start doing now:
- Take 15 minutes every six weeks to look at your book of business and categorize them into one of these four categories.
- Begin to build your “cookbook” – what are the things you need to do on a weekly basis to keep, attain, rekindle and expand? These actions are strategic, not essential, and 100% measurable
- Daily, take a look at your cookbook and write down the names – who are you going to keep, attain, rekindle and expand? How will you be reaching out to them (phone call, email, pre-recorded video, text, LinkedIn message, etc.)?
Tips and Actions
LinkedIn – Where are they now?
Use the LinkedIn “search with filters” function to determine which of your connections have moved to a new company – those are the people you want to reach out to. This is a great way to populate your “attain” quadrant.
9 Word email
Use this as part of your “rekindle” strategy to reengage dormant leads and reconnect with old relationships. This one sentence email takes some getting used to.
Subject line options: “Reconnect”, “Question”, “Hey [name]…”
Email: Are you still looking into [your service]?
Example: Bob, Are you still looking into training your sales team?
This type of email is currently seeing a 60% reply rate. The replies might not all be positive, but it’s a great way to get conversations started quickly and easily. Resist the urge to add fluff – stick to this format for results!
The LinkedIn Referral Swap Meetup
Agree to set up a video call with a LinkedIn connection to discuss both of your ideal prospects and go through your LinkedIn connections. The goal of this session is to, while you’re on the call, provide each other with 3-4 email introductions to someone from your LinkedIn network that is an ideal prospect for them. Aim to do this exercise twice a month.
Using Pre-recorded Video
Utilizing pre-recorded video may be out of your comfort zone, but this is something you need to be doing. Remember, you cannot let the way you feel control the way you act. You have to let the way you act control the way you feel. Below are some suggested ways to use this tool.
Ways to use:
- Prospecting
- Customer/Client Status update
- Upselling/Cross-selling
- Pre-meeting prep and draft agendas
- Post-meeting summary and follow up
- Message to decision makers who didn’t attend
- Waling through a proposal or quote
- Product demos
- Internal communication regarding clients/customers
- Virtual tour of facility
Get started with the free Chrome plug-in Vidyard
Emails
If you’re going to send a cold email, you have to find a way to warm it up.
Tips:
- Less than 100 words (3 sentences)
- Make it simple
- You have to be able to use a personal connection
You want the reader to read the email as if they are the only one in the world who could have received it. You have to do a little bit of work to make that happen. This is where you have to use a personal connection, and make sure to begin the email with it.
Resources:
- Watch the full webinar:
- Attend the free Sandler Virtual Summit on March 25
- Check out John’s website for more tools and resources
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