This week, I obtained three truly worthy “A” leads. Two came on Wednesday night at the annual meeting of the General Contractors Association of Ottawa, and the third arrived last night, at the board meeting of the Ottawa Chapter of Construction Specifications Canada. I didn’t attend either of these meeting with the intent of selling anything. At the GCAO meeting, I attended as a journalist; at the Specifications Writers meeting, I am a volunteer. I didn’t have to work really hard at selling to develop the business; at the GCAO event, I just asked a couple of people a couple of questions, at the spec writers event, the fellow volunteer and board member approached me.
I cannot be sure if the leads will convert to sales, but they certainly are much better than the leads you would get from a leads service, a public RFP (where you don’t know anyone in advance and haven’t been tipped off ahead of time), cold calling cold lists of names, or banging on strangers’ doors.
Underlying the leads is trust. I’m part of the community, contributing, connecting, you can match a face to the name, and an end-result (really good) from the relationship. I’m welcome in the community, and people want to do business with me as a result.
These observations explain the challenge that less-than-effective sales representatives have in achieving success. If you behave like a salesperson, you have an uphill battle, fighting against stereotypes and resistance all along. If you truly care and connect to your community, and share without worrying about return, you make connections, build trust and a reputation, and people want to buy from you (and tell their friends good things, as well,)
This explanatin also explains why cold calling, without a valid and directly relevant basis for developing the relationship, is usually ineffective and often damaging to your business. Yes, you can connect “cold” — I had never met one of the people at Wednesday’s meeting for example — but to connect your relationship needs to be genuine, non-scripted, and based on the subtle nuances and reasonable basis for making the link.
It also explains why in the most successful organizations, marketing and sales are closely interconnected. Effective marketing, with integration with the sales team, can warm up cold leads and turn them into truly “hot” prospects, by strategically building trust, community and respect. (But no marketing and sales will undo the damage caused if your organization fails to deliver.)