Five Ways to Earn Your "Green Thumb" in Sales

At the office, my nickname (or one of the nicer ones anyway) is "the gardener." Right now, you may be asking yourself how on earth I gained such a strange title. The truth is, while actual dirt and plants are far beyond me, I truly believe in (and often tell my team about) the importance of "planting seeds" while prospecting for new business.

Calling people, sending emails, meeting face-to-face, and performing marketing activities for new business is a process, not an isolated event. However, these are not the only things that you should be doing while prospecting. I also do the five things listed below to "plant seeds" and develop sources of leads, where new business opportunities will grow.

1. Nurture business friendships. I consider the people who are talking about my company, Criteria for Success, and recommending us to their business contacts to be more than just business associates. They are friends that I keep close by staying in touch, having a drink after work, giving and getting business advice, and talking about my personal life. In our Customer Relationship Management database (salesforce.com), their contact information is in a special category (friends of CFS) so that I can continue to focus on these important relationships.

2. Give to get. When interacting, whether at networking groups, in meetings, on the phone, or via email, I find opportunities to contribute to other people. It can be something as simple as answering a quick question or recommending a great product. Because I contributed to their lives, people naturally want to reciprocate and do something of value for you.

3. Track it. I do three things to help track my prospecting activities. On the wall above my desk, I have a chart pinned up so that every time I perform a prospecting activity, I can check a box. At the end of the every week I count how many boxes were checked and enter the activities in my CRM, where a dashboard shows prospecting activities for the past two months. I also color code my Outlook calendar with prospecting activities in green. When I look at my week, I can see instantly if I have enough "green time." At our monthly review meeting, our Operations Officer produces a report of our prospecting activity, by person and by category. For instance, how many referrals were requested and received for the month.

4. Create a referral program. We have a standard referral plan for friends who want to generate qualified leads for me. First, I add them to the program and send them a Referral Action Plan with a description of a good referral. The plan also contains examples of the typical problems that we solve for our clients and a possible outline of a conversation to qualify the lead, either on the phone or by e-mail. All this and more is spelled out in the action plan. When I receive a referral, it immediately goes into my CRM, so that I can track it.

5. Use all available media. Besides phone calls, speaking engagements and in-person networking events, I use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and blogging to generate brand awareness, which in turn makes it easier for us to be recognized as experts in our field. This makes people more comfortable about recommending us or bringing us their business.

It's not just one these activities that gets me business, it's the combination of all the things that I do. Just the other day, I received an introductory email from a friend who is a member of Vistage, the CEO organization that I belong to. We were "top of mind." It doesn't get much better than that! So the moral of this story is to seed, cultivate, and harvest new business opportunities. But now if you will excuse me, I have to go water my plants.

On May 7th, Criteria for Success will host an executive workshop, “I Don’t Want To Be a Salesperson; I Want To Be a CEO.” The event’s panelists will include NY Report publisher and editor-in-chief Robert Levin. Visit http://www.criteriaforsuccess.com/events/ for more information.