Sales professionals live and die by their network.  Becoming a very successful salesperson typically means that you can use your network to its fullest to get and GIVE introductions, referrals, and more.  There are dozens of posts on ways to build and maintain your network (and I’ll likely have several posts here on this), but what do you do when you want to ask someone in your network for assistance in making contact?

Early on in a professional sales career, the mistake that salespeople often make is to badger the people in their network – or ask unreasonable things of the people in their network.  Think of the typical pyramid scheme salesperson.  They typically continually hawk their products to their friends, family, neighbors, etc. until those people cringe when they hear their call or see them face-to-face.  They are actually taught by the people at the top of the pyramid to rely on their closest relationships for sales.  This is completely the wrong way for professional sales people to behave.  You should rely on your network to help get you closer to your sales – but never to get the sale for you.   You always need to remember that it is YOU that needs to get the sale.  Your network is but one tool in your bag.

If you rely on sales to live, the last thing you want is for people to avoid your calls, avoid you at networking events, and delete your emails.  You want them to embrace you.  In order to do this, you need to get into their shoes.  What would make YOU do something for them if they were calling you?

Here are my three basic rules for making contact and requests of your network:

1. Ask for something EASY:  Ask them if they would forward your email onto the decicion maker, ask them for the decision makers assistant’s name, ask for some (publicly available) information on corporate goals that might help you build a better pitch
2. DON’T ask them to get you a meeting.  (rookie mistake):  Never ask this person to get you a meeting with a decision maker.  This is putting the task of getting in the door on them.  Asking them to forward your email with a short introduction is easy and puts the ultimate closing pressure on you.  When you ask them to get you a meeting, it puts the closing of getting the meeting on them.You are asking them to do your job – not to help you out.  If you put yourself in their shoes, imagine if someone in your network asked you to get them a meeting with your CEO as opposed to just forwarding an email onto them and then letting them take care of getting the meeting.  The email is a great “in” and you haven’t potentially affected your relationship with the person in the network.
3. ALWAYS offer something in return: A referral into your network, posting on your blog, information that will help them with a project they are working on, etc.  If this person is unwilling, or un-able to help you out this time, providing them some assistance in their job

If the person you contact is inclined to go further in their assistance, they will.  Perhaps they will get you that meeting.  But because you asked for something that is easy for them to do – they will not feel put out.  You never can know the internal politics that may be going on.  Its possible they are saving that silver bullet for another time, maybe they recently had a bad performance review, maybe they don’t think your product is right for their company (but still like you and want you as part of their network)..

Yesterday, I got a call from my mentor.  He happened to be in the city, had a few hours between meetings, and he wanted to grab a cup of coffee.  As luck would have it, I was not too busy, and made the time to go sit down with him.  The experience was so energizing that it reminded me just how valuable having a mentor can be for a salesperson.

Salespeople, almost by definition, are very self-confident and egomaniacs.  You almost have to be – in order to deal with near constant rejection – and determine ways to overcome that rejection and/or move on from that rejection.  But because of that, it can be very difficult for a salesperson to step out of that mind-set, and learn and listen to those that may know more than him/her – or at least have more experience than him/her.

My mentor is someone that I actually hired into the company that I founded.  His role was to help me rebuild sales for our company post 9/11.  I didn’t think that we needed to hire anyone, but the VC’s were insistent that we do an executive search and find someone with serious turn-around experience to ensure that we would have success.  We instantly hit it off, and quickly we were making huge sales strides working on the accounts together.

I had been doing, in my eyes, very well in sales up until that point – with no sales training.  I also had been cultivating the accounts for years, and didn’t think that I needed anyone to help me push them over the finish line.  Its likely that I could have made those sales alone, but am I EVER greatful that the VC’s insisted on that hire.  The amount of REAL sales knowledge that I have gained through his insight is something that I never could have gained had I just  figured it out as I went along – as I had been.

The story here, is that I believe I am a natural salesperson.  I was able to sell my company idea to investors.  I was able to sell my product, from my small start-up, to huge corporations that based mission critical projects on it:  core delivery business, year 2000 migrations, etc.  However, my sales technique and strategy were never toned.  Once I melded my mind with the processes of a true professional life-time salesperson, I was able to truly accellerate and understand the value of sales.

Much of what I blog about are lessons that I heard from him and have embraced as my own and moved forward.  I email, talk, or meet with my mentor several times a year – and its very refreshing to get his perspective on challenges I am facing at that time – and to hear about his sales challenges and brainstorm together.

The message here is that while its in a salesperson’s nature to think he can solve everything himself, the fact is that it is very easy to get lost in that.  Look to your mentors, and if you don’t have one… get one..  Co-workers, former bosses, current bosses, relatives: anyone.  In weekly sales meetings, you should be discussing stalled accounts and getting peer and boss feedback on your strategies.  Its the way we all learn.  Resist the urge to be the ever important superstar salesperson that knows how to close everything and ask your mentor(s) for help.  You may be shocked at how much it revs up your sales.

Salesforce.com is the WORST salesforce tool, except for all the others.

I have a lot of gripes with sales force tools, and I’ve yet to find one that is actually functional for all people in the organization.  I think that sf.com did one thing well.  They provided a tool that lets sales managers get a pipeline report and since its an online tool, the minute a sales person updates their information from anywhere in the world, that pipeline is up to date.  No syncing – no installs, etc.

However, the tool is so cumbersome and hard to use, I hardly think they ever actually sat down and USED the tool themselves.  Salespeople would be MUCH more willing to use the tool and put information in if the tool was quick and easy to use.  The interface is atrocious.  (The new User Experience guy at my company is phenominal and I’d love to get his thoughts on it). 

When I was a salesperson, I HATED using salesforce.com.  I used anything and everything outside of the tool and then only put in what my boss required me to put in.  I know thats what my salesguys do now.

I’m experimenting with some new tools now like HighRise and Pipeline Deals to see if I can find anything more functional – and less restricting.

I’ll explain my complaints in more detail in future posts.  And I’ll also review both of the above products.