Do all your friends and relatives know where you are working these days? You’ve got an address book or contact list with their names. That’s a prospect list that I’m sure you already know about. But what have you done lately to be in touch with them? What are you doing to bring them in? I have run into a lot of salespeople who never tell anyone—what they do for a living. I believe every salesperson ought to be proud of his or her profession. Let them know every once in a while that you have something for them any time they need it. Put everybody you can think of on your prospect list!
Find people and organizations you wish to sell your products to. Another good source of prospects is your file of paid bills. What I am saying is that the people you buy things from ought to be good prospects for the things you sell. All the people I buy from are on my prospect list. I try to sell them every time I see them to buy from them. When I give them money, I let them know again what I sell. And I work it the other way too. If a guy buys a car from me, I know what business he is in. When I need some of what he sells, I will buy from him and let him know that I appreciate his buying from me. Some of them may not even know what you do for a living, so you ought to make sure everybody knows what you sell.
If I had to pick one thing to get business, I would have a very hard time doing it. But if I really had to make that almost impossible choice, I would probably pick my business card. It is certainly money well spent. I hand them out wherever I am. The point is that wherever there are people, there are prospects! If you let them know who you are and what you do, you are building your business. Effective use of business cards and giving them out everywhere—is one of the cheapest business building tools you can have! Another tool you can utilize of course is through social media & networking. Whatever tools you pick to let people know who you are, what you do and how you can help them will build your business.
Good selling is like filling the seats of a Ferris wheel. If you have ever seen a Ferris wheel, you know how it works. One at a time, the guy in charge fills the seats. People get off, he fills their seats and so on until all the people in the seats have left and new ones come on. Good selling is like that too. Only the wheel is always moving just a little bit so that some people–the ones you have just sold–can get off for awhile and others—the ones you are just starting to work on can get on. No matter what line of work you’re in, if you have a lot of contact with people or are in a service related business, letting people know what you do and staying in touch (especially with customers or potential ones) is critical. It’s the most important thing you can do with your time.
