The Christmas and New Year Season is just around the corner. For most businesses, things slow down and people prepare to take time off and travel, perhaps do some home renovation or just relax. People have more time on their hands.

Now is the PERFECT time to meet people who are otherwise too busy through the year. Here are 10 types of lead generating meetings you can have before the Christmas break:

    1.   Meet with customers to review the year gone by and the opportunities ahead
    2.   Meet with people who were clients at a previous company, but moved on to new companies
    3.   Meet with key influencers in your target companies who can refer you to key decision makers
    4.   Meet with past colleagues who can make that all important introduction in the future or share valuable information
    5.   Meet with sales people from other vendors, who sell into your target market(s) so as to trade information
    6.   Meet with LinkedIn connections who might be able to offer valuable information or introductions
    7.   Meet with people with whom you exchanged business cards at a networking function, seminar or trade show earlier this year
    8.   Meet with clients who have become inactive over the last six to twelve months
    9.   Meet with people who are new in your client organisation and could be potential customers
    10.    Meet with replacements for previous key contacts in companies, before they form strong alliances with competitors.

Pick up that phone and book those appointments. Speed up when others slow down this Christmas and get ready to enjoy big results on the other side of your well deserved break!

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Making the first sale to a customer is just the beginning of your business relationship with them. This three-step series shows you how to use this ‘platform’ to grow sales (after that first sale) with medium and large sized companies. Here is step 3 of 3.

Step 3 - Approach internal prospects through relationships and referrals

Once you have assessed the Incremental Revenue Opportunity (IRO), map this against the existing tiers of customer spend. Focus a good part of your time on those accounts which have the highest potential for increase (H1 to H3 in the table below), regardless of the size of current spend. This approach also helps you avoid ‘over-servicing’ large customers from who you already enjoy maximum ‘share-of-wallet’.

In 2008, James began a new role (as an Account Executive) on the team which reported, through his Manager, to me. In his portfolio of medium and large corporates, one of the inactive clients was Australian Consolidated Press in Sydney CBD. Within the first six weeks, he secured an opportunity to meet with the Brand Manager of one of the publications. At that meeting, he built good rapport as well as developed a clear value proposition for his target buyers. He was invited back in a fortnight to present to a team of 14 Brand Managers. That led to the developing of new relationships with individual decision makers in business units and getting a clear understanding of their needs. Within six months, this account went from being inactive to being a highly active relationship.

In a world that is increasingly aware of the power of social media and networking, it is imperative to maximise leverage from our existing relationships. They enable us to establish trust quickly and build new relationships to develop new opportunities.

Here’s to your continued success!

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In January 2000, I took on a new sales territory from a colleague who’d just had a great 1999 in it. This meant that the year ahead was going to be a tough one for me as most opportunities had already been converted into sales. Nonetheless, I began by making 50% more face-to-face appointments than my past year and focussing on getting in front of people rather than talking on the phone. I also had a great manager who helped me stay on track week-in and week-out.

The result? In the first three months I finished at 110% of my target. Better still, for the rest of the year I was at anywhere between 135-150% of my target. I won sales awards, was sent on overseas sales trips and earned a lot of commission!

My biggest victory was the fact that I had professionally transformed from an average sales contributor to a consistent sales performer. A lot of it had to do with the constant support I received.

Professional athletes know that they need another person to help them stay on track with the effort and training to achieve their goals. They lean heavily on their coaches. Why shouldn’t sales people who want to be professional super-stars, do the same?

A senior sales person or manager, who is willing to give you honest, constructive feedback for improvement is a valuable ally. Ask them to help you to get to your goals and embrace the accountability that comes with the territory.

To summarise this series on how to build sales momentum, you need to:

Step 1: Increase your sales activity across the four areas of target databases, leads, prospects and customers.

Step 2: Increase your sales impact with each activity, in every customer engagement, to improve your results.

Step 3: Increase your accountability with a manager or mentor to stay on track with your efforts to achieve your goals.

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