Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:01]
A
You're listening to the Sales Hunter Podcast. My name's Mark Hunter. And hey, how do you prospect and sell in a new industry or territory? We've all been there. I'm going to share with you today nine steps that you need to do. Why am I talking? The show begins right now. You're listening to the Sales Hunter Podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a salesman sell with confidence and integrity. And now, here's your host. Hey, I do want to remind you to make sure you pick up a copy of the book Integrity First Selling. A lot of people are reading it, they're loving it. Thank you so much. And hey, it's all designed to help you sell with integrity. So let's get into the topic. How do you prospect in a new industry? You know, you're tasked with getting business from customers in an industry that you're just not familiar with. Or maybe it's a territory and you're just a situation we've all found ourselves in. So here's the deal. Nine steps I want to walk you through. So we go through these nine steps. I want you to pay attention to each one because you may be doing two or three of them right now, but I bet you're not doing all nine of them. Okay, number one. Now this is very basic, but it's amazing at how many people don't do it. And that is scour your CRM system. Not just your CRM system, but your company who are other company who are other salespeople in your company. And look for contacts, look for relationships, look for connections with people who may have gone from one company over to another company. How do you verify that it's LinkedIn? Yes, LinkedIn is probably the best tool. Now, depending on your industry, there may not be a lot of people in there. That's okay. But you start there because again, this is easy fruit. Because I have found many, many times when I, I've been in this situation, there have been connections maybe that my boss had, somebody else had that they didn't even realize and can use that to get in touch with them. Number two, you gotta look at the trade associations look at. And then you just Google, you know, what are the trade associations that people in this industry or this territory so are likely to be participating in? Now, it's going to do two things for you. First, first of all, it's going to help educate you. You're going to begin to learn the language, you're going to begin to learn what's going on. The Key issues, especially if the trade association has any kind of a function where they lobby, whether it be local government or federal government, you're going to learn what are the key issues. You're also going to learn various key dates in terms of the big events that they have, the conferences and so forth, because maybe there's an opportunity for you to attend. I'm not saying to go attend and have a booth. I'm saying just go to attend, to meet people. So trade associations, number three. Now build a list of who the big players are. Who are the big players in this space? In other words, who are the big customers? I mean, who are the big companies and who are the big individuals? Make this list, because what you want to do is this is going to be a list of people who you ultimately want to meet. You need to meet. You need to at least find out what they're doing. Because here's what I found as I'm dealing with an industry that I'm not familiar with. And I've found myself in this situation many, many times by understanding who the big players are. I can watch them, I can follow them, and when they make a big move, you can bet it's going to impact the industry. This may be a company or maybe individuals. Now, from this then you go to step four, which is now make a list of 10 people who you want to meet. This is very key. In fact, I almost say, don't stop at 10. Make the list as long and as big as you want it to be. Why? These are players who have knowledge of the industry. These are players who you want to be selling to. These are players who have connections. Now, as you build this list of 10 people you need to meet, meet, be looking upstream and downstream. Now, you know, I talk about this a lot. Upstream and downstream a lot. You know, who are some of the, the other vendors who supply to the industry? Are there people there that you may want to get to know? Who are the customers that this industry supplies to? Who are some players there? In other words, build this list out. Now, what I have found, every time I've done this and I look to build a list of 10, it winds up being listed 20, 30, 40 people. Now, I can't manage all of that. I totally get that. But what I'm looking for is who are the players that I really want to know. Because here's what I'm going to do. I want to begin finding a way to create relationships with a few key players. And again, when I take this list of people who I Need to meet. And I go back to my CRM system, I go back to LinkedIn, chances are they may be somebody who, you know, who can introduce you to one of those people. And all I need is just one or two introductions and I can begin to understand, because this takes me to number five, learn the industry. You got to learn the industry. Okay, so think about it. We've really set the table here. Now, don't think for a moment that this is, oh, is this going to take me six months? No, you can do all this within just a couple days. You can do all this within a day, really. And again, I found myself in this because I remember a number of times that I've gone into an industry that I'm not familiar with and I've had to immerse myself. And within a day or two, I can become pretty knowledgeable. Now, I'm not going to become the expert. No. But I can at least understand the flow that the, the heartbeat, what's going on in the industry and who the players are. So this is step number five. You learn the industry. So now you're, you're saying, okay, who are the big players? Who are the big companies? Who are the big players in that? See, this is all kind of flowing downhill. Now. What I'm looking for here is to understand what are the challenges that they're facing? What are the issues? Are they having a threat because somebody else is coming in to disrupt the industry? Are they facing challenges because of private equity? Are they facing challenges because of mergers or acquisitions? Are they facing challenges just because of changes in regulatory environment or geopolitical situations? But if I can begin to understand the challenges that they're facing, this is going to help me begin to understand what's the role they play and what's the future of the space. Now, again, I have now really begun and very, very quickly begun to determine and understand the industry. This now takes me to number six. What's the pain they have that you can help them solve? See this? You know, at the end of the day, you gotta help them solve a problem. You gotta help them. I remember years ago, I was thrust into a new industry that I wasn't aware, I wasn't aware of. And it was huge, it was complex. And what I had to do is I had to break it down into smaller pieces. There was no way that I could learn the industry all at one time. It just wasn't going to happen. But what I could do is I could learn small segments of the industry and I would literally take Like a month or so to learn this segment of the industry because it was so complex. And then I get that comfortable and then I move on to the next one and then I move on. And that strategy, if you're moving into a very complex industry or a complex territory, that's a piece that I'm going to very much suggest that you do. You break it down because now you're going to be able to understand better how you can help them. And this is absolutely key number seven. Now I want you to begin really getting the list together and you're going to target three to five customers. Higher the profile, the better. I'll never forget, years ago I was working with a company, we were trying to sell software into the educational space. And what we did was new industry, new solution. We targeted certain educational institutions that we went after. And the idea being is that we wanted to go after them because they had people there who the industry kind of looked to. They had people there who could make decisions. They had people there that we had one little connection with, one person. But what this did is it by targeting three to five customers, it brings you in tighter. Now here's the whole deal. Ultimately what I want to do is I want to create and turn them into a customer. That's my whole goal. I want to turn at least one of these three to five high profile ones into a customer. Now this is, this does not mean creating a special deal. No, don't. In terms of pricing, no, don't, don't give it away. You may have to discount some to get them on board, but don't sit there and give away the farm. You want to create a value proposition that plays to their strength. So it may be a test of some sort, it may be some sort of a joint project you may be doing, but you want to create something. Now here's why this is so critical. If I target three to five customers who have high profile, the better and I get one or two of them, now I can begin saying, hey, we work with so and so, remember testimonials and, and referrals and references. Now again, they may not give you a testimonial, they may not give you a referral, but if I can at least say, hey, we work with this company, we've helped them, that is going to go a long way. This is absolutely key. So focus your effort on who are those three to five customers. Now depending on your industry, again, it may be fewer, it may be more, but don't spread yourself so thin that you can't reach them. But here's what I found by going through the previous steps, you're going to feel more comfortable beginning to reach out to them and I'm going to get to how you reach out to them here in steps eight, nine. Step number eight, I want you to develop seven to ten briefs. Now what are, what's a brief? This is an insight slash knowledge item that you can share with them. Now here's the deal. If you pick up the phone and you try to call them, hey, buy from me, buy from me. They're not going to buy from you because they don't know you. They don't, they don't have any clue. You have no credibility in the space. So what I have to do is, is I have to create 7 to 10. The reason I say 7 to 10, because you're going to be, you're going to be reaching out to them multiple times. This is, this is not going to be a one time deal. You're going to have seven to ten insight knowledge briefs and you want be able to share them whether it be by way of email, whether it be by way of your seeing them at a conference. Now these are not white papers. These are not 5, 6 pages. These are very simplistic things. In my own business, what I recommend to a lot of people is what I call my 10 list. My 10 list. It's just 10 bullet points. It's 10 bullet points around a subject, a topic of relevance to a company in that industry. So it might be 10 things that are impacting customers, 10 things that are impacting supply chain, 10 things. And, and you begin, and these are just bullet points that you're putting together. But now what you've got is you've now got content that you can begin reaching out and offering to share. This is absolutely key because now you're coming from a position of knowledge, you're coming from a position where people actually know you. And this is absolutely key. Andy Greenberg is jumping in. Great to hear you. We entered a new industry and got the biggest customer ups first. Exactly. I know, Andy, because this is what you do so well. It is, it's about understanding the strategy with which you're, with which you're going in with. So thank you, thank you for jumping in. Now this whole piece regarding number eight, you've got this knowledge now, okay, Number nine, start calling. You start calling. You start emailing. Now if you've gone through these other previous eight steps, you have got probably a few contacts, you've got, you've got at Least a database of people who you should be calling, you've got experts and so forth. Now here's what I'm going to suggest. There's two things that you need to do right out of the shoot. One, I want you to go and get some low level connections. Whoa, hold on, hold on. What did he just say? Yeah, go ahead and get some low level connections. Now here's why I found if I get some low level connections, in other words, these are people lower down. They're probably not decision makers, but they're users, they may be influencers, they're going to be knowledgeable people. Here's what's going to do. It's going to do two things for you. One, it's going to give you confidence of the space, it's going to give you confidence of the industry that you're dancing in. Two, it's going to give you some knowledge, it's going to give you some knowledge. And there's just something about momentum, creates momentum. So I'm not going to hesitate to go out and do some lower level people. But then what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and go to your high profile, go to your high profile. And, and you got to go. Now here's what I'm doing here. I'm going to my high profile ones and I'm using all the knowledge, all the information I've used. If I can get a referral, if I can get a connection, great. But chances are I can't. So I got to kind of go in through the front door. I get it. And I'll do another podcast episode breaking this down even more for you. But what I'm going to say is I'm going to go in and these are those three to five companies, three to five contacts. Now chances are it's going to probably broaden out to about 10 or 15, that's fine. So I'm going to target those and I'm going to give them a little bit of a head start. Now the reason I'm going to give them a head start is because I really want to get a conversation going with one of them. I want to get, I want to begin getting some insights with them and then I give them a little bit of a head start. And that might be anywhere from two weeks to four weeks, maybe six weeks. I've still got a pool of people I'm prospecting. Then I begin opening up, then I begin opening up the funnel and I begin going after more people in the industry. I've got these higher level people because I'm trying to get some knowledge, some intel, some connections, some relationships. I'm using these lower level people just to help me get knowledge. But now I'm really dialing in. Okay, what I've gone through with you is I've shared with you nine steps that you can do. And this is the approach. Now, there's always little deviations, there's always some wiggles in them, but these are the basic nine steps that I've used every time I work with companies and every time I've been in a situation on this. And it's designed to help you break into new territories, new industries. Hey, do me a favor, if you will, if you're having a sales kickoff meeting, if you're having any kind of reach out, let me come in and talk to you and your company, you and your organization regarding the content in my new book and integrity first selling it is doing absolutely fantastic. I love being able to talk about the book because it is giving salespeople the confidence to know how to sell. Hey, you've been listening to the Sales center podcast. I hope you find value. I know you find value because I get comments every week. So, hey, leave your comments on your favorite podcast app, would you? Two episodes a week, one like this short single topic. Okay. We went a little bit longer today. Second, where we do a deep dive with the subject matter expert, Andy Greenberg. You're going to be my guest on an upcoming episode. Looking forward to do that, to doing that recording very soon. My name is Mark Hunter, the sales hunter. Hey, great selling.