Call the person in charge of selling, not buying! Sound crazy? Not if you’re developing new business. The problem with calling on the person in charge of buying when you’re trying to develop new business is their focus is on your product, how expensive you are, and other technical aspects of your delivery. People in charge of buying are trained to compare products and dismiss you, or to pit you against your competitors to get the lowest price.
If you want a solid sales strategy, and you want to develop new business for your company, why not call on the person in charge of selling? There is a director that runs a smoking cessation clinic in your city. He has a quota to make. There is a regional manager for a group of health clubs in your market and she has numbers to meet. There might even be someone in charge of indirect distribution for one of your wireless providers–someone who has to figure out how to get more phones and more contracts out of mall kiosks and other retailers they sell to.
Can you help these people sell more of their product? If so, you should be talking with them. Once you reposition yourself as more than just a salesperson—someone who can help move product, there will be plenty of managers and executives with quotas, sales projections, and bank covenants who just might be willing to work with you.
What would you have to change about how you do business now, and what you do to position yourself in advance to get an audience with those people in your city who are in charge of selling?
