What’s better? A cold call, or a call with a prospect who “knows, likes and trusts” you? The answer is clear. But it takes developing relationships to move a cold prospect to this stage. And relationships take time to build, are one-to-one, and can’t be scaled….or can they? I say they can. Relationships CAN be built in a scalable manner, in mass, with people that you barely even know. (But trust me, they know who you are.) Use Online Communities for Relationship Building So how’s this done? The way we do it is by building online communities that attract your…
A few days ago I told you about my earliest work experiences, and how working alongside my dad gave me my first true taste of what hard work really is. (click here if you missed that blog) When I initially started working for my dad, we were carrying drywall up flights of stairs together…but within a couple years, his business had grown to the point where he didn’t have to do the physical labor anymore. Instead of swinging a hammer, he managed the business, worked with clients, and spent a lot of time on marketing and sales. He had positioned himself as one of…
After my brief “venture” in the candy business (click here if you missed that blog), I stayed away from money-making schemes for a few years. It wasn’t much later that I realized if I wanted to do and have the things I wanted in life, I would need to work. My parents made it very clear. They weren’t going to be handing me anything on a silver platter. “Oh, you want a car when you turn 16? Better start saving.” My first “legal” job was stuffing envelopes in a warehouse for a direct mail company. I was 15, and made…
Outbound Sales Strategies Set Growing Businesses Apart In my time working with clients and prospective clients, there’s consistently one thing that sets the growing businesses apart. They sell. More specifically, they have outbound sales processes in place. They realize that to grow, rarely can you rely solely on inbound leads. They realize that you have to be willing to work the numbers, to proactively reach out to prospects both warm and cold, and to sell. Why You Shouldn’t Focus Only on Inbound Sales Leads On the other hand, some prospects I talk to say things like “I’m only interested in speaking…
This is an excerpt from my new book Connect which comes out on June 15. Be sure to lock in your free copy today! We’ve all been there. The good ole “networking call.” And whether or not it’s a call, a coffee, a lunch, or whatever…. …the problem remains the same. How can we turn these networking conversations into productive sales calls? Let’s step back for a second and look at how you might have arrived here. One approach would be to send a LinkedIn message similar to this one: Danny, I’m trying to get to know my connections on…
Stealing candy from your mom isn’t a long term viable business model. But when you’re 13, it’s a good introduction to the world of supply and demand, inventory, sales psychology, and hustling. Not to mention, I was making some money! (If you missed the beginning of the story from a few days ago, click here.) But one day I made a mistake, and my little venture was dead in its tracks. What was the mistake? I didn’t have a good cash management system. What I had was a pile of cash and coins stored in an empty box of airheads. Where did I…
My first real taste of operating a “business” came when I was 13. This story is a large part of my entrepreneurship journey and I’ll be sharing a lot more like it with you over the coming weeks. I hope you’ll find it entertaining, but also be sure to look for the lessons that you can pull away and apply to your business! Now, before I share this story with you, I have to admit something. I had a couple year stretch as a kid when I was a bit rotten. Not mean to people necessarily, but up to no good…