We laid out the Infinite Pipeline Relationship Development Process™ in our books, The Infinite Pipeline: How to Master Social Media for Business-to-Business Sales Success and its companion for sales executives, The Infinite Pipeline: How to Lead the Social Selling Change for Your Organization, which we co-authored with famous social selling evangelist Jill Rowley.
Using this technique, our partner, Robbie Johnson, has closed millions of dollars of business. It’s simple, easy, but effective. And it doesn’t require any sales pitches.
The goal is to develop a community that will sell for you by creating and growing relationships.
- Find people in target organizations
- Look them up on LinkedIn
- Join the groups they are in
- See if they’ve posted in the group discussions and then comment
- Try to engage them in a conversation on the group forum
- When the time is right, suggest that you connect on LinkedIn
- Once you are connected download their vCard, which usually contains their email address
- Email them periodically (don’t spam) with a bit of news or other information that they will be interested in, and ask for their comments
- Watch their activity and comment as appropriate
- When the time is right, ask to have coffee — concentrate the conversation on them. Don’t pitch.
- Continue to offer solutions.
What? No close?
That’s right, no close. During the process, your contact will ask you about your business. Keep your responses short, personal, sales-free, and focused on activities that are relevant to your contact’s business problems. For example, you might say, “Well, I’m a little concerned about making my son’s soccer game next week because we’ve got a big sales training session scheduled about the new product release.”
If your contact wants more details — and asks specifically for them — feel free to discuss. But no pitch, no close.
We’ve taken these principles and are building them into our social selling mobile product, SalesMVP™
The product is in development, but once complete, it will automate the winning techniques we describe in the books all without you having to endure another boring sales training session. (Although we do lead non-boring training sessions on the Infinite Pipeline techniques. Contact Us if you’re interested.)
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