Always do Your Research
“If you want to improve your sales, the first thing you need to do is take a good look at yourself, your basic techniques and how you relate to people.”
This blog entry is part of a mini-series on the basics of effective sales and marketing strategy. This 5-part series provides guidelines for improving our state of mind for results.
- Introduction: It’s not your market, it’s your marketing
- Get rid of negativity
- Always do your research
- Sell to women first
- Book the next meeting before they leave the room
Always do your research
Doing research is easier now than ever before. In the past, I would have to have a meeting with someone who I didn’t know that much about. I would have to study their body language and how they were speaking. I would schedule meetings at their office so I could look around and see what was important to them. It was very difficult back then, but today it’s easy. Now I just Google a prospective client, or I look them up on Facebook or on LinkedIn and I might know more about them than their spouse does in a few seconds.
Proven results with Internet marketing
When I was raising $1 million of venture capital for our company 15 years ago, I talked about Internet marketing and no one really cared. People thought I was crazy.
I encountered this again and again, until I did one thing: I Googled a client. He had a distinctive name, and through my search I discovered that he had been a college basketball star.
Awakening the bored and drowsy
Learn all you can about prospective clients, leads, and customers before your first meeting.
During my presentation, this client was literally falling asleep, and I thought, Well, I’ll give this a shot. So I just said to him, “Beau, you know what this is about. It’s just like when you were a basketball star at York University. You can relate to this.”
In fact, his past had nothing to do with my presentation, but showing that I cared enough to know something about him and relating his life to our conversation woke him up. At the end of the meeting he got up and said, “Congratulations. I’ll have a cheque for you tomorrow.” That set us off, and from there we had three more meetings during which we raised $1 million. It all started with one minute on Google.
Another example: Taking your client research to the next level
Controversial though he is, at one time Adnan Khashoggi was the richest man in the world. He was a Saudi Arabian businessman and arms dealer who took his game to the next level.
He would research everyone and find out what type of person they were – and what they wore. He was known for getting changed eight to ten times a day because he would wear different clothes to match the style of each client that he met.
Adnan Khashoggi, self-made billionaire, at one point the wealthiest man on the planet, thought it was that important to dress like his clients. Think about that. He understood how to relate to people. He understood something important: Clients want to be your friend.
Clients want to be your friend
Think about your friends. They are probably just like you. They talk like you, they act like you, they speak like you and they dress like you. If your clients feel that you’re just like them and all their friends, they’re going to want to buy from you. If they feel like you’re really very different, selling to them is going to be much more difficult.
Always do your homework
I’m amazed when I do interviews and people come in that haven’t done their research. What does that tell you about what this person’s habits will be like when they’re working with you? It’s so easy now. You can be an expert on anything in seconds. There’s no excuse.
Learn more from my book
The Million Dollar Minute – The Secrets of how we sold 367 Condos in 90 Minutes, and how You can too!
More from our blog mini-series: Blog Mini-Series, Part 4 of 5: How To Improve Your Sales State Of Mind For Results
