You Need Attention Before You Can Sell

When I was selling cars in my early twenties, I was one of four salespeople at our dealership.

We took turns meeting new customers who arrived at the dealership. However, because I was the junior guy, most often customers already knew a salesperson, and I received very few leads daily.

Frustrated, I asked the dealer principal how I could find more.

“Well, for one thing, you could start going neighbourhood to neighbourhood, knocking on doors. Take a flyer or business card or just say hello,” he suggested.

I didn’t even bother to question him. I went to work creating a simple flyer, printing several copies on our dot matrix printer, and then drove around doing exactly what the dealer suggested.

You know what?

It worked. After a few weeks, people started arriving at the dealership with my flyer in their hand, asking for “Shawn.”

There’s a lesson to be learned here for all of us — whether you sell or have someone selling for you.

We need to stop being lazy!

We’ve all become numb to cold email pitches and LinkedIn messages. Studies have repeatedly shown that buyers, particularly those in the B2B space, want less interaction with sales.

And no wonder.

The solution then is for us, as sales professionals, to get more creative in how we reach out to prospective customers or clients.

We need to garner attention before we’ll ever have the chance to meet or make a presentation.

Here are three simple steps you can take to get the attention of your buyers:

1. Reach out using videos with software such as BombBomb or Vidyard. Videos have been proven repeatedly to be more engaging than any other form of content shared, and they allow us to warm up the outreach.
2. Use direct mail. Send a letter or brochure with a handwritten note via courier directly to your prospect. Follow up via phone to ensure it arrived and ask to meet.
3. Get creative. Send a gift card from Starbucks and suggest you wanted to bring them a coffee. Do anything that will set you apart from your competition.

When I think back to dropping those flyers off, I remember how uncomfortable the entire experience felt. After all, what kind of car salesman comes to your door?

But you know what? Because I was creative and stretched myself to step out of the normal process, I generated sales as a result.

Isn’t that the point?

© Shawn Casemore 2024. All Rights Reserved.