This sporting quote, most notably associated with golf, is the mantra I have adopted throughout my career in Sales and Business Development.
It is a basic truth that hard work breeds success and yet many seek to mystify and complicate the process for no obvious reason than to sell a book, a training course or seek recognition as an expert.
Another favourite sporting quote of mine is “Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work”, which also has direct parallels to the world of selling and business development.
I was gifted a brilliant book last week, “Fanatical Prospecting” by Jeb Blount, which is brutally honest in its assessment of why we all hit sales slumps from time to time. The book advises how businesses and individuals can get out of these slumps and make sure they never go back there again.
The answer is simple – prospecting.
Prospecting is hard and something that we happily avoid when we have a full pipeline, a feeling of security and other, easier activities to occupy our time. As Blount points out, stepping back from prospecting is a mistake and will lead to failure down the line and so we should maintain our prospecting at all times.
So, how do we prospect? For maximum success, use a mixture of techniques and establish a balance between cold calling, networking, emailing and now LinkedIn. The temptation is to focus on your preferred method but putting all your eggs in one basket is also a mistake.
With the continuing rise in Social Selling, the role of LinkedIn in the prospecting mix is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, understanding the platform fully is crucial to blending it successfully in to your daily prospecting regime.
LinkedIn training enables you to locate prospects accurately and be constantly on the lookout for new contacts. A well-structured and organised LinkedIn presence also makes it easy for new prospects to find you and for you to remain visible and strongly on their radar.
To achieve this, you need to be able to identify access points and learn how to use the database to its full potential to establish and nurture relationships.
LinkedIn Success Systems offer LinkedIn training programmes, workshops, 1-2-1 coaching and e-learning packages to enable all businesses, large and small, to do just that. If you want to keep your prospecting momentum going – our LinkedIn courses will help motivate you and teach you the best methods for doing so.
Check out the up and coming training events – click Here
Once you know what you are doing, using LinkedIn to gain prospects is simple, but here’s the rub – you have to work hard at it – it’s not always easy, but it’s worth it!
Lester Young is an Associate Partner with LinkedIn Success Systems
LinkedIn Success Systems are business development systems for business growth and brand building.
Designed for businesses of all sizes – all sectors – by business development experts.
A combination of 30 years’ experience and many many clients has perfected these systems.
Easy to learn through a choice of learning methods to suit teams or individuals.
For more information click Here
