Barbara has been helping women in sales and advancing them into leadership roles for YEARS. With all her incredible experience, she has learned the best ways to reach out to people you want to work with or would pitch to in the future. It’s easy enough to reach out to people, but it is hard to get them to respond.
Harsh, but true. Sometimes, what you think is saying the “right thing” is simply just boring and uninteresting to the people you’re trying to reach. Tons of the things people open with when they contact others are just plain dull. You have to make the people interested in you, and want to respond. And if there’s one person who knows how to do this, it’s Barbara!
“You know, when people say things like “LinkedIn suggested we connect.” I’m like, so what? “Oh, I’m looking to expand my network with like minded people.” Again, so what! Not trying to be rude if you really want to connect with someone else. Give them a good reason for them to understand how the connection is going to be a benefit for both of you”.
Most business people won’t want to just help you out of the goodness of their hearts, people want situations that benefit them as well. So you have to make that known early on. Pleasantries are nice, but they won’t get you what you want.
Even when doing things like cold calls, you don’t want to open with things like “I’m so and so with such and such..” but at the end of the day, nobody cares! A much better option would be if you quickly and briefly ask them to talk later about a specific question or topic.
Well, I’ll let brilliant Barbara explain it, “”If I’m trying to connect with you Kate, as an executive, I might reach out to you and say, “I heard about your company and how Lately has this auto generator. And then I read this other article about artificial intelligence. What do you think about it, would you mind connecting to talk about it?” Now, can I guarantee 100% you’re gonna say yes or talk to me? No, but there’s a very high likelihood you will. Why? Because I demonstrated I know a little bit about you. And I’m asking your opinion on AI, which is obviously at the heart of Lately’s product. So, it connects.”
Makes perfect sense. Following this rule will increase your chances of getting an “in” massively. It may not get you exactly what you want, but even a simple conversation could leave you with valuable information.
Too many people aren’t doing this, which means people are losing out on great opportunities Just because they didn’t show their worth in the beginning and did not make it clear that the conversation or transaction would help them both.
So now that you know this, get out there and get connected! Pull out all the stops to make them interested in you. But wait, you don’t know “all the stops” yet, because you haven’t listened to everything Barbara had to say! Hear it all here: https://bit.ly/3dN7GA1
Barbara is the host of a podcast titled Conversations With Women In Sales AND an amazing author. Does that sound like a lot? Well what if I told you she’s also an influential speaker, a blogger, and a sales expert. Her bag of sales tricks looks a whole lot like Mary Poppins magic bag, it’s an endless supply of incredible advice! Check out her website here where you can learn more about her and her book: http://barbaragiamanco.com/blog/
