{"id":7870,"date":"2009-08-26T17:23:35","date_gmt":"2009-08-26T17:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/?p=7870"},"modified":"2019-01-28T02:06:11","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T02:06:11","slug":"can-i-peek-at-your-rolodex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/?p=7870","title":{"rendered":"Can I Peek At Your Rolodex?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s remarkably sad that with all the new tools and technology available today, so many sales professionals still rely on this 56 year old device for an introduction to a prospect we want to meet.\u00a0 \u00a0What\u2019s our hope when we ask this question? \u00a0Someone in the room says, \u201cSure, I know Bob at Widget Co., play golf with him twice a week.\u00a0 \u00a0I bet he\u2019d love to buy something from you!\u00a0 I\u2019ll set up the meeting and you be sure to bring the contract.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, of course we know better, but we all still ask it anyway.\u00a0\u00a0 I did it myself this weekend, hoping an associate of mine could \u2018get me in\u2019 with the CEO at one of my prospects.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0(Nope, it didn\u2019t work.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that sales people are lazy.\u00a0 Most of us work longer days now than we ever have.\u00a0 \u00a0But it\u2019s difficult to break from old fashioned habits.\u00a0 \u00a0And while the reality is \u2018working the Rolodex\u2019 can be successful at times, eventually you run out of prospects.\u00a0 A good friend of ours calls this Post-Rolodex Traumatic Stress Disorder (PRTSD)<\/strong> \u2013 that terrifying discovery that all your business friends and family<\/em> are tapped out for leads and introductions and it is time to grow your market yourself.<\/p>\n

PRTSD<\/strong> can be lethal for sales people who don\u2019t recognize the symptoms, but the good news it is treatable if properly diagnosed.\u00a0\u00a0 Think you may be suffering from early stages of this condition?\u00a0 Here are some quick ways to tell.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You dutifully attend your networking breakfasts, asking each time if anyone knows the head of IT at New Co. and can get you a meeting.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The reason you think that IT executive at New Co. will want to meet you is your exceptionally low cost.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Your participation in social networking consists of tracking down high school friends and commenting on their family photo uploads.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Your keep your target list in Excel and do your own prospect research by surfing company websites.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You still generate all your own leads.\u00a0 (See first diagnosis question above).<\/p>\n

It is likely many of us are showing a couple symptoms of PRTSD, but please don\u2019t over-react.\u00a0 Many of the \u201cOld School\u201d prospecting techniques we learned in Sales 101 still apply, its just that there are many extraordinary \u201cnew tools\u201d available to help improve and accelerate the process.<\/p>\n

A new term is emerging in the marketplace: Sales 2.0. \u00a0It is a convergence of sales and marketing best practices\/methodologies and productivity enhancing web tools that improve sales efficiency and accelerate the sales process. \u00a0Getting actionable information into the hands of the right people at the right time is a key component of closing a deal, shortening your sales cycle time, finding and retaining loyal customers, and ultimately earning you more money.\u00a0 \u00a0Sales 2.0 is really that simple to define and getting your sales organization there is worth it.\u00a0 \u00a0We use technology to make all facets of our life more efficient and more intuitive, why not apply it to sales?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s remarkably sad that with all the new tools and technology available today, so many sales professionals still rely on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8215,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7870\/revisions\/8215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}