Business Growth Blog

I was talking with an owner of an insurance agency the other day, and he was telling me one of his biggest challenges is getting his commercial insurance reps to clearly define their target audience. They’re struggling because they don’t really know who to start calling on.

It seems so simple: Who do you want to be your customers?

But when your service can span over multiple industries, it can be a real challenge. It’s still kind of a challenge for me and my marketing services! I could sell to a million different kinds of companies. Can’t I just sell to anyone who comes my way?

Sure I can. But the problem is that sales don’t normally "come your way." You have to actively go out and find people who could benefit from using your product or service and then convince them they would be better off working with you.

If you don’t clearly define your target audience and who you want to work with, sales is an uphill battle. Here’s why:

In my world, I focus heavily on creating content for publishing online to engage prospects and generate leads. However, to make a sale, you have to talk to someone voice to voice eventually. Before I switched from sales to marketing, I made a gazillion cold calls every day. I learned a handy trick that I still use.

When making phone calls, you'll have to leave a voice mail message a good percentage of the time. The words you say on the voicemail make the difference between a “delete” or a “save.” That is why it's so important to get it right.

The problem is, sometimes I'm not as prepared to leave a voicemail as I should be, and I completely botch the whole thing. Or, I stumble over my words or just sound plain dumb. Do you ever wish you could just start over?

Sales is tough - there are a gazillion components you need to master to be really good at it. Because it's driven by feelings and emotions more than anything else, you need to understand how to connect with people and guide them through the decision making process.

There aren't many "sales" college degrees out there, and most salespeople haven't had much specific training. But there are definitely strategies that work - and don't work. It takes a lot of time, effort and know-how to become a sales guru.

That's why sales training is critical for successful sales teams. However, most sales training focuses on what to do once a prospect is engaged. That's great, but I was in sales for over 12 years, cold calling and knocking on doors, and the biggest struggle I had was actually getting an appointment. And it's even harder to get appointments now than it was back then.

Knowing what to do once you get a meeting with a prospect is important, but it doesn't do you any good if you're spinning your wheels trying to get the appointment in the first place!