We are all as professionals also in sales whether we acknowledge or like it or not. We need clients in private practice and even in industry our reputation brings us work, or not, as the case may be. Robert Louis Stevenson said “Everyone lives by selling something.”
So selling matters and there are numerous consultants and courses advocating how best to do this as a professional person. Techniques vary and involve sales pipelines, unique selling points, customer relationship management, networking and these days the use of social media.
But there is one thing that is often overlooked – the need to be polite and persistent and to take a long term view. If at first a potential client does not seem interested do not abandon them and move on to the next target, even if at first sight they may not look a very promising prospect.
When I was about 12 I desperately wanted a Dawes Red Feather bike. There was a shop across the road from my school which had one in the window. I went in to have a look and the owner after a few minutes made it very clear he did not want schoolboys wasting his time in his shop. But I wasn’t. I was a genuine prospect who would subsequently return with his father to buy a bike.
More recently I had a discussion with a car salesman who quite rapidly seemed to conclude that it was a bit too early to change my car and clearly lost interest. He never seemed to be at the showroom when I said I could visit. And yet actually for various reasons I was and am now again considering the possibility of changing my car and I am not sure I will go back to the same person. I’ll probably use a service like carwow or Orangewheels anyway which get you better discounts.
The motivational speaker Patricia Fripp said "To build a long-term, successful enterprise, when you don't close a sale, open a relationship."
That’s the key. Be very careful before writing off prospective clients in especially in the professional world. Find ways to keep in touch and remind them you are still there and interested in working for them, even though they may not immediately require your services.
A quote attributed to Buddha says “Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.”
So selling matters and there are numerous consultants and courses advocating how best to do this as a professional person. Techniques vary and involve sales pipelines, unique selling points, customer relationship management, networking and these days the use of social media.
But there is one thing that is often overlooked – the need to be polite and persistent and to take a long term view. If at first a potential client does not seem interested do not abandon them and move on to the next target, even if at first sight they may not look a very promising prospect.
When I was about 12 I desperately wanted a Dawes Red Feather bike. There was a shop across the road from my school which had one in the window. I went in to have a look and the owner after a few minutes made it very clear he did not want schoolboys wasting his time in his shop. But I wasn’t. I was a genuine prospect who would subsequently return with his father to buy a bike.
More recently I had a discussion with a car salesman who quite rapidly seemed to conclude that it was a bit too early to change my car and clearly lost interest. He never seemed to be at the showroom when I said I could visit. And yet actually for various reasons I was and am now again considering the possibility of changing my car and I am not sure I will go back to the same person. I’ll probably use a service like carwow or Orangewheels anyway which get you better discounts.
The motivational speaker Patricia Fripp said "To build a long-term, successful enterprise, when you don't close a sale, open a relationship."
That’s the key. Be very careful before writing off prospective clients in especially in the professional world. Find ways to keep in touch and remind them you are still there and interested in working for them, even though they may not immediately require your services.
A quote attributed to Buddha says “Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.”
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