I often hear the complaint from businesses that they just can’t reach that hard-to-reach buyer. Having purchased services for giant brands for the past 20 years, I thought I’d share the advice I share with my clients around this very painful subject.
What Are You Doing
If you keep trying the same ways to reach the buyer and it’s not working-STOP doing it. In other words if you’re cold calling or asking for introductions from the same set of people and it’s not working…well you know what they say about insanity. I’m always surprised that people keep doing the same things over and over again and complaining about it.
Get Into Their World
I guarantee you that the buyer that you’re thirsting after is at this very moment having lunch with another vendor, or at his industry trade show or attending her industry conference. Why aren’t you there? Why aren’t you figuring out what vendors are also targeting and actively working with your target industry and inviting them out to lunch yourself? Joint ventures mean win-win for both of you. Better yet, speak or sponsor at these events. Be a thought leader in the solution to their pain. Be different than every other sales rep who is trying to sell to them. Stop blending into the background.
Get Social
Not every industry buyer is open to being active on social media but lots are watchers. So start sharing some relevant expert content on your LinkedIn stream or mention their @ in your Twitter feed like we do to get hard to reach buyers to respond to us. Get onto their industry group social media streams. Give advice and send valuable lists, resources, trend reports to your targets through social media even before ever asking to meet with them.
If you’re willing to stop the cold calling and instead, be prepared to penetrate your target’s industry activities and get yourself into their world, you will never again have an issue meeting those hard-to-reach buyers.
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