Let’s back up further in the prospecting process.

In the previous blog, I said that the losses, those terrible but rare times you lose a deal, could now be monetized by providing contact and context about the account to other partner reps to get similar information in return.

What if you disqualified them early.  They don’t have budget, it’s not a priority, it’s something they don’t experience yet, they have a competitor in-house, whatever.

Typically, you move on and forget.  You don’t have time to spend with that customer.  And if there really is no chance that person could buy your current product, why spend the time.

Will you sell the same product for the rest of your life?

I know I wish I had kept in much better touch with those I qualified out when selling one type of solution (it was a very niche product I felt) when I started selling more broadly.

But I didn’t.  Why?

Actually, I didn’t have a good reason to.

When you provide referrals to another rep, make sure you get included in the conversation!

It’s a great way to maintain relationships with that account (as long as you are doing so intelligently, such as knowing their business and believing there’s a fit…don’t be indiscriminate).

Key takeaways on monetizing every contact through exchanging with other sales reps:

  • Keep in contact with prospects who don’t buy now by brokering other solutions — be a thought-leader
  • Find other deals from other reps by exchanging your losses for potential “at bats”
  • Take your installs to exchange for other installs with partner reps

Now rather than coming away with only 1 out of 3 contacts being worth the time…you can turn both wins and losses into potential new customers more quickly and easily.