photo credit: René Ehrhardt
Here is an exercise which could have a profound effect for you.
In fact, I have been doing it myself every day for the past couple of days.
What I’ve been doing is going online to a job-posting site for sales positions. I look at the sales-position and the industry and I put it into a spreadsheet. I keep doing this, each time categorizing the industry they are in, as well as their target market.
For example, I will determine whether they sell to Enterprise or to SMB, and if Enterprise, try to determine the title of the person.
I picked some non-tech industries to broaden my perspective.
I came up with eco-systems of companies that are looking to hire. They appear to be selling to similar industries, but with different products.
I came up with one: selling to restaurant.
- gourmet chocolate and dessert materials
- wine
- restaurant-related advertising
- “green” receipts for processing credit cards
- some kind of a machine for the kitchen (not sure exactly what it did)
- “green” plates and utensil
- credit-card processing
For the most part, the sales people hired for these positions will ultimately be calling onto the same types of businesses — restaurants — and in most likelihood, needing to talk to the owner at some point.
What if they were all in each others’ eco-systems, exchanging information and leads as they came upon them doing their own prospecting?
So…here’s an exercise: can you think of who is in your selling eco-system?