Harvard Business Review on Sales Prospecting

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The Harvard Business Review (July-August 2006) had an impactful article on “Better Sales Networks” with the following quote from David Godes and Tuba Ustuner:

Many salespeople waste a great deal of time cold-calling or trying to breathe life into old leads.  That’s because they can’t see clearly into prospective firms to know when the companies are getting ready to buy.  The right network strategy can make the process of finding good leads much easier.

One the the most effective ways to get such “marketplace networks” is through other sales people.  Sure, you could work with other types, but a rep to rep network is immensely powerful because of these characteristics of good sales reps:

• Proactively building their network
• Asking questions to understand the customer and their territory
• Can be aligned easily in a give-to-get economy

This is a great article from which I’ll be pulling more insights.

It asks the key question:

How good is your marketplace network?

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