Sales Minute

Are You Connecting?

The key to accumulating a long list of loyal clients in the document destruction industry is "relationship based" selling. Anyone can quote a price for a specific service. If clients just wanted a price quote for your service, than companies would not need sales forces. If all you are doing is quoting prices over the phone and via fax for your service, good luck.

As a sales professional, your job is to educate the clients on the difference between the actual value of using your services rather than those of a competitor. Many times, your price may be higher than your competitors’ prices, on the surface. When you are successful at selling the value of your services and your company, prospects perceive a difference in your value compared to that of your competitors, and that value judgment does not always come down to price.

In fact, more sales are won when clients who like or have a "connection" with their sales representatives than are won with the lowest price. Prospects will not become clients until they know, like and trust you and until you remove the risk associated with becoming a client. Your clients perceive a difference in you and your company that distinguishes you from your competitors and they know they can reap more benefits from using your services.

The most successful way for shredding business owners or document destruction sales professionals to develop long-lasting relationships with their prospects is to commit to a defined "networking strategy." My suggestions for establishing a successful networking strategy include:

• Go where the fish are. Identify areas where your prospective clients are going to be and where you will be able to make a connection.

• Join industry associations and speak up. I can’t tell you which ones, as my Shred School clients would kill me.

• Be friendly first. Clients want to do business with people they like and trust.

• Provide value first. The best way to breed likeability and trust is to give something of value to the person(s) you are trying to build a relationship with, such as a community Shred Day.

• Identify related services (records storage, document imaging, security systems) in your market and match your prospects’ growth strategies to yours.

• Engage the other person, whether a prospect or a potential strategic partner, about their businesses, not about yours.

• Find something that you share in common with your prospect or prospective strategic partner.

You’ll meet with the most success if you develop relationships by being friendly, trustworthy and respectful, not by cold calling.

Ray Barry is the president of Total Training Services, which operates Shred School in Spartanburg, S.C. He has helped and trained more than 100 companies in the document destruction industry to grow their business. Previously, he was the VP of sales and marketing for a shredding company that was named in Inc. magazine twice as one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in America. Ray can be contacted at raybarry@totaltrainingservices.com.