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All sales representatives looking for the next incoming purchase order try to find methods to get their foot in the door where they have sold anything in the past. One of the easiest ways to get into the buyer’s office is to be able to say you already sell to the potential customer’s sister branch. At that point, your sales person mentions the other buyer’s name, a possible corporate discount available only to this buyer and then finds it easier to make his sales pitch.
Research all locations of your current customers. Current customers of yours that own multiple locations need to be listed in your system whether you are selling to them now or not. Get them on your target list. They should be the easiest for your sales personnel to target for increasing sales.
Hire an intern to do the research. Get a sharp college kid to look up every major customer you have sold to over the last five years. Assign him to fill your database with all of these sister branches of current customers. Each of these additions will be assigned to a sales rep. Include telephone and fax numbers, buyers’ names, email addresses and any other pertinent information that can be gathered in internet research or phone calls made to the customer’s main office.
Distribute new customer lists out to the sales reps each month. Do not wait to get every customer before distributing these lists. Every three or four weeks, send the new lists out and solicit feedback from the sales representatives. When you send out the list, send the other lists showing current sales and the buyers’ names, so that information can be conveyed to the sales representative making the cold call on a related sister division. His key to entry is the name of another current buyer’s name as a reference for your company.
Arm your sales representatives with corporate discount flyers. Give your sales representatives corporate flyers announcing eligible discounts for all sister divisions of the customer. Once your company starts selling to one location, your representatives should approach other divisions, inform them their company is already buying from your firm, and that they are eligible for corporate discounts.
