GPI 376 – Your employees know a number of good sales leads and do not know it. Ask them the right questions to find out.
Most employees never know where their employer is trying to sell the company’s products or services. The sales department normally does not announce their targeted customer list. This most likely is detrimental to the firm’s long term growth. Try a very cheap, fast and effective approach.
Instead of being secretive about your potential customers, try not being so quiet. Ask for your employees’ help. Post a list of five or ten potential company names and their locations. Put this up on the wall for all to see as they walk by several times a day. Change out the list periodically. Request your employees to help if they can. Ask them to share common acquaintances they may know at these facilities.
When asking employees questions, ask one or more of these examples to get started.
Questions to ask your employees about targeted customers:
Q: Did the employee ever work at any of these companies?
Q: Does the employee have any friends, relatives or business acquaintances that work at these companies?
Q: If any employee answers “yes” to any one of these, ask them to share their information if they feel comfortable doing so. Tell them if they departed any of these companies in a manner that is embarrassing, it is ok to decline.
Q: If he feels comfortable doing so, ask the employee to provide contact information (i.e. name, telephone number) for your sales department to follow up.
Your employees who have contacts should be able to ask their friends or relatives to find out who makes purchasing decisions, who the company currently buys from and how to go about submitting bids to the procurement department.
You may want to consider sales lead incentives or one time bonuses when company gains a new customer. The cost will be minimal given the potential incremental business your firm may win in the future. Reward the efforts and make it pay to speak up and make valuable connections for the company.