I have to admit that I’m doing this right now.

I am looking for contact information in some target enterprise accounts. It takes time. If you’re not careful, a lot of time.

And I’ve done this many (many) times in my sales career and used many (many) hours of time on this. And I know many senior sales people that have spent lots of time on this too.

If you’re going to sell an enterprise account, you have to do this contact research, so what’s the discussion? This is just the cost of doing business.

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I have had conversations with sales executives in the past where we came to an interesting conclusion: it would help them sell more if they were an expert.

Seems to make sense right? If you were an expert, wouldn’t it help you sell more?

But maybe a little voice might be saying in the back of your head, “I’m not an expert”. Well, good news. Anybody can become an “expert” these days.

Due to tools like blogging everyone can publish. And not only that, everyone can get their word out too. So if you can write, have something reasonably interesting to say, you can publish it and can the word out so some people read it. You are an expert.

An even if you cannot write to save your life there are other tools available to you to be an expert. If you can speak, you can start speaking at events – online (webinars) or offline (physical events). There are plenty of people looking for speakers (I know, I’ve run plenty of events in my time as well as been a speaker). Again you just need something reasonably interesting to say and the ability to market it. You can also get into podcasting or video.

What’s the point? Well, think about how people feel about buying from an “expert” versus a “sales person”.

Credibility is one of the key factors in selling. We all try to “sniff out” if someone is credible. If you are perceived by your prospect as an “expert”, much of the discussion of credibility (perceived risk for the buyer) will dissipate. It will make your prospecting and closing of deals much easier.

I’ve seen that happen for us over the years that I have been blogging. And it accelerated when I started combining my blog posts with those of already “recognized experts”.

So how about becoming an expert?

I’m getting that feeling right now that I am living in a movie. Big events are happening so quickly it’s hard to keep up.

One of the lessons I’ve learned is a crisis is not the time to get stuck. It’s time to take action…and to do so soon.

In the sales realm I believe we may be about to see a big shift.

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The big difference between a cold call and a referral call is social capital.

Social capital is the currency of relationships. It’s the currency of trust. If you’ve been in sales doing it the old school cold calling way long enough you may start to believe social capital does not mean anything. But I believe it means a lot. [Read more…]