I have been working as an inside sales person at the same company for the better part of a decade. In fact, because we are a smaller company, most of the time I am the only person on staff with any sales experience at all and responsible for keeping new money coming in.
There are some years when this job is easy and I have an unlimited amount of support from the company when it comes to marketing; flyers, billboards, etc. Other years (like the last couple), money is tight and, as a result of that, I’m left pretty much on my own; trying to get our name out there and generate sales over the phone without any sort of marketing budget to support me.
So far, I have managed to still do a decent job by taking a few steps that helped me get around the fact my company is not advertising and not getting our name out there.
First, I brushed up on my letter writing. Our company’s customer base is strictly businesses and one of the hardest things about that is getting to a decision maker; especially since my sales are done over the phone. A couple years ago, I discovered I could improve my chances of talking to someone by sending them a letter first introducing myself and briefly discussing what my company can do for them.
There are a couple ways you can do this. The first way is to just send a letter at random to the company and hope someone of importance reads it and is interested. I, however, go that extra step and do as much research on the company as possible so I can send the letter to the attention of someone as far up the ladder as possible.
This method works in a couple different ways. First, when I call the customer (usually a few days later), I can say I’m calling about the letter I sent and that usually will get me past that one person who is in charge of weeding out sales calls. But, on a surprising number of occasions that letter actually prompts the person to call me; saving me the trouble. Let’s just say I’ve gotten enough sales this way to cover the cost of the stamps.
Second, don’t leave your business cards in your wallet. When I’ve talked to other sales people, I’ve been shocked by the number of them who only give out their business cards when asked. That’s a big mistake. I personally use my business cards as a way to advertise by leaving them everywhere. If a business has some sort of drawing, I drop it in. If I send a letter, I attach it. When I pay a bill at a restaurant, I leave it with my payment.
The reason I do this is I’ve discovered business cards are a bit like cockroaches; you can’t get rid of them easily. I’ve had plenty of customers throw out flyers (when we advertised) and even my letters but wound up calling me because they happened to come across my business card sitting in a drawer somewhere.
If you company doesn’t do this already, I recommend approaching the people in charge of creating the business cards and asking them to use both sides to list what kinds of services you offer. I found I got a lot more calls once our company started doing that.
Third, enlist the help of your non-sales co-workers. Like I said before, I’m pretty much the only official salesperson here. But, because I make sure to, my co-workers understand the importance of adding new clients to their jobs as well and, thanks to some prompting and even training on my part, they have been involved with generating some leads. For example, one of my co-workers was going to a party that she mentioned would have some business owners. I gave her some of my cards to hand out. They also leave my business cards for me at their hair stylists, restaurants, etc. In other words, it’s that whole teamwork thing they always talk about.
Just because your company doesn’t advertise doesn’t mean you can’t still bring in new customers and earn a decent commission check. It does take a bit more work. But, if you follow my advice, there’s a good chance you will see some big results.