You’ve been given the “tremendous” opportunity to build a portfolio from scratch. We’ve all been there at one point or another in our career. For some, that’s a personal challenge they run with; for others, that can be so daunting, fear of rejection paralyzes them. Traditionally, this has meant you have two approaches.
Your first option is to verbally assault your family and friends by regurgitating all the features and benefits of your “tremendous” opportunity, with which you’ve become indoctrinated, and why they should be begging you to let them in on your little piece of heaven.
The second approach is to start with your phone/email/social media contacts and let them know you’re selling/offering/providing the greatest opportunity in the world, and they’d be crazy not to meet with you to discuss how you can change your life. This more aggressive approach is usually coupled with attending every networking event under the sun and making every effort to talk to as many people as you possibly can in the first 20 minutes, whilst throwing down business cards faster than a Vegas card dealer. (Ta-dah!) Then you go back to your office and wait for people to start blowing up your phone with requests. (Insert buzzer noise here!) Wrong! Not gonna happen.
Reality check! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: People do business with people they know and trust. A simple business card exchange or spammer email doesn’t gain you immediate permission to sell your wares. While both of these approaches can be effective tools to grow your business, they must be done correctly in order to harness positive results. It’s all about relationships. Creating them, adding value to them, and delivering when the opportunity organically arises.
So at this point, I could deliver some antiquated, overly used, and broken sales techniques to step by step show you how to improve your closing ratios in as little as 30 days. That’s bologna! But, if you subscribe to that quick fix, five minute abs theology, then send $99 to me, and I’ll promise to deliver amazing results in less than 24 hours.
Seriously!
Talk with your family and friends; they should be your biggest fans. Sharpen up your delivery and work at starting one meaningful relationship a day. Finally, just be you. God has given you a set of unique talents and abilities to share with the world.