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To all my friends out there, pounding the pavement for new business:
As a sales manager in a highly competitive industry, it gives me numbing chest pain to think about HOW THE HECK I am going to generate enough leads for my team. If I don’t generate leads, we don’t close deals, I don’t make any money, and soon I won’t have a job. Stressful? You bet.
I’ve always read that networking was the best way to build long-term wealth. Perhaps as a disciple of Geoffrey Gitomer, I’ve been a bit brainwashed by his methods. It made intuitive sense to me: why hunt down a client that might give me one deal, when I can potentially find a source of dozens of deals?
Made sense to me, but the humbling part came when I tried cold-calling potential referral sources.
“Uhh, hi, this is Zach with Alliance Funding (one of my old employers). We provide equipment leasing and working capital loans. Do you have any clients that could use our services?”
**CLICK**
Needless to say, after about 100 of these calls per day, I was disheartened. I went through a month of this self-esteem-demolishing torture. But I was determined to succeed.
Then, one night during that month, I went out with my mom. She’s a cool lady, the kind you can take out to see a classic rock band, shoot some pool, and have a few drinks with. She bought me my dinner and paid for my drink, despite all of my best efforts to pay.
Emasculating? You bet. She refused to accept anything from me. In that moment, more than anything, I wanted to “get her back” for taking such good care of me.
…And that’s when it finally clicked.
The next day I began approaching prospective referral partners with a new strategy. I would contact SBA lenders with clients that NEED an SBA loan. I would contact factoring agencies with factoring leads IN HAND, rather than begging them for leads. By bringing meat to the table, I was reciprocally well-fed.
I am not the kind of person to sound "new age-y", but I found that the law of attraction indeed worked in this situation. I was able to provide a valuable service to other companies, monetize those deals with finder's fees, and in many cases they returned the favor with valuable leads.
This was when I learned the secret of networking: Provide value first, and it will come back immeasurably.
For anyone looking to capitalize on this opportunity... "Give, and you shall receive."
Zachary Ramirez
Branch Manager
World Business Lenders
1820 W. Orangewood Ave
Suite 205
Orange, CA 92868
Direct: (714) 988-4413
Fax: (888) 507-8970
Email: zramirez@wbl.com
www.linkedin.com/pub/zachary-ramirez/69/2a4/298
www.wbl.com
Check out our videos to learn more about our products and the clients we serve at http://www.youtube.com/user/worldbusinesslenders
As a sales manager in a highly competitive industry, it gives me numbing chest pain to think about HOW THE HECK I am going to generate enough leads for my team. If I don’t generate leads, we don’t close deals, I don’t make any money, and soon I won’t have a job. Stressful? You bet.
I’ve always read that networking was the best way to build long-term wealth. Perhaps as a disciple of Geoffrey Gitomer, I’ve been a bit brainwashed by his methods. It made intuitive sense to me: why hunt down a client that might give me one deal, when I can potentially find a source of dozens of deals?
Made sense to me, but the humbling part came when I tried cold-calling potential referral sources.
“Uhh, hi, this is Zach with Alliance Funding (one of my old employers). We provide equipment leasing and working capital loans. Do you have any clients that could use our services?”
**CLICK**
Needless to say, after about 100 of these calls per day, I was disheartened. I went through a month of this self-esteem-demolishing torture. But I was determined to succeed.
Then, one night during that month, I went out with my mom. She’s a cool lady, the kind you can take out to see a classic rock band, shoot some pool, and have a few drinks with. She bought me my dinner and paid for my drink, despite all of my best efforts to pay.
Emasculating? You bet. She refused to accept anything from me. In that moment, more than anything, I wanted to “get her back” for taking such good care of me.
…And that’s when it finally clicked.
The next day I began approaching prospective referral partners with a new strategy. I would contact SBA lenders with clients that NEED an SBA loan. I would contact factoring agencies with factoring leads IN HAND, rather than begging them for leads. By bringing meat to the table, I was reciprocally well-fed.
I am not the kind of person to sound "new age-y", but I found that the law of attraction indeed worked in this situation. I was able to provide a valuable service to other companies, monetize those deals with finder's fees, and in many cases they returned the favor with valuable leads.
This was when I learned the secret of networking: Provide value first, and it will come back immeasurably.
For anyone looking to capitalize on this opportunity... "Give, and you shall receive."
Zachary Ramirez
Branch Manager
World Business Lenders
1820 W. Orangewood Ave
Suite 205
Orange, CA 92868
Direct: (714) 988-4413
Fax: (888) 507-8970
Email: zramirez@wbl.com
www.linkedin.com/pub/zachary-ramirez/69/2a4/298
www.wbl.com
Check out our videos to learn more about our products and the clients we serve at http://www.youtube.com/user/worldbusinesslenders
