Sales Lesson Learned from Garth Brooks Concert

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Hey, everyone!

One more day till the school year is over for my 4 and 7-year-old and we are limping to the finish line.

I had the privilege of seeing Garth Brooks in concert last Saturday night.

I’ve always been a big fan of his music and one of very few music groups that my late father and I both liked.

So my wife and I along with 2 other couples attended the Garth Brooks concert at the Sprint Center and sat in the lower level and could clearly see Garth Brooks and the stage.

Garth (we’re on a first-name basis, apparently) has been around since the late 80’s / early 90’s and I have several of his CD’s. One of his CD’s is a live concert he did in 1997 at Central Park in New York City.

That was 20 years ago people!

There are several reasons why people love Garth and flock to his concert in droves.

One of those reasons I believe is this: He sings “singable” songs! Obvious but true! The lyrics to his songs are easy to follow along with and sing to. Many artists are not, which is simply okay.

The concert was one big sing-along which was fine by me.

Question: how singable is your company “lyrics”? Can others easily recite what you do and services you provide?

At Connect 5000, we definitely don’t have it down, but we want to.

Our lyrics at Connect 5000 is this: we shorten sales cycles and multiply revenue.

What are yours?

Conversation Starters for Inbound Leads

/in , , /by

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!

At Connect 5000, we’re huge advocates and fans of proactive outbound prospecting, cold/warm calling, hunting for new logos, new business development, etc. (Or whatever term you prefer.)

We believe it’s better to be proactive and hunt for new business, rather than being reactive and waiting for the phone to ring.

But, we’re even bigger fans of something else: inbound leads!

Inbound leads are great in that a prospect had a pain or problem, did some online research or hunting, came across your website, filled out the form and requested a conversation.

We refer to them fondly as “Sales Gravy”.

I received one recently and followed up with the prospect in a timely manner.

(Multiple research shows you should connect with prospects within 30-60 minutes, or statistically, they grow cold and the chances to convert them into a client drops greatly.)

How should you start a conversation with an inbound lead?

Here are my two suggestions:

1. Ask them how they heard about your company.

Mr./Ms. Prospect, if I may ask, how did you hear about us?

(It’s a simple, non-threatening question to get the conversation going, plus it helps you figure out how your prospects are finding you for lead source purposes.)

2. Ask them: what prompted them to reach out to you.

Mr./Ms. Prospect, what prompted you to reach out to us? What’s your driving your interest currently?

(Then shut up and don’t say anything and let the prospect respond. Don’t spray and pray! Don’t have diarrhea of the mouth! Don’t spill the beans and talk about how wonderful you are.)

Listen to your prospect, ask open-ended questions, assess their situation, and then diagnose their problems.

Don’t drink too many margaritas tonight! Hope these two questions help close more business!