Hey, everyone!

Long time and no talk!

It seems like the summer crawled like a snail but summer is over, the kids are back in school, and Labor Day weekend is near.

Where does time fly?

I hate to use the word “busy” because the word to me seems a little pretentious and a badge of honor and it sounds better when people ask how we’re doing, rather than answering something like “I’m bored and have nothing to do.”

Quick story:

This past April, I flew to Chicago to attend a sales lunch along with my business development rep who reached out to a prospect and agreed to meet us for lunch along with his marketing colleague.

This company is a $1B+ accounting and consulting firm with offices nationwide.

I flew to Chicago, spent the night in a hotel, had lunch with my guy along with the other firm’s two guys. I think between airfare, lodging and meals, I spent about $700.

Was I guaranteed a client? Absolutely not! But we saw the value of meeting this firm face to face.

There’s no substitute like sharing a meal with a potential prospect. It happens all the time. We talked scope, numbers, etc. and parted ways.

Yes, conference calls are more efficient, but if a firm gets multiple calls, you’re a voice, name and company to them. Meeting in person keeps you memorable and makes the connection stronger. (Assuming you add value.)

A few weeks later we agreed to terms and were looking at a start date of June 1. Unfortunately, the office we were helping had no one in place to run the meetings we would be generating.

Long story short, they finally hired someone and we started engaging this client in August.

Takeaway #1: Always keep your sales pipeline full and keep prospecting! Even if you agree to terms, sign a contract and are ready to go, the client may have some internal delays on their end that you have no control over.

A few weeks later, I get a call out of the blue from the Phoenix office of the same company. This branch was having similar lead generation issues and somehow connected with our contact, who gave him our name.

We had an initial call about our services, then another conference call with 3 of their team members.

We shared what we were doing with their other office, etc. and we can help them hit their goals.

Takeaway #2: Companies with multiple offices talk to each other. You’re thinking “Duh, of course!”. Yet we forget these simple facts.

You never know where one lunch can lead to an expanded scope with a company.

Have you gotten official word from the other office? No.

Does it look promising? Yes.

Get out of your comfort zone, book a flight out of town, meet new folks and you never know what will become of it.

I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000! Goodbye summer!

PS: It was neat watching the recent eclipse. I’m in the KC metro and we were almost at totality!