Think about how many interactions with other people you have each day: ordering your coffee, chatting with a stranger over lunch, or meeting people on a bus on your way back home. Each interaction represents an opportunity to turn a stranger into a customer. At Cydcor, we believe that networking is crucial for finding new contacts. Here are some tips for turning connections into customers.

Refine and Memorize Your Elevator Pitch

The function of an elevator pitch is to communicate what you do to someone else. If someone can’t understand your business, they won’t be able to see the value it could provide. Your story should be conversational and convey your work briefly.

Work the Contacts You Already Have

You know more people than just those you interact with every day: think on all of your friends and their friends, former coworkers, family members, and past clients. Connect with as many people as you can to get your name out there. Network with “People You May Know” on LinkedIn, fellow alumni, or get to know people who have the same creative outlet as you.

Determine Who Will Make a Good Connection

A good contact is someone who would find value in working with you and seems genuinely interested in what you do. People should be comfortable with you before you give them your pitch. If they like you, they’re more likely to want to learn more about you and about your business.

Follow up With Potential Customers

Put potential customers’ information in your contacts list as soon as you get a chance. Send them an email to follow up if they’ve expressed interest in working with you, or even if you just want to say how great it was to meet them.

Market Yourself Online

Compose smartly crafted newsletters and keep a valuable blog up to date with fresh, new content. The more people who subscribe to your platforms and pay attention to your company, the better. Also leverage the power of social media. More and more people these days use social media to learn about a topic or a business. Social media can help you reach people you normally wouldn’t interact with on a daily basis. So, take advantage of the many networking sites available online.

Be Mindful of Your Potential Client’s Needs

Once you have made a first impression on a new contact do not overstay your welcome if you notice they are busy or rushed. Offer a friendly good-bye after you’ve exchanged contact information, and then be on your way. Don’t flood them with too much information. Be aware of the queues your contacts give you such as time constraints. You will be better off leaving your contacts wanting to know more about what you have to offer at a later time rather than forcing a conversation when is not the right time.

So, tell us, do you use casual conversations to discover new customers? what techniques do you use to find new customers in creative ways? Post your story on Twitter and follow us @Cydcor.

We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services. From our humble beginnings as an independent sales company based in Canada to garnering a reputation as the global leader in outsourced sales, Cydcor has come a long way. We’ve done this by having exceptional sales professionals and providing our clients with proven sales and marketing strategies that get results.

Cydcor is dedicated to helping business professionals take the next step in their careers. For additional blogs regarding business, leadership, and sales advice, head over to https://www.cydcor.com/media.

Sales professionals have a natural impulse to focus attention on developing new customer relationships in order to land new accounts. It’s a good impulse, but it’s one that you need to manage in order to maintain existing customer relationships.

At Cydcor, we’re interested in pursuing new opportunities, but we also understand that you can’t forget current customers in the pursuit of new possibilities. Customer relationships aren’t over once you close the sale. It’s the start of a long-term partnership that will benefit your company and your customer.

Here are some strategies for building—and maintaining—great customer relationships.

Remember Their Names

Whether you’re working with a small company or a large corporation you’ll be working with an individual—a person. He or she has a family, a birthday, a new child, or a feisty puppy. Get to know your customer. Include a few notes in your contact management system to help you remember personal details that distinguish them. Personal knowledge provides a way to start a sales conversation. Reach out on your customers’ special days and they’ll remember that you made an extra effort when they have to make purchasing decision.

Become a Solution Center

Offer your customers the resources they need to stay informed about changes, improvements, and up-dates in the service you provide. If your company offers a newsletter make sure that your customer knows about it. When you find articles, books, or webinars that might be useful to your customer remember to share them. Call out the information that will be valuable to them and their particular problems. They’ll appreciate that you personalized the information for them.

Monitor Customer Relationships with Social Media

Research by Zendesk says that 45% of customers shared bad customer experiences and only 30% shared good customer experiences on social media. This information is an important tool for building customer relationships. Follow your customers’ social media accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Listen to what they’re saying and you’ll be able to fix any issues if they happen.

Customers Are Team Members

Include your customers in events that matter to them, to your company, and his or her company. If your department is hosting a networking event or is launching a new service make certain that your customer hears about it. When you’re working on improving your team’s internal processes get your customers’ feedback. Show them that you value their business and their professional expertise.

Keep up with the latest updates from Cydcor by following us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cydcor

Incorporating email marketing into your business strategy is a great way to keep track of leads, follow up with contacts, and promote your business.  An email marketing web service is a great way to send branded emails, organize your contacts and represent your vision.

The Cydcor Sales blog recommends using email marketing services (Such as Constant Contact, Ace of Sales, Mail Chimp, etc.) as a way to send emails that are visually striking and keep in contact with your network.

Some email marketing services allow users to import their contacts, manage a limited number of  and send a variety of branded emails for no charge.  A paid account can get you more features and storage, but a small business should easily be able to meet their marketing needs for free.

Features you can find in email marketing software include being able to send pre-designed newsletters, greeting cards, updates and ads to contacts with pictures, company logos and links.  Connect your contacts with your website and social media in one, easy to build email.To create an account, just sign up with the email address you most frequently use for business and then confirm.  If you want to choose upgraded services you can.  Then import your contacts and choose which type of letter you want to send.  Newsletters are the most popular.  We created this one for Cydcor.

Features we like about email marketing tools include a “drag and drop” option in the design your own email step.  You can customize colors to keep your emails consistent with your branding.  You can also divide your contacts into lists, so you can send specially tailored emails to existing clients, prospective clients, and your extended network.  Email marketing services will also track who received and opened your letters, provide widgets to let people subscribe to your list on your website, and incorporate social sharing buttons into your templates.

Have you used email-marketing services before? What did you think?

The big game is this weekend, and the competitive of sports has a lot of parallels with sales.  Succeeding in both sports and sales requires strategy, winning, rewards and competing.  Whether you are looking for a career or another client, using your football fandom can help give you an edge that will help you achieve your goals.  The Cydcor team shares its favorite sales plays to attracting clients and building relationships.‍

The Ice Breaker. Seek out new prospects with a winning personality.  Cydcor recommends using the “SEE” principles: smile, eye contact and enthusiasm.  Find out what the lead enjoys and find some common ground in the conversation.

‍The Stat Push. Bring the facts.  People are often convinced by solid evidence that what you are offering is a better decision.  This includes making sure people recommend your work, testimonials of your success, and information about your product or service.  If you have an answer for everything, no one can argue with you.  But don’t be too pushy with your knowledge; it can turn some people off.  Just be ready for questions.

The Full Rundown.  Go through your entire contact list and send each person a quick email or give them a call.  This will keep your list fresh and relevant, and you can see if any former prospects have changed their minds about your service.  The full rundown can help you prioritize your strategy, and keep you organized

‍The Hail Prospects. Go all out.  Make a list of all ideal people you want to work with and find ways to contact them.  Go all out, reach for the top, even if you think it’s impossible.  Throw everything you’ve got at your search until something breaks through.

‍The Double Back. Make sure you follow up with everyone you talk to with a thank you note.  Remember as well that past clients may be interested in upgrades or additional products that you have to offer.

‍What’s your favorite play? You can join the Cydcor community and let us know!