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It’s Only Common Sense: It Never Hurts to Ask for Help

When you just can’t make any headway with a customer, have exhausted all your own resources and ideas, and don’t feel that you have another move left in you, it’s time to call for help. Time to send the flares up and signal SOS.

The good thing is that you’re not alone. You are not the only salesperson who has hit that proverbial concrete roadblock on your way to getting that customer to sign on the dotted line.

Now is the time to reach out to your smart friends, the ones that you trust and respect enough to rely on for some good advice. This is not a time to let your pride get in the way of your success. If you have not turned to others for help, you have not yet used up all of your resources.

Here are four excellent ways that you can call on your network’s resources to get help in nailing that account:

1. Check your network to see if you know anyone who has dealt with that potential customer before. It could be someone who might know someone. They might know the right decision-makers in the company. They might even have worked at the company and have enough know-how to help you to succeed. Using your network is by far the very best way to get help when you’re stuck.
2. Many times, as in the case of very large companies, you know it would be the perfect customer but you cannot even get a handle on who the right person is to talk to. Use LinkedIn or some other similar program to find the right decision-makers at that company. Sometimes when you don’t even know who to talk to, doing a little research will unlock the code and get you to the right people. If you don’t know how to use LinkedIn to find the right people, reach out to someone who does. These kinds of programs have been around long enough now that someone in your network will be willing to show you how to find the right people at the company you are targeting. The other good thing about using LinkedIn is that you can check out your connections base. Is there anyone in your network who is connected with your target customer? Once you know that, you can ask them for an introduction.
3. Reach out to your suppliers. Many times, the companies and the people who are selling their products to your company are also selling to your target account. Find out how they are dealing with the account. Ask them how they got into the account in the first place. Find out what their process was. If you don’t have a lot of suppliers in your network, cultivate some. This can prove extremely valuable when it comes to understanding that market. Because their job is to go from customer to customer, they have a wider network than you do and can help you find the right people. As an added bonus, if they are selling their wares to your company, they have a vested interest in wanting you to succeed. If your company starts to grow then their sales with your company will grow as well. Especially if they help you get that customer in the first place.
4. Collect a few of your smartest friends, invite them to lunch and have a brainstorming session. Pick their brains for ideas on what to do next. All salespeople understand what it means to hit a roadblock. We’ve all used our friends and contacts to help us win an account. It’s the great thing about having a network and friends. The nice thing about salespeople is that we all have opinions, we like to talk, and by our very nature are always trying to be helpful. It would be smart to extend and formalize this group to a more formal sales panel of advisors where all of you help one another by sharing ideas on how to not only get unstuck but find proactive ways to help one another become better salespeople.

Regardless of the ways you come up with to ask for help, it is important to remember that people never fail, they just stop trying. Don’t ever do that, because in the end, there is always a way to succeed. You just haven’t found it yet.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.