- Provide great customer service. When someone quits that job (your client) they will probably move to someplace else that can use your product or service. This is one reason it is so important to be memorable.
- Long chains of Buzz: We can trace back clients to a chain of 5 connections. Consider that a quick conversation you have today could lead to your biggest client in two years. Create a little buzz in every conversation and you increase the odds.
- Keep in touch with other employees from old jobs. Lots of people will move up and out to new companies and may one day be clients.
- Smaller clients may become big clients. Consider how giving great service to smaller clients can generate buzz and new clients, as well as grow into a bigger client. If a client is too small to do a great job with, do not take them on at all.
- Follow up and ping [email or call] occasionally. Sales can be about timing, and it may take months to capture someone's attention. If you meet someone, be sure to keep in touch and see where it goes.
We have gotten sales in all of these ways. All of them took much longer than our normal sales cycle, but they were also things that took minimal effort and we would have done anyway.
Use the comments on this article to post unlikely sales that you have gotten.
