It pays to join groups that relate to your products or services. It just takes a little time to search groups on LinkedIn by keywords.
I wanted to find LED Lighting Consultants and those three words were my keywords. Fortunately, I came upon Egret Consulting Group. A special thanks to Ted Connerth founder of the Egret Consulting Group for his mentoring on who and how to target market potential clients.
What to do Next
Once you have decided which groups are best for you, start inviting key people to connect with you by sending them a personal message (not canned) to connect with you.
One you have received a connection back, invite that key person to call you for an initial conversation.
In our case we were looking for a key person who could direct us on who our primary clients would be and what our goal was. Our primary clients would be Manufacturers Reps anywhere in the US. Next came our goal – Connect on LinkedIn, then include our phone number for a First Call. Warm the relationship up a bit.
Manufacturers Reps are our key people or primary clients because they know the marketability of a product like ours and how it looks and behaves in the commercial and industrial marketplace.
Next, I was instructed to meet with 7-8 Manufacturers Reps and come out with 1-2 pages of questions. This is where we are in the process with some good conversations with other LED lighting professionals. One key action. Visit your potential client’s website and do your homework. You can learn a lot about how good of a fit your product or service is to their business.
After my conversation with Ted at Egret, I came up with three key skills I wanted in a manufacturers rep. They had to be a company who can work with us. Then they had to be the most influential company in their territory giving our product the best possible exposure to their client base. And finally, they had to be the largest sales territory to carry as much of our 4000 lights sold per month volume. Basically, it comes down to how much of that 4000 lights per month volume could they handle.
Be Professional
If I have learned anything in 40 plus years of sales, its “learn to sort” through your potential clients, because they can tell if you are begging for the sale. Don’t do that. Be a complimentary match to their workload not a burden.
If you are a Manufacturers Rep reading this, here is a little something about our LED lighting fixtures. The Renaissance One is UL Certified, has an LM-79 rating of 158.5 with a 200 rating coming by June and our DLC listing is in process.
The R-One fits these Categories - Flush Mount, Linear Suspended, Industrial, High Bay, Parking Garages and Commercial Applications.
Our Primary Territories include NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, Philly, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Miami, Seattle, PDX with many more cities being added.
Serve Your Client
What we need from you is a “punch list of what you need”. The better we can equip you with success tools the easier your job will be.
Onto the finish line of this success story.
Bryan Long – all aspects of business development at Renaissance One.
