Sales folks are thought of (and often think of themselves) as lone wolves. They have a reputation for “leave me alone and just let me produce” types of attitudes.
And most sales people are just that way – except for the great ones.
The great ones know how to draft on influentials.
Wikipedia defines Drafting as ‘a technique where two vehicles or objects align in a close group reducing the overall effect of drag due to exploiting the lead object’s slipstream…’
Now think about your organization in its entirety. Not just the sales department but marketing, legal, product, finance, etc.
How can the folks in these departments help your sales cause?
Do they have connections at accounts where you need to get better traction?
What if you had better alignment with those departments and its employees?
Drawing from the definition above you are the drag. You cannot get traction at the account.
They are the lead object and provide the slipstream. They have deep relationships at the account you may not know anything about.
They are the influentials.
You need to be drafting on them.
{ 2 trackbacks }