Boosting sales from ‘bacon and eggs’ to ‘low-hanging fruit’

CHICAGO, ILL.
September 10, 2008 12:01am

Many companies and their sales departments are overlooking some of the easiest sales, according to veteran salesman and sales manager Jim Cross.

Mr. Cross, author of the book, “Bacon & Eggs: How to be Totally Committed to Your Sales Career,” says this low-hanging fruit of sales is referrals.

But he says getting sales people to develop referrals can be difficult.

“They don’t get around to asking for referrals,” says Mr. Cross. “Sometimes, quite frankly, they just don’t think about it.”

(Jim Cross talks about how to develop referrals in today’s CVBT Audio Interview, which runs eight minutes and 36 seconds. Please left-click on the link below to listen or right-click to download the MP3 audio file to your computer or mobile media device.)

“When looking to penetrate an account with a referral campaign, it’s important that you have your ducks in a row,” Mr. Cross says. “You have to have a well thought out plan. This is not something where you say, ‘ready, fire, aim.’”

Referrals are the by-product of excellent customer service, Mr. Cross says. Put another way, referrals are “warm leads” instead of cold calls, he says. “You take cold calling completely out of the equation.”

Mr. Cross’ resume shows more than 15 years’ experience in sales and executive management including five years as the national sales manager for Fortune 500 technology reseller CDW, and most recently the executive management team of JDM Infrastructure in Chicago. He is also founder of The Cross Corp., which focuses on increasing client’s bottom lines through optimal technology solutions as well as the development of all-star sales forces.