Sales is not getting any easier. Buyers have become even better at screening out salespeople.
When the Internet arrived, buyers’ need to speak to a salesperson to get basic information was eliminated. Buyers could go online and get all the information they needed.
About a decade ago, certain subject matter experts came up with a solution to this problem. The solution was do more. If buyers were not inviting salespeople in, the best response was to ask to be invited in more often. Many salespeople becoming mass email marketers.
Buyers adapted to this onslaught of email with improved “defenses”. Email metrics have dropped dramatically over the last ten years. The most important metric, actual responses and people wanting to talk to you, is now super low for most cold emails.
Today we are in the age of generative AI. This new technology allows us to create content at a huge scale. Some people see this as a new way for salespeople to generate even more outbound email (and social media messages). I predict buyers will react with their own AI defenses to this fresh tsunami of unwanted outreach. What should you do then if you want to sell your stuff in the age of AI?
My answer is become more human. Work on building actual human relationships. People still read emails and messages from people they know. (Research shows it’s not the subject line we read first in an email, it’s the name of who the email is from.)
Who are your 250?
Professor Robin Dunbar showed that humans can maintain about 100-250 relationships (150 is a commonly used average.) My estimate is that with modern tools and social networks we can be on the high end of this number, if we are organized and disciplined.
Maintaining 250 relationships takes work, so if you’re going to do it, you should think about who those people are going to be. How do these people help your life and your goals?
Some of the people in your 250 are going to be family members and friends. You can get by without overthinking your plan for relating to these kinds of people. Having fun is part of being alive so definitely have a good helping of these people in your 250 but that’s still going to leave you with plenty of space for a lot of business-related people in your inner circle.
Have a plan
There’s no need to leave building inner circle to chance. Most businesses have sales and marketing plans. What if we developed a similar plan for forming the new relationships we need to succeed?
Just modifying our thinking to this approach makes coming up with a plan relatively simple for most sales and marketing professionals and business owners. Think of the techniques we use to generate leads and apply those to finding and starting to form new relationships.
Don’t just think of your ideal customers but also of your ideal referral partners. These could be “partners” in the traditional business sense, or they could be people that are well-connected to your ideal customers—maybe with no formal business ties to those companies. Think of people that can help you in the long run vs. just help you land a particular account today.
Summary
- It’s getting harder and harder to get through the door
- Sending more mass emails is not working
- What people care about is if they know you (and trust you).
- Develop a plan to start forming the relationships you need to help your business succeed in this new environment.