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Networking Secrets for Sales Calls

An expert on building human connections shares his relationship-building tricks for sales calls.

I recently got the opportunity to interview Keith Ferrazzi, author of New York Times bestseller Never Eat Alone: and Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time.  Keith is also a speaker and thought leader on a variety of topics around human connectedness, such as networking, collaborative thought and collaborative effort.

This is the first in a two-part series.  Today Keith shares his insights on networking.

TS: Talk about why you believe that your vision of networking has been revolutionary out there in the world of sales.

KF: Too many people misunderstand what the subject of networking is about. They think it’s about working a room, trying to find ways to use other individuals for your benefit, and it couldn’t be further from the truth. My approach has two words associated with it that make our philosophy work better and be more approachable. One is authenticity; you need to be yourself.  You can’t fake this stuff.  And No. 2 is generosity.  You’ve always got to ask the question, how can I make other people successful?

TS:  If you were going to coach a sales representative on some foundational approaches that he or she could take, what path would you put them on and what are some of the first steps they should be taking?

KF: I point to a couple of chapters in my first book, Never Eat Alone. One of them is ‘Warming the Cold Call.’ There’s lots of ways to warm a cold call, through greater preparation.  In fact, there’s another chapter called ‘Do your homework’ … Reach out and identify the value that you can [offer] more broadly and lead with that introduction. There are lots of tactics, but at the end of the day, it’s about identifying the level of value and social familiarity you can create in advance of walking into the room.

I’ll go with the most robust tool, which is LinkedIn … I don’t take a phone call without having looked at who I know in common with this individual. It’s about us finding a way to care about them, which will accelerate the intimacy and connectedness on that call. And all that can be found today on social media and online, whereas in the olden day, we’d be hard pressed to find it in whatever resources we had such as library card catalogs.”

Stay tuned for part 2 coming later this week: Accelerate your team’s performance by strengthening collaboration.

Click to download the full interview audio.

Author, speaker and consultant Tom Searcy is the foremost expert in large account sales. With Hunt Big Sales, he's helped clients land more than $5 billion in new sales. Click to get Tom's weekly tips, or to learn more about Hunt Big Sales. @tomsearcy