Do you have enough fishing lines in the water? Are you getting enough nibbles on your line?
Before you close out this page because you’ve come to the wrong place, this is still thepitchqueen.com. And, we still talk about sales and learning how to sell without all of the sleazy sales techniques you may have experienced when making purchases.
However, I do think the fishing analogy I mentioned above, fits perfectly when it comes to sales.
There are three components to fishing that make it easy to catch a fish, and those are patience, knowledge and working smart. Those exact same three components can easily be applied to your marketing and sales practices.
You need patience when you’re putting your feelers out for new leads and clients. You need to know how to sell (by building relationships), in order truly make a difference in your business and in someone else’s life. And, you need to work smart. You can’t waste time on less than ideal clients or clients who can’t afford you.
For just over a year, Success Unfiltered did not have any sponsors. That was an intentional choice. For one, I didn’t want to bring on just any sponsor. I want to only share services and products that I truly value and love. And, for two, I wanted to show potential sponsors what Success Unfiltered had to offer them (for example, how many people would be hearing/seeing my promos on the podcast and in my social media posts).
In the late Summer of 2018, I decided the time was right to start contacting companies that I felt would be a great fit for Success Unfiltered & my listeners.
I thought about all of the brands or products and services that I authentically and personally love. I sent them messages on LinkedIn, videos on Instagram, and of course, a very personalized email.
I completed this exact same process for well over 50 different businesses.
I threw my figurative fishing line out into the pool of sponsorship opportunities and was excited to see who would be the first to bite.
One of the very first fish to catch my line was Logitech who has the most amazing small cameras and headphones. s. We connected right away via email and phone and had what I like to call an old school conversation. We got on a call and discussed the types of promotions they were looking for and how I could best serve & support them. And, it worked out!
Logitech became a sponsor of Success Unfiltered in October of 2018, and we thoroughly enjoyed having them!
You Can’t Find Prospects If You Don’t Have Your Line in the Water
Dr. Robert Yonover, a guest on Success Unfiltered, is a big proponent of old school conversations, which is actually a large part of what made his business so successful. The old school conversations when we talk on the phone with people.
When Dr. Robert was first starting out with his See Rescue Streamer, he knew it was just right for the military, but he didn’t immediately know how to get in front of them. He never let that keep him from reaching out to people who could possibly connect him.
The first thing that Dr. Robert did was mass fax letters explaining how his Rescue Streamer would help save the lives of the military troops. He was fishing. Dr. Robert knew that if he put one hundred fishing lines into the water, he’d at least get one nibble. Once you have that one nibble, you can build off of that.
One of the individuals that Dr. Robert’s fishing technique worked on was the senator in Hawaii. Dr. Robert asked if the senator would pitch the military on his behalf, and he did. He sent a letter about the streamer and how it could help, which held a lot more weight than the letter just coming from Robert himself.
Dr. Robert managed to get his device in front of the Coast Guard who took one look at the See Rescue Streamer and saw the potential it had.
Once you have one person interested in what you’re selling others begin thinking that maybe it isn’t such a strange device after all.
More people started to take notice, so Dr. Robert got these individuals on the phone (remember he prefers those old school sales conversations) and was able to get military approval for his product.
Dr. Robert’s success didn’t just take off from there, he experienced several more setbacks along the way.
Licensee Problems
The most devastating NO that Dr. Robert experienced was from the very first licensee he agreed to work with. He was all set to get started when the licensee imploded due to other areas of their business.
It was a huge NO because he had just gotten the military approval for the product and had just gotten linked up with this company in NY, all of a sudden his whole dream had collapsed.
While this was devastating for Dr. Robert, he just took his product back and decided he’d find another licensee to work with. When he did, that relationship lasted 15 years. Eventually, even that ran its course and Dr. Robert just took it back and is running it himself.
While Dr. Robert was running it himself, he ended up getting onto Shark Tank, where he received NO’s from all 5 of the Sharks. He admits to being angry, but he took it in stride because he’d heard so many NO’s before.
The important thing for you to notice here is that Dr. Robert was once again fishing. He kept throwing his fishing line into the sea of licensees over and over again.
Just because one company would tell him NO, didn’t mean he gave up. He kept throwing that line back in and found another licensor. That didn’t work, so he applied and got onto Shark Tank. That didn’t work out, so now he just runs the licensing himself.
Dr. Robert has definitely used the fishing analogy to his advantage!
In Conclusion
I invite you to think about who you can call today. Is there a client or prospect that you haven’t reached out to in a while?
If you’ve just been sending your leads emails or LinkedIn messages, what about finding their phone numbers, and calling them instead?
Don’t just make one phone call, either. Consider reaching out to a bunch of different clients or prospects you haven’t heard from in a while.
Put your fishing line into the water and see how many nibbles you get!
I would love to know when you’ve put multiple fishing lines into the water and how it worked out. Please share in the comments!
