Face-Time or Phone-Time To Fill Your Sales Pipeline?

by Howard Shore, Date: Mar 22, 2011

Two major mistakes people are making with networking:

1. Too much time is allocated to networking. No more than 10% of a salesperson’s time should be spent on networking. If you are in professional services and have to deliver, it should be no more than 5%, in order to allow enough time to get on the phone to properly fill the pipeline and to attend meetings with prospects.
2. Too much networking in the wrong places. Do not go to a networking event unless the majority of the people there are the people that you would normally sell your product or service to. Do not go to events consisting of a bunch of salespeople from other companies. An exception is a networking group like Business Networking International (“BNI”), providing that you regularly get referrals from the other people you are meeting with. These relationship-based groups can be valuable if you are surrounded by the right people.

In a newsletter article I posted , I demonstrate the importance of Face-Time vs. Phone-Time . Check it out.

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