Meeting new coworkers

The Value of Stewardship Calls

I learned a great lesson many years ago from a wise salesman, John Curran, from the rocky coast of Maine. He taught me the power of sales planning with our clients. At Acquirent, we have very regular and frequent contact with our clients to focus in on the day to day and week to week sales efforts of our sales teams. We provide frequent reports depending on the type of sales that measure the number of calls per day, numbers of opportunities created, demonstrations set, demonstrations held, proposals sent, closes, etc. We leverage great CRM tools to provide our clients meaningful data. This data creates a foundation for some of the most satisfying client calls I make during the course of the year, I call these stewardship calls.

As we look into 2016 and begin to make plans with our current clients on how we can continue to be of value to them and help them grow their revenues we have made it a habit to call our clients during the fourth quarter and ask to see them to discuss how we have performed for them in 2015 and how we can continue to be better as a sales resource for them in the coming year.  When I typically meet with clients for a stewardship call, I do not come with a huge agenda, the most important thing is to listen to what their sales challenges and opportunities are. I feel very liberated walking into our clients’ offices without an agenda, without a problem to solve and just asking for feedback, “how did we do for you this year?”

I have found that this exercise usually creates conversation and uncovers opportunity for Acquirent to be a growing part of their sales machine. As you look at your business and how to grow it in 2016 I hope you consider the value of face to face meetings with your clients simply to say “how are we doing?” …be careful, you may get the truth!

Make it a great day!

Joseph P. Flanagan[/fusion_text][/fullwidth]