Social selling is now an important thing. But how do you get connected with clients who are not online? There are actually some ways for you to do that effectively. Today, we have Melinda Chen who is sharing with us great actionable insights into how small businesses can stand out, gain big clients, and specifically get connected with clients who are not necessarily online.

Melinda Chen is the founder of Women Making Big Sales where she helps entrepreneurs sell to big clients by streamlining the process and showing them how to create relationships step-by-step. This episode is packed with really interesting, valuable stuff you don’t want to miss out on.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Melinda:

Small clients versus big clients:

Problems with getting small clients:

• Very expensive
• Lots of preparation and work involved
• You’re in a constant change of finding clients

Benefits of getting just 1 or 2 big clients:

• Can be sufficient to reach your sales goal
• Usually a repeatable business
• Once you’re in, you’re part of the club – harder to get in but harder to lose them

How to go after big clients:

1. Be extremely focused as to a specific industry you want to target.

It takes time to build relationship with a specific industry. Go to your LinkedIn page and do an Events search. Check the industry you want to specify (preferably just 1 or 2). Once you already have people with seven degrees of connections then you’re off to a great start.

2. Create the relationship map.

This will help you identify how you’re going to get to your big clients. Identify three important things about selling to big clients.

• Nomads – people in the industry that float and move around a lot (great for getting insider information)
• Super connectors or influencers – people who want to build relationships and trust and are willing to give you some introductions into the key accounts
• The Hub – where your target clients will be

3. The 2-5 Formula: Get the introduction to your big clients.

This is how you’re going to craft the communication you’re going to use with big clients. People think it’s important to sell only once. Instead, break down the process into a 2-5 formula. 2  means focus on building relationships to have at least 2 introductions to 1 target client. Don’t just approach one decision maker but two decision makers at the same time.

4. Be flexible.

Be open-minded and listen to what your client is telling you. There may be people you can’t identify at the beginning of the preparation but turn out to be huge champions for your company. Always listen to what the market or what the client is telling you and be ready to shift your strategy around a little bit.

More tips from Melinda:

• Pick the industry you already have a lot of connections with.
• Once you’ve mapped relationships, start calling people that you already know instead of having to build relationships from scratch.

Melinda’s Major Takeaway:

Preparation is very important. Try to be competitive and always do more than what your competitors are doing. Always try to stand out by showing your clients why you’re better than others by contacting more people, talking to more decision makers within the company, and showing them you’ve done proper research. Focus on your actions and demonstrate your value.

Episode Resources:

Get connected with Melinda Chan on Facebook Women Making Big Sales and www.WomenMakingBigSales.com.

Melinda’s 5-week Heart of Sales Program

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