6 places to meet people who might be prospects
You are getting to know people who are potential clients outside your traditional prospect pool.
Do you fall into patterns? When you have a client who sends you business, do you talk with them over and over because it rings the cash register? Of course you do. But you may be missing opportunities to meet similar people with the potential to become good clients.
6 places for meeting people who are prospect material
There are opportunities all around you, but you need to be aware of them. Lets assume you are an insurance professional with businesses and individuals as clients. In addition to handling benefits and insurance products, you can also address wealth management or point them in the right direction.
1. Meet your individual client at their office. It’s easy to assume personal attention is dead. You call your wireless provider or the power company and hear: “The wait time is 60 minutes. Press 1 to get a call back when it’s your turn.”
Visit your good client at their office to review their policies. Do it in the middle of the day. Getting a “house call” is so impressive, they will probably introduce you to their coworkers who are in the same wealth and income category.
2. Who sits near your best client? I learned this from a divisional director at a mutual fund. When conducting a review, he would ask a wholesaler to draw a floor plan of the wirehouse office where they got the most business. He would ask where those best clients were seated. Then he would point to adjacent offices and ask: “Who sits here? There?”
If you have a great client who likes you and your products, it makes sense they would introduce you to the people sitting near them.
3. Join your best client’s professional association. This might sound ridiculous! You aren’t a doctor or an architect. Why would they let you in? The answer is simple: Many professional associations have a membership category (associate) for people not directly employed in the field, yet providing a product or service used by members of the field. Visit the website for the local chapter.
View the membership list. You will likely see bankers, accountants, lawyers and other professionals under the associate member category. You have an enthusiastic fan on the inside.
4. Become a chamber ambassador. Many new businesses join the Chamber of Commerce immediately, but other require some persuading. The Chamber probably has a team of volunteers who call on new businesses, making the case for joining the Chamber.
You can get into a position to have a legitimate reason to stand in front of the owner of a new local business. What’s not to like?
5. Get involved with your college alumni association. The moment you graduated, you became a prospect for your school’s development department. They want you to be a regular donor. One way to keep people connected to the college is through local alumni clubs. They draw across a wide age range. You have recent graduates. You know why they need insurance. You have business owners and executives.
The school is the common bond you share. Alumni activities are a way to get to know them better.
6. Find a bar. Who is your target market? Professionals like lawyers? Find a bar in a building housing a very large law firm. Civil servants like the police? You’ve heard about “cop bars” on TV. Become a regular. Come at the same time every day after work. Sit at the bar. Watch the game. Let them draw you into conversation. All conversations get to “What do you do?” At that moment, you are a fellow sports fan. They will get comfortable with you.
People are more likely to accept you professionally if they get to know you socially first.
In each example, you are getting to know people who are potential clients outside your traditional prospect pool. It takes time and effort. You need to keep the pipeline filled somehow.
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