5 unexpected places to find business
Tactful ways to look for business outside of your usual channels.
You are not the insurance agent with the emu as a partner. In the TV ads, the guy is always inserting himself into situations to talk with people about insurance. This can be quite annoying. There’s an old adage: “People love buying but hate being sold.” This ties into another sales maxim: “People like to buy from someone they like.” Let’s see how this can come together in unexpected ways.
5 opportunities to find business
Taking the pandemic lockdown out of the equation for the moment, there are many situations where you meet people who have the potential to become clients.
1. One of my favorites is the gym or health club. You go on a regular basis, usually at the same time of day. Although the crowd might be large and varied, you’ve discovered there is a core group of people who are regulars. I think of the gym as the perfect example of “the long game.” You can learn a lot about people if you gather a little bit of information at a time over weeks and months. It helps to wear something with a logo, so people associate you with your profession. You can draw them out about their family, home and place of business. They might ask questions that are on the fringe, but not quite business related.
Answer their question in simple terms and offer yourself as a resource if they need more information.
2. Another logical strategy involves commuting. You take the bus or train into work from the suburbs. You are a creature of habit, finding yourself exchanging greetings with familiar faces. You might sit together on the bus. What do you talk about? Probably family, where you live and events in your life like vacations. Birthdays come and go. You need to buy presents. You talk about where you are planning on going on vacation. As you head home, you might be in the middle of a really good conversation. Stopping for a drink or coffee before driving home is a reasonable thing to do. You get to know each other better.
Instead of bringing up business, which could sound contrived, you might volunteer a problem you had and how you solved it. They might volunteer they have the same need and ask your professional advice.
3. Your college alumni. You attended school and earned your degree. Once you stopped paying the school tuition and got a paying job, the school immediately started the process of converting you from a student into a donor. They assigned an entire department on this case! They operate a string of alumni chapters in major cities that give their fundraising efforts local outreach. You keep in touch with some school chums. They go to alumni activities to see other school chums. Long ago, your school realized people can leave more to the school through estate planning than they can get through annual contributions. Talk to the development office. Find out what they are doing in planned giving.
How does what you do fit into their list of options. Can you talk about it at local alumni club meetings?
4. You serve on the board of a local charity. They are very touchy about promoting business or feathering your own nest. However, you realize board members seem to do business with each other on a personal level. You’ve seen a few examples. You have been pulling your weight and doing more than what’s expected of you. They consider you an asset to the organization. Approach your patron, the person who got you onto the board. In private, mention you know they are the customer of another board member because they make no secret about it. Their car has the dealership name of the other board member’s car dealership on the back bumper.
Mention you would like to raise your visibility among fellow board members. How do you do that? They might know who has some personal insurance needs and bring you together on a personal basis.
5. You have favorite restaurants. You are a regular. You hold client briefings and dinner seminars for prospects. Monday night is usually the quietest night of the week for restaurants. Hold your next couple of events at their place. You are already an individual customer, now you are becoming a customer in your business while wearing your business hat. You are bringing them revenue on an otherwise quiet night. They will want to continue this stream of income.
They will likely figure out their chances are better if they become a client of yours, since you are one of their clients.
In each situation you have been tactful. You are also looking for business outside your traditional channels.
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