Your sales development training may have been all about technique and presentation skills, but you need to develop your connection skills too. Ideally you want to become the go to person for your clients and your clients associates. The reason they will go to you is because youre the guy (using the word guy in a neutral sense here) who knows a guy you knows a guy that can get them what they want. When youre connected your value and your sales prowess will grow exponentially.

You need to know a lot of people and more importantly a lot of people need to know you. It doesnt matter if youre involved with inside sales or outside sales, you need to become the connecting link between parties. Now this doesnt happen strictly from or by knowing a lot of people. It happens from knowing a lot about a lot of people, and more specifically knowing what the people you know can do and what the people you know need.

When you can help your clients and prospects increase their sales, guess whose sales will also increase? Its a simple case of the Law of Reciprocity combined with the added value you personally bring to the relationship. When you do something good for someone else, and your competitor comes in and wants to undercut your price do you really think your client is only going to think price? No, because without you they lose access to a network thats very important, and profitable to and for them.

Your network of connections has to extend beyond your clients. If you want to help your clients increase their sales you have to know the kind of people who would be their clients or know someone who can connect your client with those people. It never hurts to use a little imagination and creativity to open your clients eyes to new avenues for revenue they never even realized existed. Its even better when you open a door to go along with your creative idea so all your client has to do is take the order.

If you had to go out into the world of sales, and you could only have one tool in your tool kit the tool you want is superior listening skills. Listening skills are probably the most important thing you can learn in your sales development training. When youre talking you arent listening, and when you arent listening youll never know what you need to know to make sales or connections that lead to bigger sales with more people down the line. Helping your clients through your connections, and the ones youre working to develop is one of the quickest ways to grow a giant client base of loyal customers who will refer you to places you never could have gotten on your own.