Why Focus is the Key to Connecting with Prospects in 2018

People ask me all the time which medium is the best one to connect with prospects these days.

People ask me all the time which medium is the best one to connect with prospects these days. Is it phone, e-mail, Inmail, text, social? Historically, one of these has always been somewhat of the killer app. Before technology, it used to be door-to-door sales, then the phone, then e-mail, then LinkedIn, but now with social media and all the different options, there isn’t one best way to connect anymore.

That’s why Focus is the key to what we need to do and where we need to be in order to connect with our customers. Focus has always been a key to success, but I don’t mean focus in the literal sense, I mean Focus in the cinematic sense as in the 2015 movie with Will Smith.

If you haven’t seen it, Will Smith plays a less than moral con man named Nicky who makes his money scamming people out of theirs. After his team collects about a million dollars he ends up in a luxury box at the Super Bowl with his girlfriend watching the big game with some high rollers. He starts betting on the game with a guy sitting next to him and ends up losing the million dollars, much to his girlfriends’ and his dismay. On the way out, Nicky turns to the guy for one more bet – double or nothing. The bet is that Nicky will guess whatever number the guy chooses on the field. To make it even more interesting Nicky says his girlfriend will guess the number.

The guy chooses a number on the field and then gives the binoculars to Nicky’s girlfriend. Without knowing what is going on she nervously looks down on the field to try and pick the number. She ends up seeing their friend who they had been hanging out with all week standing on the field next to the coach with the number 55 across his chest. With a confused look on her face and reassurance from Nicky she says “55?” The guy freaks out that she guessed his number and they double up the money and leave.

What we later find out was the high roller was a ‘mark’ from the beginning. Nicky knew this guy loved to gamble on random things and was a billionaire, so a million dollars meant nothing to him. Nicky had it set up so that as soon as the guy landed in New Orleans he saw 55 almost everywhere he went. The license plate on the car that picked him up was 55, the hotel room he stayed in was 55, the fixtures on the chandeliers in the room were shaped like 5s. Nicky even had it set up so when the guy’s limo pulled up to a red light, Nicky’s friend (the one who was ultimately wearing 55 on the field) pull up next to him and screamed out his window at someone to cause a scene so the guy would look at him.

By the time this guy got to the game and started looking around on the field for a number to choose, when he saw 55 he thought it was his lucky number. Unfortunately, for him it wasn’t, but it was a number Nicky knew his girlfriend would choose.

So what does this have to do with what medium is the best one to use to connect with people these days? It isn’t any one specific one, it’s all of them.

We need to do everything we can to identify our target accounts and then be everywhere they are, while making sure we’re always adding value. This is why I follow all my top tier accounts and executives on Twitter and retweet them every once I a while. I ‘like’ their company Facebook pages and comment on a few posts I see. I join some of the Linkedin Groups they belong to and answer questions without actively selling myself or my service. I send e-mails, make phone calls, leave voicemails, and send Inmails, so everywhere you look you see 55. 55 just happens to be me.

Identify your target accounts, find out where they “live” (socially) and how they like to communicate, and then surround them with value so when they are ready to make a decision you’re on the top of their list of people to reach out to.

Make It Happen!

2018 Executive Priorities JBarrows

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