You will never read anything in my work that feels complicated or difficult to do. My stuff is simple because it has to be because most salespeople are really busy. If it were complicated, nobody would do it. Today’s article is at the top of the list of advice you might describe as “not rocket science.”

Structure your selling and relationship-building around activities you enjoy.

Here is the top benefit of selling this way: If you like it, you’ll look to do it more. These selling moments will be easy to organize. You won’t put them off. You won’t agonize about them. You’ll just look forward to connecting with your customers and prospects around things you enjoy.

Conversely, if you hate it, you will avoid it.

Do you enjoy visiting with customers in person? Go to them.

Golf is a common activity that salespeople engage in.

But some of my clients take their customers fishing. And some of them are fishing all the time. Nice way to go to work, right?

Do you like baseball games? Take a customer or two regularly during the season. You’ll even be able to call it a work expense!

For shorter time commitments, think about what you like to drink: Coffee? Beer? Do that with your customers. You’ll have fun, and your relationships with customers and prospects will be impacted by that.

I love to have a drink with my friends, so I look to set up similar interactions with clients and prospects. It’s not an accident then that nearly all of my clients are also my friends (a pretty good way to work, right?).

Conversely, I do not enjoy long drawn-out dinners, so I look to avoid those in business environments, or I try to convert them into shorter cocktail hours.

I like bourbon, so I organize an annual client trip where we go to a distillery, taste many different barrels of bourbon, pick our favorite one, and split the bottles that come out of it.

Life is short. Build your work around things you really like to do. Odds are your customers and prospects will enjoy them too.

You’ll cement your relationship.

And you’ll grow your sales while doing some of your favorite things.

/End Rocket Science

Looking for a keynote speaker for your upcoming sales event? I do about 50 speaking events per year — as short as 45 minutes — that bring energy, enthusiasm, and proactivity to your customer-facing teams. To discuss this, please call me directly at 847-459-6322 or simply reply to this message.