0 4 min 4 yrs

Shawn Collins: Thank you to Todd Crawford from oneNetworkDirect. He’s the Vice President of Sales and Business Development. And just last night, he won the Legend Award for Affiliate Marketing, the Wayne Porter Affiliate Marketing Legend Award, and congratulations on that, Todd.

In this article I’m going to share five steps that you can use to further your Mr. Nashed efforts and that ultimately equates to new sales and revenues. These steps are the basis for the foundation and will help if you implement them properly.

Managing a sales force by sales quota is just as retarded as managing an army by a “kill quota” or managing hairdressers by the total length of hair they cut. For an army to kill enemy soldiers to fulfil its quota there must be an enemy, and someone, usually a politician, has to actually declare war. It’s similar in business. The sales force can only fulfil its quota if the upper management of the company made the right choice with the services and the target market.

Just look to nature to better understand that there is an innate rhythm that allows times of growth to be offset with times of rest. When we fight this, we are fighting the flow of nature. The slow times allow for regeneration and reenergizing. It doesn’t mean we don’t do anything; we just alter our course a little bit and take the time to reconnect and refocus.

As you create a product or a service, think about what other products or services could be offered to complement and augment it. What else do your clients or customers need? What other services can you give them to create additional streams of income for your business? For example, a chiropractic office may offer therapeutic massages, yoga classes or nutritional supplements. These services and products aren’t chiropractic services but they are related to health and something that chiropractic patients might be interested in.

Todd: Well because we only work with our own clients, our big focus is really on the affiliate side of the business. In my previous job I went out and sold to merchants. I don’t have to do that anymore. It’s really about affiliate development. That’s what our whole, really, team does.

You’re in the creative business, so get busy, think outside the box, and attract clients to you that you’d like to work with. Use your website, physical mailings, networking, email, referrals, the phone, and even channels like press releases, article marketing, text ads, blogging, forums and social media.

When you engage a strategic business development approach to networking you look at the interests and needs of partners and do your level best to get the kit, or services they need. Listen to what people want, go find it and then supply at a profit. Keep it simple stupid would be a fairly good appreciation of what that is about. In a short time a business can be up, running and the train will be on the way. This is the start of a plan and I hope to enlighten further as time goes on.