BE Proactive: Create the Sales You Want

This is the third installment in our series on Being Proactive. If you missed the previous two, I encourage you to go back and read them — they set the foundation for everything we’ll talk about today.

If you are a salesperson in a showroom (retail or trade), or if you manage one, it’s likely that you rely heavily on incoming opportunities — traffic — for new business. That’s understandable.

It’s also understandable that you may consider your greatest competitors to be other showrooms offering similar products and services. If the customer doesn’t buy from you, they’ll buy from one of them. Also understandable.

But because those perspectives are understandable, they tend to keep us focused on who is coming in rather than who we could be reaching out to. It’s a comfortable and reliable perspective to maintain.

However — and this is the key — the greatest opportunity is in taking initiative and creating, not waiting. That happens through outreach.

Your strongest competition right now may not be another showroom at all. It may be the internet. It may be someone else who is reaching out to your prospects before you do. For today’s conversation, let’s assume that’s true.

So ask yourself:

Who do you need to reach out to?
Who are the past clients you haven’t spoken with in a while?
What open quotes are sitting there because you “don’t want to pester” them?
What new products might be relevant and worth sharing?

Each of these is a valid, value-adding reason to reach out — for you and for them.

And as you evaluate your approach, please consider the best vehicles for different types of outreach. I’ll admit this myself: I rely on email far too much, even when I know that a text to set up a call — or simply calling — produces far greater results.
Do you know this too… yet still give in to the false sense of productivity that email provides, even when it doesn’t produce the outcomes you want?

Let’s shift this. Together.

Action Items for This Week

• Make a list of 10 people you need to reach out to — past clients, open quotes, prospects, designers, builders, partners.
• Choose the right communication method for each person (call, text, video message, email).
• Prepare your outreach: one clear purpose, one clear benefit, one clear next step.
• Schedule 20–30 minutes a day for outreach for the rest of the month — non-negotiable.
• Track your results to see what outreach method actually produces traction.

There is so much to gain when we take on outreach with intentionality.
Let’s prepare.
Let’s execute.
Let’s measure.
Let’s learn.

Let’s go!
oxo
Jody