When you are Selling, Leave Something Behind

A few years back I spoke with a sales guy at PC World about buying some advertising. Every month since we’ve received a copy of PC World and every month that we do, I am reminded of that sales guy, PC World and buying their advertising. That’s the power of leaving something behind.

We built FreshBooks to help manage our design, development and internet marketing agency. When we ran that business we used to have to present/sell to new clients, frequently at meetings and I know many FreshBooks businesses do the same. Whenever you have the opportunity to present, be sure to leave your prospects with something tangible that reminds them of the value you add. We used to leave a one page sheet of case study summaries. The summaries included the client name and website URL, the percentage amount we helped them improve their online selling capabilities and how long it took for the project to achieve its ROI – usually measured in months. We also included a short testimonial with a contact name who was willing to endorse our services. The summaries were food for thought, demonstrated our value and surely left the prospect pondering what upside they were missing if they did not work with us.

So if you are meeting people, strategize about what you want to leave behind. If you go to a conference, does your business card communicate your value, or does it just offer your contact information? Think about it.