Many of us learned the hard lessons about selling door to door. Beauty aids, Girl Scout cookies, garden seeds, household products, magazines, you name it.

It was a hard sell if the prospect had no idea who you were. If you were a kid selling newspaper subscriptions you had a bit of an edge.

People often took pity on kids and even reluctantly bought something. That’s no way to develop long-term clients with lifetime value.

Many of us used to keep a Roladex of business cards and contact information. We’ve since transferred all that contact data to our hard drives.

We suggest to anyone getting started i sales that they spend a few hours writing a friends-and-family list. These are people who know you and probably trust you.

Many of us have A lists and B lists.

On the A list are the names, phone numbers and email addresses of people who know us and are likely to need or want what we have to offer. These are friends from church, the chamber of commerce, civic clubs and community activities.

On the B list are people who may not need what we offer but who know people who do. They can refer us.

We share such field-tested ideas in “Million Dollar Strategies of Maverick Entrepreneurs.” For your copy, email JerryBellune@yahoo.com.

Next: The easy way to build sales.

Copyright 2021, The Bellune Co., Inc