Leveraging Relationships To Build Sales Pipeline | Drew Sechrist - 1667

If you’re still trying to build pipeline by loading up your “spam cannon,” you’re living in the past. In today’s episode, your host Donald Kelly opens up a conversation with Drew Sechrist, the CEO and co-founder of Connect the Dots (a FREE program that helps you leverage your connections – see the Resources below for a tip to skip the waiting list). Sechrist shares the history of how he got his start as a seller at Salesforce, becoming a top seller, and learning the skills that helped him revolutionize his strategy.  How Relationships Helped a Young Rep Become the Top Seller When Sechrist first started selling, he didn’t have a network to tap into. As he started selling to bigger more complex companies, having connections helped him get his foot in the door. The amount of people selling creates a lot of noise in the market, leaving buyers unsure of who to trust. Personal relationships built Salesforce from the beginning. At the time, there was no way to see how to leverage relationships with the click of a button, but now there are options like Connect the Dots, which shows reps who the buyers are and how to connect with them through the network they have. Taking Sales Beyond LinkedIn 50-90% of your LinkedIn contacts are people you may not know well, so even if you want to make connections this way, you’re going to face the same lack of trust you’re trying to avoid. CTD offers assistance in tracking relationship strength: whether you have a weak, familiar, or strong relationship with your contact. CTD also shows you a consolidated record of each of your contacts so you can evaluate them at a glance. The Problem With Cold E-mails Cold e-mailing is out for 2023 – it could even hurt your brand. Buyers are inundated with cold e-mails that target and pitch but don’t offer value. Your open rate might be high, but your response rate might not! “Just think about it: somebody comes up to you on the street that you don’t know and they’re proposing something to you, it’s like ‘Whoa, whoa, I don’t know you. I’ve