GABB Meetings

The Corona Close: How to Prospect Effectively Today

The Corona Close: How to Prospect Effectively in Today’s New Market

Sales coach Dan Jourdan says now is a great time to be reaching out to prospective customers. Why? “Everybody is waiting for something to happen,” Jourdan of “Sales Arbiter” told attendees at the Sept. 15 virtual meeting of the Georgia Association of Business Brokers.

View a recording of the meeting at this link.

While getting referrals is always a great way to get new clients, Jourdan — or “The Deej” as he is known — said cold-calling prospects is also a good strategy. He encouraged entrepreneurs to prospect by using publicly available information about business owners, such as Reference USA, a business database available through public libraries.

Another tip, avoid contacting prospects with messages laden with words such as “I, we, us.” “Those three words literally repel your prospects,” he said. Instead, try “you, yours, y’all.”

The seven magic words for breaking the ice? “I wonder if you could help me?” Most people will respond to people seeking help. Another good ice-breaker: “I wonder if you could give me some advice?” Queries that criticize a potential clients business or web page are huge turn-offs.

One recent solicitation from a potential client included a video clip, which instantly puts a potential partner into the client’s office. “It’s like you met them without meeting them,” he said.

Videos and cold calling are great ways to prospect.

“If you make enough noise, you’ll get more referrals,” Jourdan said.

Jourdan is a salesman who has successfully started from scratch, built up, and sold five out of six of his own businesses. But he is not a businessman, he is a salesman. The one business that failed was when he tried to be a real human, instead of a salesman. With his current firm, “Sales Arbiter, ” Dan and his partner Crispin Cruz work with small businesses in town that want to have self-functioning, highly profitable sales organizations within their company in which the owner is not involved. This way business brokers can sell the companies for more money! His business philosophy is a cross between Confucius and Robin Williams.  Dan lives in Georgia with his wife Sharon and two children Matthew and Sophie.

The Georgia Association of Business Brokers, or GABB, is the state’s premier organization devoted to buying and selling businesses and franchises, and operates the state’s only real estate school dedicated to business brokering. For more information about GABB, please email diane.loupe@gabb.org, call or text 404-374-3990, or contact GABB president Dean Burnette at dean@b3brokers.com or (912) 247-3209.

Generating a Referral-Based Clientele through LinkedIn

The key to the success of many top-selling business brokers is developing clients through referrals.

Belinda Landers Jackson

Belinda Landers Jackson, a Professional Sales & Leadership Coach with Southwestern Consulting, spoke to the Georgia Association of Business Brokers on Sept. 1 about how to use LinkedIn to create what she called warm referrals.

View a recording of her presentation here.

Jackson said effectively using LinkedIn can help professionals connect to the people they need to meet to create business, and help each other close business deals faster.

“We’ve got to make it easy for people to refer us business,” Jackson said. She demonstrated how to create a list of job titles that one might target for networking, and how to pull a list of names from referral partners.

She suggested professionals pre-approach strategy in which you ask a prospective referral partner for a story on how they met, something they respect about the referral, some unique interest or funny story. “We call them golden nuggets,” or a warm way of creating an initial interaction. This warm introduction is much more effective than a going-for-the-jugular sales pitch because it puts people at ease.

GABB Board member Mike Ramatowski says developing clients through referrals can take a long time, but pays off.  You should not ignore potential clients when you’re not doing business with them. “I recently closed a deal with someone that I had been working with for two years,” he said. Join GABB and find out how you can improve your referrals game.

Belinda sold and managed more than $1 Million in marketing budgets per year for multiple small- and medium-sized businesses. She also has extensive experience working with law firms, commercial and industrial products, home and home improvement businesses, and medical offices to increase awareness and market their business.

Southwestern Consulting is the professional sales training division of the oldest direct sales company in the US, The Southwestern Company.

The GABB is the state’s premier organization devoted to buying and selling businesses and franchises, and operates the state’s only real estate school dedicated to business brokering. For more information about GABB, please email diane.loupe@gabb.org, call or text 404-374-3990, or contact GABB president Dean Burnette at dean@b3brokers.com or (912) 247-3209.

GABB Urges Support of Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act

The Georgia Association of Business Brokers is supporting the proposed Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act, which would greatly streamline the process for small business owners seeking forgiveness for the monies from the Payroll Protection Program (PPP).

The GABB urges its members and other business owners to sign a petition urging Congress to support this new act.  If enacted, small business owners who received $150,000 or less in Payroll Protection Program (PPP) monies would need only to submit a one-page attestation form in order to receive forgiveness for the PPP monies. This attestation form would state that the business spent the PPP monies in accordance with the CARES Act and that it has followed the requirements for forgiveness of that loan. Further, it would prohibit any enforcement or other action against a lender relating to loan origination, forgiveness, or guarantee based on the lender’s reliance on certifications or documentation submitted by a loan applicant or recipient.

James Parker, chairman of Business Brokers of Florida, is spearheading an online petition to help persuade Congress to pass the act.

“We further propose that the PPP monies be forgiven immediately upon receipt of this one-page attestation form, thereby eliminating potentially problematic delays for small business transfers/acquisitions,” according to the petition. “Automatic forgiveness would greatly reduce paperwork and assist the smallest of the small businesses by providing much needed economic certainty during these trying pandemic and economic times.”

“Eliminating the uncertainty of delayed forgiveness is critical for small business owners who need to sell their businesses due to economic hardships, retirement, health, death and other issues.

“The U.S. economy is dependent to a great extent on our small business community,” according to Parker’s petition. “The welfare of small businesses affects every one of us directly or indirectly since small business makes up 50% of our GDP. It is vital that we support our local small business owners as well as the American economy as a whole.”

To sign the petition, please see this link.

Please see this link to contact your congressman and Georgia senators to urge their support of the Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act.