Testimonies:

“Kristen Gill possesses drive, intelligence, creativy, and a total commitment to success. When I worked with her, I found that her high energy and dedication fueled all the projects she worked on.”
Doug Heppner, Area Vice President, TAC Worldwide Companies

“I had the pleasure of working with Kristen at BroadReach Partners. She was one a small group of elite business development managers who you knew could always get it done right. If she was on a program of yours, you knew you had the best. Her ability to quickly master a client's value proposition and pitch it aggressively to prospects was extraordinary. A real go-getter who could speak to C-level execs on their level, ask the right questions, and land business for our clients. I recommend her highly.”
Michael Handel, Program Director, BroadReach Partners

“Kristen is an innovative, action and results-oriented individual who continually seeks higher standards and execution of work in the areas of inside sales, telemarketing and client development.”
Mike Ball hired Kristen in 2005

“Kristen is a thorough and skilled new business developer. Great on the phone with getting appointments. Her ideas are practical and creative.”
Mechele Flaum hired Kristen as a Business Consultant in 2007

Kristen Gill

Kristen Gill
Principal, The Rafters Group
Business Development and Sales expert with over a dozen years of experience. I am able to help companies figure out how to increase the quality of their sales pipeline and improve their messaging to the marketplace. An engagement with The Rafters Group helps companies in their penetration of net new strategic accounts within their market and improves their overall sales effectiveness. Additionally, together my clients and I:
1. Help generate interest with new high-level target executives

2. Bring in qualified opportunities and increase understanding of prospect needs

3. Increase revenue pipeline and market penetration

4. Develop targeting, messaging and market development materials such as introductory letters and emails, drug and company-specific intelligence and organizational mapping (of product teams)

5. Train and improve sales performance at the organizational, as well as at the individual sales contributor, level

Past Posts

Target the Wrong Person First

A lot of what The Rafters Group does is assist companies in their penetration of new markets. In fact, most of our engagements are outsourced business development focused. Today's tip is a practice which helps immensely in door opening.

Target the wrong person first. What does this mean? If you ultimately want to talk to the CIO, target the COO or the CFO first. If you can get the wrong person talking, sometimes you can glean more information so that, when you DO get the right person on the phone, you are better prepared. There are many reasons why this works:

1) When you are targeting a person, a specific person, you are pushing. When you are calling into the wrong person, you are travelling in the world of the unknown. This puts you into a pulling mode. You are asking questions and looking for information, instead of trying to sell your product or services.

2) You are asking for help. When you are calling the wrong person, your approach is generally one of, "I was wondering if you could help me..."

3) You are using this "wrong person" as a champion. You are building a referral relationship from scratch. It's not hard to do and doesn't take long if you are truly asking for help...sincerity makes this approach work.

4)Sometimes the best "wrong person" to go to is the Chairman of the Board or a prominent board member. Imagine a conversation that starts out like this:
John, I was just looking on your Website and reading about XYZ, Inc. I thought I might give you a call to see if you could help me. I work for a company that offers a particular service that I think might be of interest to your company because...(fill in a relevant message here). Any thoughts or ideas about the viability of an idea like this? Any idea who I should start with in the organization?
5) I find that the gatekeeper can even be the "wrong person" you start with as long as you treat him/her like they have a brain in their head. In fact, explaining very simply what your company does and asking if he/she thinks there might be interest somewhere in the organization can get you a meeting with the exact right person.

Good luck and have fun talking to the wrong person today!
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