I have long been an evangelist of The Cluetrain Manifesto, which at its core has the premise that markets are conversations, but it was until a few months ago for it to really hit me that success in sales is really tied to the same premise–good conversations.

So often, we in sales, are tied into a manufacturing mind set fostered by language like pipeline, production, and conversion. Don’t underestimate the power of focusing on these concepts. However, today I want you to step back from the metrics, efficiency, maximizing units, and analyzing funnel ratios. Let’s think about the bigger picture.

People would much rather buy things from people they know, even better people they are friends with. Those kinds of relationships start with conversations, and are matured into friendships with conversations.

Naturally, it follows that the more conversations we have the richer a lot of things will be in our lives, not the least of which is our sales pipeline.

Give it a try. Forget your numbers, call quotas, and conversion rates.

Do this daily, for one week:

1. Call 4 random people out of your address book
2. Email 4 random people out of your address book
   
3. Sign-up for Twitter
4. Follow 10 people you wish you knew (suggestions: @davewiner, @chrisbrogan, @scobleizer, @morganb, @pchaney )
   
5. Twit a response, idea, or question at least 4 times/day
6. Comment on 4 blogs

Tell me what happens…