Creating a Chain Reaction of Sales Don't just focus on finding any old prospect. Find the ones who will lead you to <I>other</I> sales prospects.

Q:What's the best way to contain our cost of sales withoutcontaining our potential revenue? We're a start-up Internetcompany with limited funds and an unlimited market.

A: Inthe past month, I've received five questions revolving aroundthe same three issues:

1. Compression of sales cycles
2. Containment of pre-sales costs
3. Qualifying good prospects

In my opinion, these problems are rooted in declining attentionspans, brutally increased competition, and ever-increasingdepersonalization in business relationships, arising from misuse oroveruse of today's communications technology. In addition,there are more salespeople today than there are potential buyers.In short, your company, like many others, is suffering from what Icall "New World Economy blues." The good news is, these"blues" are not incurable. This month, we'll discusshow two businesses have responded to the three issues mentionedabove with the help of "marketing mobility"--and how youcan do the same.

Kevin Dyevich, CEO of therapeutic mattress manufacturer Comfort Directin New Brunswick, New Jersey, knows the importance of marketingmobility. He and his partner, John Wilkinson, strive to become theworld's largest manufacturer and distributor of mattresses--andthey're well on their way in spite of the woes of the economyand their competition.

Dyevich's first really big sale was made to a very largehotel chain. His cost of sales for landing this customer was thecost of one of his mattresses--plus shipping--plus a few phonecalls. I'll let him tell the short version of his story:"I sent the CEO and his wife one of our mattresses. Shortlyafterwards, I got a call from one of the CEO's top stafferswith a request for a meeting. The order is so big that our smallmanufacturing facility can't meet the demand. So we'regoing to license them to build our mattress, and they're goingto help us market it!"

This illustrates a key principle of selling with marketingmobility: Wherever possible, multiply your effects, not yourefforts. Each one of your prospects must have the ability to tendermore than one sale. They must be conduits for getting additionalqualified prospects.

In Dyevich's case, his first big sale isn't the biggestsale he'll make from this transaction. Here's why:"When each guest checks out, they'll get a pitch about themattress, my mattress that they slept on. Can you imagine it? Wehit them with the wake-up call and the check-out pitch--and a 25percent discount coupon!"

Here's another example. Heather Steven, CEO and founder offeng shui consulting firm Ch'i Wisdom in San Diego, admits thatgetting her company off the ground was a slow undertaking atfirst--until she did the following: "I sought out each of myfriends and family members who had lots of satisfied repeatcustomers--chiropractors, insurance agents, real estate salespeopleand the like. My plan was to give each of them a preview of myservices.with the understanding that if they liked what theysaw, they would give me the names of their best patients, clientsand customers."

As you can see, the concept of marketing mobility fits adizzying array of products, services and solutions. You get theidea: Make sure your sales efforts qualify a prospect who has depthof market and can lead you to future business. In other words,always pick a prospect who can take you to many more prospects. (Ilike to use a multiplier of at least 10, preferably more.) So puton your thinking cap, and figure out how your prospects can becomeyour best marketers.

Tony Parinello is the author of the bestselling book Selling to VITO, the Very Important TopOfficer. For additional information on his speeches and hisnewest book, Secrets of VITO, call (800) 777-VITO orvisit www.sellingtovito.com.

The opinions expressed in this column are thoseof the author, not of Entrepreneur.com. All answers are intended tobe general in nature, without regard to specific geographical areasor circumstances, and should only be relied upon after consultingan appropriate expert, such as an attorney oraccountant.