I’m trying really hard not to let this be a rant and to turn a bad experience into something positive. As you’ve guessed, I met with another sales rep today. I can tell you how long he’s lived in his house, his attitude on big box stores vs. “local” businesses (which is a whole other discussion and can be really interesting but I digress), he has a dog with a big tail, he needs glasses because his are broken, etc. If he knows how to pronounce my last name I’d be shocked. Let alone anything else. Give me a break! So what can we learn from him? Give yourself an agenda for any sales meeting you have with a prospect. What do you need to know about the person before you walk out of the meeting? At a minimum, know how to pronounce their name. […] Continue reading
Getting Clients to Understand You Care
Be accessible, be attentive, take notes and be able to talk about the issues after the fact show you care and are listening to your clients. Then see how you can help them solve those problems.
Getting To Know You
I love taking sales calls from people. It is just fun. The other day I got a call from a woman who was very nice. She called, launched into her 4.5 minute spiel on who she is, what she does, why she as calling, what research she had done on my company, etc. etc. Finally taking a breath, she asked about me. I told her a little about me and then asked her how she’s handling getting new clients in this tight economy. She explained and we talked about some other possibilities. I then explained why I was at the trade show where she got my name (networking for clients of course) and why her services sounded interesting but would be something I could refer to others – not really something I could use. I then asked her more questions about her business, what’s she’s doing with social media, and what her sales plan looks like. By the end of the call, I had a new prospect and she had a potential referral source but probably not as her sweet-spot customer isn’t someone I run into very often.
The morale of this story? At the end of a sales call, do you know more about them or do they know more about you? Which do you think brings in more business?