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Salespeople Keep Reaching In
By: Dr Gary S Goodman
I?m sure it looked stupid to grown-ups and to people who had a lot of money in their pockets.
But as my friends and I would walk down city streets, we?d take turns reaching into the coin slots in pay phones to see if there was any change that Ma Bell had accidentally disgorged, or callers had left behind.
Every now and then, we?d feel a coin, and rarely, but it did happen, we?d hit the jackpot.
There would be five or six coins waiting for our greedy little fingers.
Was it worth the effort?
You bet!
And of course, it was my first lesson in prospecting. It taught me that I may come up empty handed quite a bit, but if I keep reaching in, I?ll be rewarded.
A company is a lot like an old pay phone. If you try only once to make it relinquish its riches, you?ll come up short.
Most salespeople will make a single call into a company. If they?re rebuffed or frustrated by secretaries, voice mail, or especially by one middling manager who says no, they?ll abandon their pursuit of those firms, opting to phone the next company on their lists.
They don?t understand that the same pay phone, like a slot machine, can pay off with the very next effort.
Let?s say you?re selling a training program, as I do, to Customer Service units in organizations.
Whom should I call? Theoretically, the manager of the department should be interested, but that isn?t generally the case. More often than not, she?s defensive about letting outsiders into the nest.
But her boss, the VP of Operations, may be more receptive, because she is responsible for making Customer Service efficient and productive.
Let?s say I call her and she is off-putting; is that the end of the line? Should I turn tail and run to the next lead?
I don?t think so. SOMEONE IS PAID TO CARE about productivity, and more often than not, SOMEONE DOES CARE.
I just haven?t found that person, the one that will serve as my champion.
The VP of Marketing might suspect or know that Customer Service needs improvement, or perhaps it is the President or CEO.
Sooner or later, I?ll reach the right person.
A while ago, I did a very successful direct mail campaign promoting a slate of my public seminars. Instead of sending just one mailer into a company, I sent a half-dozen, to various job titles.
After the seminars concluded, and one of the participating companies became a consulting client, my contact there told me that she not only received one mailer, but four or five because her colleagues passed along theirs to her.
Instead of being upset, she was pleased. It made my seminars seem more significant.
So, I wouldn?t worry about people who said no ganging up to throw you out once you get one of their colleagues to invite you in.
They may be very pleasant. It just took a while and your persistent ?reaching in? to make that happen!
Best-selling author of 12 books and more than 750 articles, Dr. Gary S. Goodman is considered a foremost expert in telephone effectiveness, customer service, and sales development. A top-rated speaker, seminar leader, and consultant, his clients extend across the organizational spectrum, from the Fortune 1000 to small businesses. He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com. |  |
