Weather
Gas Prices
Flight Info
Lottery
Recipes
Soccer
Stock Market
Horoscopes
Print friendly
Sales, Saleskillers, Making the sales call
Bringing The Dead Back To Life
By Jim Whelan, The Joan Randall Agency
Sunday, August 19, 2007
In a sales meeting just recently I heard a lotof what I call prejudging, which is a serioussales mistake. One guy said he didn't call onsmall companies because they can't buy big.Another didn't call on one type of customerbecause they were slow to pay.
This kind of stuff falls under the category:
Saleskillers.
There are literally hundreds, maybe thousandsof ways to kill a sale. But numero uno is to notmake a call at all.
(If you need topnotch service for your advertisingaccount and aren't getting it; you need to pick upthe phone and call The Joan Randall Agency rightNOW! at 206 407 3124)
I guarantee you won't get that sale.
Many moons ago I got a job...one of my firstsales jobs. I was pretty green, and the secondday I was there I overheard two of the managerstalking. Their plan was to give me a list of deadleads, and send me out on the street for theiramusement.
A little later I was called in the office, and theyhanded me a list of "fresh" leads, telling me thatthese people had called in for information in thelast 72 hours. These people, they told me, werehot to trot, ready to buy our product now. Onlyan idiot, they said, couldn't close 50% of theseleads.
And so off I went, into the field. I'd had no realtraining, and barely understood what I was selling.
The only thing I knew was that nobody was goingto make a fool out of me. I drew up a list basedon location, and started making calls.
Since I was short on product knowledge, I decidedto go long on enthusiasm. I entered every officelike a hurrricane, telling anybody who would listenthat I had just started working for the greatestcompany in the world, what an opportunityit was for me, and how I could solve all their problemsif they just gave me a chance, and...
Most of the gatekeepers were women, and sooneror later they would get up, walk to the boss's office,and tell them there was a young man they shouldtalk to.
Upon entering the big office I would go into the sameroutine. The first day I made 14 calls and 6 sales, and3 others invited me back.
I didn't go into the office until Friday. By lunchtime onFriday I had called on over 75 "dead accounts." I hadmade 31 sales, and I had 13 call backs scheduled.
I turned in all my order sheets, and my orders totaledover $60 K. My sales manager looked at the top sheet,where I summarized all the numbers, about a dozendifferent ways. He had to go consult with his buddy, theother white meat.Then they both disappeared for a while.
They came back with the owner. He asked me what Iate for breakfast every day, and wanted to know whatI was telling people.
I told him that nobody trained me about the product, soI had my own routine. He asked me to show him, andso I did. When I finished, he got up, shook my hand,and said keep up the good work. Then he told the twosales managers he wanted to talk to them in his office.
When I left at five, they were still in his office, and therewas a lot of loud talk going on in there. When I came inon Monday morning, my manager handed me a new sheet.
In six months I was the leading salesman in the firm bya wide margin.
The secret of my success was that I called on everyone,without any preconceived notions of whether they neededmy services or not.
(That's the same philosophy I follow today at The JoanRandall Agency, and it's why I'm growing this companyat a fantastic rate. It's time for you to get swept up intothe sales hurricane here, so call 206 407 3124 NOW!)
The rule is simple: You will never get a yes from an accountyou don't call on.
From the big saddle,Jim Whelan
