I posted this blog ten year ago, thus I thought it would be a good re-post going into the long weekend! For those of us in the USA, have a great Labor Day Weekend!
Selling Office Technology "First Contact"
A Star Trek flick from 1996 had the crew of the Enterprise travel back in time to undermine the Borg attempt to stop Earthlings from making "First Contact" with the Vulcans.
The last few days I've been busy on the phone prospecting for net new accounts, new opportunities, new upgrades and what else but initiating "first contact".
It seems every year it gets somewhat tougher to get a hold of our decision makers. For those of us that consider ourselves Professional Prospectors we get used to these types of responses when we know who the decision maker is.
"Sorry so and so just left for lunch", "He or She just stepped out", "So and so is on the phone right now", "He or she is busy", "We're not interested", "So and so just stepped into a meeting", "she just went to lunch (it's 4PM!!!)" and the list goes on and on.
So what are we to do, well as one Print4Pay Hotel member stated many years ago, that we need to be "smarter than the average bear". We've all heard these before but here's a few bullets for a refresher:
- Vary the time that you call on that account
- Call from your cell phone
- Call early in the AM before 8AM
- Call late in the afternoon 4-6PM
- Call on a Saturday
- Call on another employee in the company and ask to be transferred to the person that takes care of the office equipment
- Send an in-mail via Linkedin
- Tag the decision maker in an article that you posted on a social media (Linkedin is best)
- Spend a few bucks and ship them a small gift (coffee, tea, gift certificate, Masters Gold Pin Flags (special thanks to @Larry Kirsch for this one)
- With this one, make sure you research the DM and find that special something that will grab their attention
It used to be that on-site cold calling to work well, however at least here in the NY metro area it's hard to gain access to buildings since 9/11. Doors are locked, security cameras are in place and sales people are left other means to find out who the DM is. By the way, why is it that when you make the call and ask who the DM is, it's seems like you're sentencing that person to ten or twenty lashes??
One such person got so nasty with me when I asked for the name of the DM. I really was on my best behavior, however I ended up telling her that I wished a camel would walk through her bed at night. It just came out....I should have been more professional, yup... however sometimes you get so fed up. We're just trying to do our job and feed our families. I also understand that the gatekeepers are also doing their job. But, can't we be nice about it?
The web is a wonderful place and I've found creative ways to seek out those first contacts when the gatekeeper does not want to give any information.
Below is a few of resources I use on the web, if you'd like to know how I use each one to my advantage then send me an email, become a member of the p4photel.
Manta
Contact Us
Box Approach
Avention
-=Good Selling=-
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