Last week I received a lead in my territory from our manufacturer!!! OMG, these are rare nowadays!
Before I called the Decision Maker, I did my due diligence and checked the company out on their web site. I got a feel for what they do and what they would use one of my color systems for.
Today, I made the call, spoke with the DM and was not surprised that I was one of four companies that they had called to get a proposal on replacing their aging 75ppm color system. It seems the incumbent is not even in the picture, however I'll find out more tomorrow when I meet with the Controller.
This will be a net new appointment, probably 75ppm color or larger and quite a bit of color volume. I readied a few pricing scenarios, have my power point presentation ready, but, I needed something else. I need to find a way to tips the odds in my favor right? That's what we all look for, that little something that will make us stand out from the field of competitors.
I visited their web site again, went to the about us page and was able to see the name of the President, the VEEP and also the person I was going to meet with. I then checked the President and the VEEP to see if we had anything or anyone in common. Nada, nothing for the two of them. I then focused on the person I was going to meet with (Controller).
When I brought up the Controllers page, I noticed that the Controller has 240 connections. However, what I was looking for was someone that was connected to me! There has got to be that one connection!!! Down on the left side of the page, there it was! A level one connection, woohoo, I thought. I then noticed that the level one connection was the owner of copier dealership ( Through the P4P Hotel ). Dam, what am I going to do now, the Controller has a direct relationship with owner of another copier company and not a bad one either.
Thus, I finished preparing my presentation, along with the questions I need to ask (to see if I can use a tie down feature). I know up front this is going to be a lesson in futility, however, I got nothing to lose right?
Thus, this is going to be my last question, and probably going to do this as I'm packing up my bags. "Oh, just one more thing, I noticed that you are Level One connection of Mr. Dealer Owner on LinkedIn and......." This is where I would like to hear from others, how would you finish that sentence or would you even make that statement at all??
Let me know.
-=Good Selling=-
Comments (8)