Last month was excellent! The prior month was not so excellent, thus with the end of the quarter fast approaching I figured I would venture out on knock on some doors after my first two appointments in the AM.
I had a plan for three companies that I wanted to visit and then an additional back up plan if I had some additional time. Random knocking on doors was not an option because I had a plan. You see, with cold calling you want to be prepared, today, my focus was with wide format devices. I wanted to find additional prospects with Engineering, Architects and Surveyors.
It was either my second stop or third and it was to a Design/Build company that I had never stopped in before. I had been in that building, but a few months ago, noticed a sign that alerted me to that this company would probably have the need for a wide format system.
Walking in the door, and there was no one there? WTF, I went around the back and the walked back to the from and nothing! In one of the rooms I noticed and old analog copier, CAD drawings taped on the walls and then a spiral staircase that led to the second floor. So, I stood and listened to hear if there was any activity up there. As I was looking around I noticed about 20 boxes on the floor. A closer look told me that these were rolls of plot paper (HP), I thought, OMG, they've got a color plotter somewhere and they may be doing a big volume! Ok, so now it was time to climb the spiral stair case into the unknown.
I arrived at the top of the stairs and was greeted by the owner, I explained why I was there. In fact this customer had an older HP color plotter, was using about 10 rolls of plot paper per month along with 2.5 ink cartridges. Right away I knew that this account had potential to save money and for me to make some commissions! You see, years ago I developed a spreadsheet cost analysis for inkjet wide format systems. The breakpoint for an immediate ROI is 7-8 rolls of paper used per month. (this document is loaded in the clips section of this site).
We spent about 30 minutes talking about the advantages, find out his pain points and left with an appointment to review the cost analysis I would prepare for him! Yea! Half the battle was done in 30 minutes or less, and there's a potential net new customer, and someone who can realize an immediate ROI by changing systems.
In all my years of selling, I've always taken the approach that you never know what tomorrow will bring you. If you do your work, many of those tomorrows can bring new opportunities!
-=Good Selling=-
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