by Dustin | Nov 26, 2014 | tales from the field, Wins
I’m in an industry where the end of year is go-time. A majority of our clients like to start with us on 1/1 so there has been a lot of closing activity around the office! Its motivating and nerve racking. And for the second time in two weeks, I made a sale! so let me break it on down: This one was another unusual one, Im beginning to think none of them fit the mold they have you role play in the training videos! As Ive said before we are a premium service provider, and when the customer let me in the door to be competitive, I was happy for the opportunity and the activity, but not very optimistic for the sale. This is a prospect I found canvassing, driving around my territory and working up the courage to go holla at the receptionist. Not my favorite activity but beats dialing for dollars on a nice day. There wasn’t a receptionist but it seemed like a decent sized company so I looked it up back in the office. Turns out they were a former client of ours who left for a primary competitor 6 years ago when they were able to save them $100k. After a few attempts, I got ahold of the listed contact the CFO, and he brushed me off but said I could keep in touch. I didn’t do anything fancy to build value, just pinged him quarterly to see when I could catch him interested. This time, when I reached out to him in August, he was ready to let us “re-compete” for the business....
by Dustin | Nov 26, 2014 | tales from the field, Wins
Validation! I made a sale today! Well, actually, its taking me almost a week to write this post, but the idea came to me the day I got the ink! It felt phenomenal. Please note that the business Im in is very difficult, and the most successful reps make 15 – 20 sales a year. In fact, just 12 sales in a year (with certain minimum values) guarantees you the annual trip. Just one sale a month, doable right? Sure it is, but I got a long way to go to figure it out. Including this new client, I have made 4 sales in the nearly two years I’ve been with my current employer. Thats a lot of faith I have had to maintain to believe that my time is being well spent! So let me break down the components of the deal so that I can learn from (and relish) the win. Intro: I actually got thrown a bone on this one, it was a corporate lead assigned to me. My company doesn’t have a formal process of assuring equal distribution of leads, they are given to the managers who then assign them to the team. My best guess is its a combination of recognition, favoritism, and luck. Anyway, I was fortunate to receive this one! At the beginning it seemed like a long-shot, an industry we are not favorable in, a brand new business, and an insistence on a phone call not an in person meeting. A senior, more busy rep would have punted, but I was happy to take what I could get! Process: I felt...
