I get contacted by companies trying to sell me products and services on a regular basis.
Sometimes the “fit” is really wrong – we don’t buy or sell furniture, so trying to sell us wholesale lots of armchairs isn’t going to work too well.
Of course a lot of it is down to technique.
If you can build up a rapport with a client then it’s going to be a hell of a lot easier to sell them goods and services.
Of course if you manage to completely alienate the client they’re not going to want to buy from you and may even take out a barring order.
A couple of years ago we were approached by a software vendor that was selling a content management system. Basically it was a tool for building websites easily. It wasn’t free and it wasn’t cheap. It didn’t integrate easily with our existing software at the time, so it just wasn’t of any interest to us. So we politely declined the “offer”. You’d think that would be the end of the story, or that it is a total “non-story”, but 24 hours later the sales person was in touch with us again saying that he wanted to “speak to someone else” as I obviously “lacked vision”.
Brilliant!
So this “genius” not only lost the sale, but has managed to put himself in the position where I would not do any business with them ever again.
Or how about the sales guy from a particular glossy magazine…
First off he gave us a media pack with totally unrealistic sales projections. Unrealistic in that you’d practically have to clone readers in test tubes to get that kind of readership. We told him that we weren’t interested and that we didn’t think the content was particularly good (it was always about 2 months behind the UK publications in the same vertical). Since it was pretty obvious that we weren’t going to buy ads from him anytime soon you’d have thought that he’d have moved on .. but no, he kept on ringing and ringing and ringing..
Another thing is to actually do a small bit of research before you pick up the phone.
There’s little point in trying to acquire a client that you’ve already got (upselling to them is a totally different matter)
More than once I’ve had over-zealous, but rather silly, sales people trying to sell me things I’m already buying.
Google Adwords – we’ve been using them for years. Yet the first time we got a phone call from Google it was from one of their sales people asking us if we’d be interested in buying any. I think we were paying about 1000 euro / month at the time to Google, so they didn’t make any extra sales!
Or the sales guy from a vendor we’ve been dealing with for about 8 years:
“I believe you might sell domains and hosting” – have you even visited our website?
“I think you’ve done some business with us in the past” – not really – we just enjoy giving you about 5k a month cos we’re really nice that way!
Of course some sales people have a “script”. While that script might be useful to a point, it shouldn’t get in the way.
A couple of months ago we got a call from a company in the UK that wanted to sell us advertising on TV. Of course they didn’t say that – what they said was that they could get us onto the TV – which was a good way to stimulate our interest.
So I pick up the phone – around this time you normally would expect the usual introductions and exchange of pleasantries. Instead I was treated to about 5 minutes of machine gun “spiel” from some girl who wouldn’t let me get a word in edgeways!
Now we may not have been interested in buying the ads, but I was curious as to how it worked and how much it cost etc., – but I don’t think I even managed to ask those key questions.
Some sales tactics are plain annoying, but others are just so incredibly dumb that they leave you speechless.. and then people wonder why it’s hard to get a decision maker on the phone!
>”…but 24 hours later the sales person was in touch with us again saying that he wanted to “speak to someone else” as I obviously “lacked vision”.”
Well perseverance does work think of dealing with most companies 1. You send an email and get no reply 2. You send another email and get no reply 3. You phone and after waiting talk to someone who says they agree and will do something but nothing happens 4. You write a paper letter and finally it works.
No I’m only thinking about dealing with an Irish broadband provider who was double charging me, why did I keep trying? because MY MONEY was at stake.
Well salesmen (and women) operate on commission, through an organised scheme, or because they are a one man band, and so THEIR MONEY is at stake, of course they will persist.
The “lacked vision” quotation could have been conveyed more diplomatically but I can put myself in his shoes.
More diplomatically? You’re kidding?
It’s highly insulting
Michele
Accepted, it depends how its said; the tone of voice; the level of ‘smarminess’