Story #1 – Never Give Up
When you are in any kind of sales role you need to expect the unexpected. Not every contact is going to respond to you the first time, even when you think they should – based on your company brand, etc. Most contacts just do not have time to humor a sales guy with mounds of paperwork in their e-mail inbox.
When I first started in sales I had a customer contact who was a purchaser on an account that was bleeding pretty badly and not doing much of anything when it came to sales. I e-mailed him probably about eight times without response in the first five months and called him leaving voicemail after voicemail trying to find something of value to catch his attention. I was growing desperate.
Then it happened. I was scrolling through the customers that were assigned to me and looking over inquiries. Oddly enough, I happened to catch an inquiry my contact put in on a very high dollar item. I knew what I had to do. Now, I am not a big fan of aggressive pricing, but sometimes it is what is required to gain a new contact, especially if they are very price-driven.
I immediately priced out the high dollar item very aggressively, and e-mailed a quote to him. He finally responded, and I swear I celebrated louder and prouder than I have ever celebrated before. Forget about the sale, I just gained a contact after months of not giving up, on an account that was not putting food on the table. From then on he started e-mailing me daily, allowing me opportunities to flex my customer service muscle with emergency deliveries and late afternoon solution searching.
The account is currently almost 200% over prior year and more importantly allowing me to help with solutions to keep the business running strong. The moral of this story – never give up!
-EA
SALES. LIFE. SIMPLE. 