This is the story of two sales calls. The calls were made by a hot shot sales coach. Let’s call him, Rick.
First, he called Owner #1. Let’s call her, Mary. Mary was referred by her friend who’s always going 100 mph in 5 directions at the same time. Difficult to focus. Short attention span. Rick assumed that Mary would be the same type of person. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Mary, was focused, paced, had a plan, great questions. He thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and is looking forward to their next conversation.
Second, he called owner #2. Let’s call him Jared. Jared was referred by a mutually trusted advisor. At a chance meeting, Jared enthusiastically asked Rick to call. Rick was looking forward to the conversation. As it turns out, Jared was an expert at everything, a cynic toward everybody, totally defensive and intentionally uninvolved with the conversation. He doesn’t have time to read. Knew everything that Microsoft did before Microsoft did and had been totally ripped off by every consultant that he had ever dealt with. I don’t have to worry that he’ll see this because he said that blogs represent the personal opinion of the author and no one could ever learn annything that way.
So, the lesson that Rick should learn, as I see it is make the call. Don’t anticipate. Don’t pre-judge. Don’t worry about what will or won’t or might or might not happen. Make the call and have a conversation.
SWSWSWN!
-
Follow
Following
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
RainMakers & Sales Rock Stars 
Good call, Rick. A specific referral source just referred me a 5th deal. I put the likelihood of her buying at 20% after our first call. I thought she was just hunting for information and a free analysis for her client. 3 months later, she’s my best referral source. I think you should send that second guy my article called “Tale of Two Management Consultants“.
Maybe, Pete.Here’s the issues.1.) He’s already told me his opinion of blogs and bloggers. Chances are he’ll see how long your post is and say, “I don’t have time for this.” If he did read it, he’d have to read Dave’s post, Trish’s post, Al’s post, and another post of mine that you link to and he’s surely much too busy for all of that open-mindedness.2.) Remember Success Secret #3? Making ‘the sale’ is actually making a series of smaller sales. He has not bought me. I do not have SOB. The questions that I asked did not work. Sometimes I’m envious of the salespeople that would hang in there and keep trying to sell this guy, but my strategy has always been, “Give me a reason to dis-qualify you and I’m gone.” Remember ABL?But then, when I was looking for the ABL link, I found this post and changed the “Maybe” above to “Not a chance.”
I think that you shouldn’t give Jared another thought, except to reinforce your belief in moving on to a more receptive prospect. We can only speculate as to why he seemed enthusiastic when asking Rick to call in the first place. Perhaps he just wanted to bait Rick into a conversation during which he could unload his pent up irritation about the world that has mistreated him so badly. Sounds like some major excuse making. Leaving is a good response. I’d also like to comment that this was probably the most convoluted blog I’ve ever encountered. I started reading this morning, at home with my first cup of coffee. I can’t remember how many links there were in the chain, but I tried to follow them. I know I missed a few. Lots of good food for thought. Thanks to all you experts for giving me the benefit of your combined experience!
Hi, Rick. Jared sounds like he does all of the things to others that he claims were done to him….and he seems enthusiastic about looking forward to doing it again to someone else….so I hope you did not stay too long in his company….If he is lucky -he will have learned something from the interview….He might even call you again or then again he may recommend you to someone…that would be funny…..Mom
Thanks, Mom. As usual, you hit the nail on the head. (Mike told me to say that.) Nonetheless, he’s right.I spent 15 minutes on the phone with this guy, so not much time lost and I doubt that he’ll call, but if he does, we’ll handle it.
Man to true I nearly lost out on a huge sale to a multi millionaire for pre judging as a junior sales person and swore that it would never happen again! Rich Muir http://www.companiesnow.com.au making registering your new company easy
People in the world receive the loans from various creditors, just because this is easy and fast.