March, 2009

Before You Give Up, Make One More Call

By Bill Lee

My first experience in sales was not as a professional salesperson. In fact, I didn’t even think of it as selling, but in reality it was classic selling: I was trying to sell someone on hiring me.

When I graduated from college jobs were scarce, especially for people with a degree in psychology. When I choose psychology as a major, no one told me that I would need in a worse case scenario at least a Master’s Degree, but preferably a PhD to make a good living.

My wife was pregnant with our first child and I was looking for a job all day and working as a casual laborer at a truck line from midnight to 8 AM to pay the bills, so I got a few hours sleep between 6 PM until around 11 PM. I had little time for myself much less time to spend with my wife.

I had been offered only one job, but when I took the physical exam I failed. I had high blood pressure and was told I had to wait a full year before applying again.

There was no doubt about it, I was discouraged. And the more discouraged I got, the worse I did on my job interviews. I guess you’d say that I was feeling desperate and that was not the image I needed to portray to make a positive impression.

One More Call

As I remember, it was a Friday afternoon about 4 PM when I was ready to call it quits for the day. I had faced about all of the rejection I thought I could handle when I decided to make just one more call. I walked into the office building next door to where I had parked my car and asked if there were any openings for a recent college graduate with a degree in psychology. When the receptionist said, “Yes,” you could have knocked me over with a feather. She sent me to see the decision maker and he hired me on the spot.

If you want to make sales, you have to make sales calls. No matter how scarce orders are to come by and no matter how
tired you are, make sure you’re disciplined enough to always make one more call.

Persistence is one of the most important ingredients for success in sales. Some people call it “keeping on keeping on.” There have been other times in my life when I allowed myself to become discouraged, but each time I have remembered the rules of selling:

Have a list of qualified prospects; that is, a list of prospects who need what you’re selling, have the authority to buy it and can afford to pay for it.

Hold your head high and keep a pleasant smile on your face when you greet a prospect. No one wants to do business with a down and out salesperson who has lost confidence.

Rule of Persistence by Cherise Matthews, a Blue Diamond Executive for Monavie:

Are you persistent with your prospects? Or are you just giving everyone one shot at doing business with you? My best customers all said “No” the first time.
• Persistence will always win the day, but 80% of salespeople quit after their first attempt with a prospect.
• After 4 attempts you have a 20% chance of success.
• After 8 attempts your odds jump to 50%.
• After 12 attempts it hits 70%.
• Between 13 and 15 it jumps to 90%.

Your odds of signing up a new customer jump to 90% if you stick with it. Now that doesn’t mean you simply just ask for the order 15 times. It means you are innovative, each time telling a more unique and compelling story. Make each conversation unique and different and your prospects will eventually start to ask you questions. You won’t have to sell them, they will make up their own mind.

BILL LEE has nearly 40 years of experience in the construction supply industry. A consultant and seminar leader, he is the author of two books: Gross Margin and 30 Ways Managers Shoot Themselves in the Foot. www.BillLeeOnLine.com, 800.277.7888.