Monday, July 11, 2011

Heat Wave or Cold Front?

How are your sales calls treated? Do you come on too strong or too much? Both can cost you deals. So when you call, are you giving heat stroke or frostbite?

Sometimes when I get a sales call, it just feels like the dog days of summer are here. Like I took a wet blanket and wrapped it around my head and tried to breath inside a pizza oven. You know…hot, oppressive, and miserable. This can happen when you come on too much. One call an hour is more than enough. OK, I’m joking. There is a difference between attentive and humidity. What do we do when it gets too hot? That’s right, go to the beach. Heat equals vacation, vacation equals no sale.

Other times when I get a sales call, I swear I could lose my ear to frostbite. The sales jargon rushes out like the winds on top of Mt. Everest freezing everything it touches. Making me want to put on some insulation between me and the winter storm. If your sales contact wants to insulate themselves from you, this is a bad sign. What do we do on a cold winters night? Coat, mittens, hat and scarf. You can’t hear anything in a scarf. If you can’t be heard, they can’t be sold.

This may be a shock, but the prospect is not there for you, you exist for the prospect. When calling make sure say hello and ask how they are before asking about the contract. Maybe you could even call your customers once in a while when you aren’t trying to sell them anything. Think warm spring breeze….


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