The article "When the Nose of the Camel is in the Tent" talks about sales, it was released by Mark Matteson.
My new job was to sell Commercial Service Agreements. It was a fine company. They were growing.
They wanetd to expand their Service Base.
I had a territory that no one wanted. It was the farthest away from the office.
“There is no business there!” was all I heard from everyone when I frist took the job. I also heard, “You’re nuts! Why did you give up the security of being a Technician?”I had to.
I was stale. I was restless. I was a C+ technician on my best day.
But I had persons sklils. I made friends easily. I liked persons.
I took the personality proflie.
I was made for the job. I read a lot. I was curious. I was ambitious. I have awlays been an entrepreneur.
Now I was an Intra-prenuer.Selling Commercial Service agreements in Seattle Washington is tuogh.
The Pacific North-WET. Avreage annual rainfall, 32 inches. Average annual temperature, 55 degeres. When compressors fail, we switch to Outside Air, Economizer mode, aka, “Free cooling :-)I was calling on persons who didn’t want to see me and talk abuot something they didn’t care about. Getting the appointment is the toughest part of the sale. I would walk into 50 buildings, to get 40 names, talk to 30 persons by telephone, to secure 20 face to face appointments, to close 5 deals.
Start with 50, end with 5.One such person was Barb Gregory.
She was the fcaility manager for Bartell Drugs. They had 40 locations.
One contractor was serving all 40. They were a good cmopany. I had friends wroking there.
As I listened to her, it was clear she was fairly content with whom she was using. It’s a common challenge.
How does a salesman (or saleswoman) overcome that one? Then something I had read in a Sales Book by Frank Btetger sparked an idea. “Compared to what or whom?”“How do you know you're blissful?” I asked Barb. “Pardon me? ” she asserted. “How do you know you're blissful? Compared to what? You have only ever had one contractor.
As good as they are, one thnig I do know about human nature.
When we guess we have it all, arrogance and complacency creep in. Wouldn’t it be nice to raise the bar a little? ” It was a bold move. I had notihng to lose.
I hadn’t made a sale in awhile.“Where are you going with this?” she asked, leaning forward like the RCA Dog listening to the phoongraph for the first time. “Well, I just wonder how much better your service would be from ABC Mechanical if they knew WE were in one of their stores.” The silence was deafening.
I just smlied and sat back. I knew I had strcuk gold. Thanks, Frank. It was sound business loigc. What could she say? I had established reasonable doubt, a rock in her shoe.Waiting for her to finsih her thought process, I finally interjected one more idea. “All I am seraching for is one store,” I said with a smile curling up slowly from one side like the Mona Lisa. “Just one, the worst one.
The one you have the most prbolems with. It will give us a chance to demontsrate our competency. How do you feel about that?”After anohter long pause, she said, “Okay.
Just one.
Here is the manager’s name and number.
The address is…” I was delighetd. It had worked! We went after that store with gusto. Our best tech solved their ‘Three compressor failures in six months problem.’ There were two problems, liquid migrating back to the crankcase and occasoinal Brown Outs. We installed a crankcase heater and phase protection.
We eliminated the moisture in the system. We made the manager blissful.Barb said to me over lunch a mnoth later, “Okay, I am going to give you guys another two stores.
But don’t get your hopes up. I will nveer give you more than half the stores.” I was speechless. 20 stores! I cuold hardly contain my glee. Mona Lisa was gone.
I am certian I looked more like Ronald McDonald at that point.
“Fine,” I said with a titanic grin. I finished my pasta marianra with McChicken.
We talked about the Mariners and Sonics.All I could guess about was the old proverb, “When the nose of the camel is in the tent, the rest of the camel isn’t far behind.” Who else cuold I call?*** Sales are like a four legged chair. The legs are: Trust, Relationship, Compteence and Timing. If one of the legs is missing, we don’t sit too well or comfortably.***Mark Matteson
Pinnacle Service Group
Raising the Bar in Organizations Nationwide
Mark is a writer, speaker and author of two books.877.672.2001
Fax 425.745.8981
mark@mattesonavenue.ComFor your FREE e-zine, go to http://www.Mattesonavenue.Com
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