- Mar 10, 2010
- 40,710
- 100,870
Years ago there was no internet that people used to market so we actually had to have face to face meetings all the time.
When you are in business you are always selling and I might have been a little aggressive (who would have thunk it, right?).
To offset my aggressive communication manner I did a couple of things. Neither one of those I am going to share are illegal, one may be gray hat and the other was theatre.
Gray hat - When I sold equipment to businesses, the products ran from around 1K to around 12K or so (circa 1981 or so) and that had to be done via cold calling by going to their place of business or setting up appointments on the phone to meet them at their place of business.
The small sales (1 - to about 4 or 5K) were show up and sell to them without any notice. I'd pull up in my truck, find the principal, try and get them to see what I had to offer and then try to sell them. I did not do bad but I could see I was offputting to some so I started showing up with a cane in one hand and limping a little to take their minds off of them thinking I was this aggressive so and so that was barely old enough to shave. That increased my close ratio as I took their minds off of my being aggressive in trying to close the sale enough to take the edge off + it was rather fun.
The other thing I did was when I sat in their office after them seeing that what we had to offer would more than meet their needs but I still wanted their cash was to put all the contracts on the desk when I began my final push. Back then things were in triplicate (when you sign this please push hard on the pen as it is going through 3 copies) so there were a few pieces of paper on the desk. I'd push a little bit and sometimes I would get the, "You are being a bit aggressive" look or comment and then I would take all the paperwork, tear it up in pieces and throw in in the air and say, "Sorry, I do not mean to be pushing you hear but <I'd insert a reason I thought they needed what I was selling>, apologize and ask if there was a reason that solving their problem with my product was insufficient. I never lost that discussion.
Those deflections worked like a charm as it took people off that I was trying to jam my products down their throats and had them thinking of something else as to my being a teenie bit pushy.
The goal was to give the client something that would solve an issue with a quality product at a fair price and put some money in my bosses (or mine if it was my business at the time) and see a client eventually happy.
Minor stuff but take the focus off of you when you are selling and put the focus on features and benefits that will help your client even if you have to fake a limp or waste some paperwork (I'm not even going to share how I used baby pics of my son to close sales as that is a little bit past fair to the buyer) so as to complete a solid transaction.
Get them to be deflected from your sales pitch and get them to see the value that is in what you are presenting.
When you are in business you are always selling and I might have been a little aggressive (who would have thunk it, right?).
To offset my aggressive communication manner I did a couple of things. Neither one of those I am going to share are illegal, one may be gray hat and the other was theatre.
Gray hat - When I sold equipment to businesses, the products ran from around 1K to around 12K or so (circa 1981 or so) and that had to be done via cold calling by going to their place of business or setting up appointments on the phone to meet them at their place of business.
The small sales (1 - to about 4 or 5K) were show up and sell to them without any notice. I'd pull up in my truck, find the principal, try and get them to see what I had to offer and then try to sell them. I did not do bad but I could see I was offputting to some so I started showing up with a cane in one hand and limping a little to take their minds off of them thinking I was this aggressive so and so that was barely old enough to shave. That increased my close ratio as I took their minds off of my being aggressive in trying to close the sale enough to take the edge off + it was rather fun.
The other thing I did was when I sat in their office after them seeing that what we had to offer would more than meet their needs but I still wanted their cash was to put all the contracts on the desk when I began my final push. Back then things were in triplicate (when you sign this please push hard on the pen as it is going through 3 copies) so there were a few pieces of paper on the desk. I'd push a little bit and sometimes I would get the, "You are being a bit aggressive" look or comment and then I would take all the paperwork, tear it up in pieces and throw in in the air and say, "Sorry, I do not mean to be pushing you hear but <I'd insert a reason I thought they needed what I was selling>, apologize and ask if there was a reason that solving their problem with my product was insufficient. I never lost that discussion.
Those deflections worked like a charm as it took people off that I was trying to jam my products down their throats and had them thinking of something else as to my being a teenie bit pushy.
The goal was to give the client something that would solve an issue with a quality product at a fair price and put some money in my bosses (or mine if it was my business at the time) and see a client eventually happy.
Minor stuff but take the focus off of you when you are selling and put the focus on features and benefits that will help your client even if you have to fake a limp or waste some paperwork (I'm not even going to share how I used baby pics of my son to close sales as that is a little bit past fair to the buyer) so as to complete a solid transaction.
Get them to be deflected from your sales pitch and get them to see the value that is in what you are presenting.
