I received this email last week from a Print4Pay Hotel Blog reader. Thought I would share with everyone!Hi Art,
My name is and I have been working for Konica Minolta since May 2008. I came across your post, and thought you may be a great person to talk to. I have been doing pretty well in this industry, but have been rather frustrated the past few months. I try and learn as much as possible about this industry, and my product of course, but find it hard to get business owners to see the benefit of meeting me (especially in this current economy). It seems as though "copy" sales people are not taken as serious business consultants/professionals. I would like to know what has made you successful over your 23 years in this industry, and how you are able to continually gain people's interest in your product. I'm sure you receive many email's, so any response you give me I would greatly appreciate.
Thank you very much.
Hi :
Gee, don't know where to start. First, are you a member of the P4P Hotel Message Boards (KonicaMinolta).
Here's my thoughts in this type of economy to be successful each and every month and not have any dips:
1. You have to have at least 75 potential clients in your pipeline that are rate 50% or higher to buy this month.
2. You have to focus more about reducing their costs, using statements like spending 15 minutes with me today may say you thousands tomorrow.
3. Learn more about what your clients do to turn a profit. Focus on features or software that will save them time. CEO, CFO are more productivity orientated while SMB's concentrate on hard cost savings.
3. Persistence is your friend, have a story to tell once they are on the phone, maybe a quick story on how you saved xyz company time and money and they are in the same type of business that you are in.
4. Use different methods to contact the right person. Call early, call late, send a letter via fedex instead of regular mail. Do a google search and see what they do socially maybe there is a connection you can make that way.
5. Find Pain, they may want to get new equipment, however they are assuming it is not possible and have not spoken to anyone about their pain.
6. Cold Call, Phone Calls and Cold Calls, nothing still works better than the traditional cold call, when you arrive at the front desk, ask for help in finding the right person to speak to, and then go away.
7. Prove to them that you are committed to your industry, and you are a there to help them rather than take their money. I did this by setting up my own blog for my customers. Here, I will post press releases, articles on how to save time or money in the office, along with articles on new technology.
8. A CEO of large chemical company once said to me that I don't invest in people, I invest in Technology. Take this and run with it, tell this story over and over when you have the CEO, CFO, or CIO on the phone.
9. Learn as much about your industry as possible, ours is not a 9-5 job. Take time in the evening to research, prospect by day and quote by night.
10. In this economy you're not going to get many appointments based on selling new hardware, however you need to talk more about workflow and creative ideas to reduce paper volume, maintenance charges.
If I had more time, I could write more. Oh, one other item you need to talk to your peers and ask questions. Meaning you should be a member of the P4P KM board and pose these same question to the membership. I'm sure someone will take the time to tell what works for them also. www.p4photel.org
Art
-=Good Selling=-
Art -- Great Advice,
ReplyDeleteEspecially #8.
Xlint!