SPOTLIGHT Anatomy of A Successful Salesperson BUSINESS for an upcoming appointment. Emails can be sent in between stops, particularly at lunch while no one is in the customer’s office. Follow-up calls can be made between stops, and you should strive to have some flexibility so you can catch up in returning customers’ troubleshooting calls. You won’t always hit all the planned stops listed in your ini- tial schedule, but you can and should roll over any misses to the next trip in that area. Late aſternoons are a great time to send emails, since most are in their office, ready to leave for the day. People tend to be more relaxed heading into the weekend. Fridays are great for actually speaking with someone versus Monday mornings’ obvious inherent timing issues. Plugging in administrative or clerical time (reports, call notes, trying to recall conversations, etc.) during the workday can save you from extra hours of paperwork at home. It’s a great feeling, just knowing that you only have a few residual notes to catch up on from your day, rather than starting from the beginning. This approach also provides an opportunity to review notes for the next day. Your stops and routes should have already been planned during the prior week, although some adjustments may be required. Remember, this should only be a cursory review of tomorrow’s schedule. If calling on Class A office buildings, be aware that most are managed by property management companies and you are most likely better off to target them as a discreet market segment. However, in that same building, there may be a company that handles other potential opportunities (such as off-campus housing), so this becomes part of your lead-generation and market-targeting planning. Cold Calling Many otherwise good salespeople are simply not comfortable — and therefore not really good at — cold calling. Keep this in mind when recruiting and look for this type of experience and comfort level if cold calling is a primary requirement of your plan. This is an area where technicians who are disguised as salespeople usually have the most difficulty. Why? It’s oſten because, although they may be very capable technicians, they are simply not extroverts, and their DNA doesn’t include the natural drive to meet people. It’s generally easier to make a cold call when you have an introduction or can refer to a customer you’ve just met with, or already have a customer nearby. When cold calling, be prepared and appreciate that most don’t know you, did not expect you and really have no interest 10 SAFE & VAULT TECHNOLOGY | July/August 2022 in talking with you (and this was pre-COVID). Cold calling requires a personality that is able to accept high rates of rejec- tion and indifference! Did your mom have to bribe the other kids just to get them to play with you? Were you always the last picked for a team? But even the nastiest gatekeeper can provide some information! On your cold calls, set a minimum expectation of acquiring a name and number, and maybe the email address of a contact that you need. In some instances, the gatekeeper will actually call the contact to see if they have time to meet with you. Ob- viously, you can build upon this if you’re fortunate enough to actually meet with someone. When entering premises, ask simple, straightforward ques- tions; most people like to help. Ask (literally) if they can help you, as you’re trying to find out who oversees whatever you sell. Tell the gatekeeper that you would like to follow up, intro- duce yourself and company. Hint: If you don’t carry a bunch of brochures, you won’t be mistaken for a salesperson. Although this may sound silly, some folks are trained to automatically repulse salespeople by invoking the dreaded, armor-piercing “no soliciting here” defense mechanism. Your odds are better if you can engage in a brief, ice-breaking chat with a gatekeeper before they know why you’re there. Be observant and aware of your surroundings. Notice and admire the office holiday decorations or whatever else may help lower the Death Star’s force field. If you get a contact, you can always follow up later with an electronic version of your “pro- paganda,” which many prefer anyway. You can also mention that you were next door/nearby with a customer and wanted to share how you have helped that person or company. Who knows? They may even know each other. In a prior life of consumer products, it was my pleasure to work with Obi-Wan-Kenobi (ok, so his name was Irv), who I suspect, to this day, may have been a Jedi master. He seemed to be able to harness The Force, to get receptionists and gate- keeper strangers to nearly love him. He was able to turn cold calling into an art form and, as you can imagine, was extremely successful. No, he never mentioned knowing Yoda! I’m sure I would remember that. There are some businesses that you simply cannot just walk into, even prior to COVID. This also applies to certain posi- tions. While a chief engineer may be accessible if you go to a maintenance shop at a hospital, you will not walk in and meet with a CFO, or even enter the front door of a hospital, like you www.savta.org
