I am a horrible sales man. It is true, I stink at sales. And guess what? I am the sole sales person at RustyBrick. It is my job to handles business development which includes branding, publicity and, yes, sales. The other ten or so talented people at RustyBrick are the doers, they are developers, designers and system admins. It is my responsibility to do the sales, and I stink at it.
RustyBrick is as busy as ever. Which is maybe why I am a bad sales man.
I go to meetings to meet prospective clients and I:
- don’t dress well
- don’t come to meetings well groomed
- don’t prepare outstanding presentations
- don’t compliment the individual I am meeting with
- don’t research the prospect
- don’t write powerful, graphical, proposals
- don’t say why RustyBrick is better than others
- don’t act like I want the prospects business
- don’t follow up on those proposals
I am sure there are other things I am missing. But it hit me today. I have been sending out proposal and not following up. I hit the send button and that is the last I think of them. Not because I am not able to track if they got it and stuff. That is not true, I capture when I send the proposal, when it was received, how many times the person(s) viewed it, what pages they viewed and at what times. But I haven’t been looking at that data for a year or so.
Just an hour ago, I got an email from a big prospect I sent a proposal to, probably two weeks ago. They wanted to schedule a meeting. I was like, hey – I remember sending them a proposal.
Oh, and when I finally close the deal (i.e. the client sends me a check), I don’t get excited. I am weird, I honestly, don’t get excited about many things.
So why are we so busy with new work and repeat work? I think it is because we care so much. We won’t stop until the product is perfect. People trust us, they respect us and most importantly, we respect them and value their business. Sounds like I am selling something, but it is honestly how I and my employees act towards our clients. Hmm… I am honestly thinking of deleting this now, but I wrote so much, so I will keep it.
Bottom line is that I am not a good sales man.
If you are a client, would you agree?
I agree… You don’t even try. LOL!
Your reputation is great so you don’t NEED to “sell” your company to people who are already sold.
I don’t like being “sold” to anyway. Most of the slick presentations I’ve received were just noise designed to confuse the prospect and create a false sense of security.
Too kind 🙂
Thanks for your comment.
Really depends on your definition of sales. If it’s all about the Customer, then all those external things count less. Without putting the Customer first, nothing else really matters. So, you’ve got the first principle of Marketing down pat…..Make the Customer happy, and they become your salesforce.
But just imagine if you also followed up on your list, and got a haircut and shaved (from your mother)……
need a haircut!
I seriously wish that I could share some of the proposals I’ve received.
35 full color pages with our logo integrated into the design and professionally bound. Sent FedEx with a package of other professionally printed color folders, marketing materials, charts, graphs, case studies, toys, etc…
However… I’ve been at this for a while and could see that the plans presented were almost worthless. I also wish I could share their pricing with you. IMO – You may be under priced 😉
There were lots of calls to follow up. It never stops.
“Underpriced” 🙂
We figure our prices based on hours. If we are quicker and get it right sooner than others, why should you have to pay for it? 🙂
Maybe your hourly price is low. When time passes and you get more and more experience doing your things, you will get faster doing the same things, That doesn’t mean you should receive less for the same work. That means you have to rise your hourly price.
“Maybe your hourly price is low.”
Nope, it is not low.
Trying to get a handle on this posting….without success.
Interesting read though…thanks!
Keep up the good work you do.