Sunday, December 20, 2009

Have you Hugged your Salesperson today?

If you are in any sort of corporate buying position - ie you have had a call with a salesperson this year then...

Do them and yourself and favor - If they are constantly contacting you over and over - then you have given them some sort of signal that there is a little window of hope that you will sign a contract.

Just answer their emails or call them back and tell them:

"NO, we wont be signing a contract before the end of the year and there is nothing - no discount, no plea, no promotion - that you can say or do that will change that".

Followed up with either:

"I did have some interest but the timing is off so call me next year in X time frame"

or

"Take me off your list, you persistent pest"

***See disclaimer

Most evil sales managers and bosses put in comp plans that force these poor salespeople to act like desperate children at the end of the year. Ignoring their calls and emails will just make them call you again and again and again and again until they have a definitive answer.

JUST SAY NO.

I KNOW there are annoying sales reps out there and they bother me as much as you cause they give me a bad name. This is a profession like any other and there are people who work hard and in earnest because they think they have something that can help people and, wow, they can make a good few bucks fixing someone's problem or helping someone's business too.

Anyway, here is my Christmas Poem to all those prospective buyers out there:

On the 12th day before year end my prospect gave to me….

12 reference requests from current clients

11 new requests for things we don’t offer

10 ignored phone calls

9 out of office email messages

8 cancelled phone calls

7 contract changes

6 more staff to buy in

5 “How about a dis-coooooount?”s

4 Can I have this in 30 days?

3 More hoops to jump thru

2 Questions I already answered

1 “CAN I PAY IN TWO THOUSAND AND TWEEEEELVE?”


***Disclaimer - there are a lot of pushy, poorly trained sales people out there. I know, I deal with them too. And many of them deserve the phone or door to be slammed on their faces. But be nice to the ones who have treated you with respect and have been persistent but not pestering and just let them know your position either way. If you keep ignoring them - any sales person worth their comp plan is still going to put you in the maybe column and continue to contact you until you just say NO.

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