Category Archives: Tales from the Trenches
Drilling Down—it’s the only way!
Very often, when pursuing leads, you will encounter roadblocks. They will come in many shapes and sizes. If you’ve read my earlier posts, you already know that the most common roadblock you will encounter is a low-level person (a gatekeeper … Continue reading
Here’s a neat trick…
How many times have you gotten a response like this: “Go ahead and email me your information, I’ll forward it to the person in charge, and if he’s interested, he’ll get back to you”? Myself, I’ve heard that countless times. Continue reading
Don’t Get Bamboozled by Gatekeepers!
To my complete amazement, she replied, “Then you must know something that I don’t know. The person handling the project is Bill Donnelly. Here is his direct number and his email address is ________”. This proves a point that I have made time and again: underlings are told to lie Continue reading
Sometimes you just have to Steamroll!
Booking high quality sales appointments is, like so much in life, about persistence; being unwilling to take “no” for an answer. This is not an arena for the shy and retiring. This story will illustrate how applying the principles I’ve outlined in many of my previous posts leads to success. Continue reading
Prospects lie!
When I first contacted the client, I was told that they were taking bids from interior designers. A couple of months later, the operations manager told me, “the company president has already selected furniture”. This was in February 2010. Since I knew that they weren’t occupying the new building until 2011 this seemed very doubtful to me. I tried reaching the president directly but his phone was very well defended. Continue reading
You’ve got tools—use them!
I got him on the phone and was told (and I quote), ” I can‘t make any promises as I have several vendors already but I will keep you posted”. I know what this means, and it doesn’t bode well. Continue reading
Don’t Mince Words
The client: An Avaya partner The prospect: a mid-sized accounting firm with 80 employees I got my target on the first try, a pleasant occurrence. As I started my pitch, he brusquely cut me off, saying “What’s this about?” I … Continue reading
However Important You Think This is…
…multiply by a hundred for its true value. I say this because I have countless tales exactly like this. Read on… Client: High end office furniture vendor Prospect: A technology company (we’ll call them XY Tech) with a big office … Continue reading
Victory is Sweet!
The prospect was planning a 500 employee office/call center—a huge opportunity for my client. When I called, I was told, “We’ve already spoken to several cabling vendors Continue reading
