A Sales Blooper That Almost Happened
Sales calls are like first impressions: No second chances. It certainly pays to do some research before walking off the cliff, and you can never do too much of it. Here’s a case that illustrates the point nicely.
All companies need publicity. Larger companies need more than smaller companies, and public companies need even more. Most of this publicity, along with other information like press releases, analyst’s reports, etc., is now available in bewildering variety, width and depth. But (always one of these), most raw information like this is ‘flat’, and it sometimes is easy to miss an important detail while trying to make sense of a raging sea of data.
I did the usual research and due diligence after identifying a local company that was a potential prospect. Normally, this kind of sale call would be directed to the company president, but for various reasons I decided to focus on the Number Three, mainly because this person would have to buy in any event, and in all likelihood the president would defer the decision. So, I learned all I could about Number Three, following their career from MBA school, through various junior and then senior executive jobs. I felt confident that I had a good background understanding of the company and its needs, as well as Number Three’s goals at the company. I was ready. Enough research, what I needed to do now was act. I would start the morning by calling Number Three’s gatekeeper and work to get an appointment, ready with a well rehearsed value proposition that, I believed, would create interest.
There was an article about the company in that morning’s newspaper, including a picture of Number Three, which made my heart stop: based on the first name, I assumed that Number Three was a man. Wrong. I had never seen a picture of the company’s officers and at that instant didn’t know that her English parents had given her an English first name that, in the US of A, is given to males.
Had it not been for that fortuitous newspaper article, I would have done a Mr. Playbody will now pee for you gaffe that not only would have blown any chance for anything much beyond even polite conversation. I was able to reprogram my opening pitch, and overall that first contact went quite well, although we subsequently determined that there wasn’t a good fit and no sale was made.
And, my due diligence got a little bit better.
Tags: sales bloopers