by Don Sanders, 10/22/2004
Most salespeople are like snails that just want to stay in their shell. They only come out when invited, then move at a very slow pace. If that describes your behavior, then you are going to be less successful than you could be in the sales world of imprinted items.

In previous decades, most salespeople made personal visits to see their customers and prospects. Calling on people was just part of the daily routine. Everyone did it, because they knew that it was the best way to make new contacts. But now things are different. What happened to this step in the selling process? At what point did it become necessary to always have an appointment to see a prospect or customer?

Before the advent of all the new technology, such as voice mail, cell phones and e-mail, people had limited ways to make contacts. The only ways to find new business was to go out and look for it or to attend social functions. Those were the options. In spite of those limitations, people in this industry were probably more productive at selling. Why? Because human interaction will always be superior to technology when it comes to consistently producing sales. Take a moment to answer these questions.

Do people frequently dodge you?

Is your appointment rate low?

Are you nervous when calling new prospects?

Is your call-to-close ratio high?

Do you depend on others to secure business for you?

Do you wait for the phone to ring?

Most people just starting to sell promotional products, as well as many sales veterans, readily relate to these six questions and frequently suffer from the adverse effects of one, or several of them. Some salespeople cannot understand the rejection, or figure out how to change what they are doing wrong, and end up changing jobs very quickly. To make matters worse, their failed efforts harm those who of us who are out there trying to do it right.

PERSONAL CONTACT IS THE ANSWER!

If you have ever attended an industry trade show, you should know that personal contact can solve almost any calling dilemma. One of the main reasons that suppliers who process your orders attend trade shows is to meet distributors. They incur great expense going to every corner of the country to personally meet new, as well as experienced salespeople in person. They understand the importance of putting faces with names to increase their base of distributor contacts. If suppliers understand that personal contact is the key to increasing sales, why don’t more distributors?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following brief story describes how one distributor salesperson used personal visits to change his life:

My background is in computer sales. After an industry downturn, I went to work with my brother, who had owned a successful distributorship for ten years and needed some help expanding his business. When I began, I made it my goal to try and secure at least ten new appointments each week. I felt that number would insure me a nice base of new clients.

I bought a new day timer, sat down at the phone, and starting calling people for appointments. Guess what? After making more than 150 calls, I only came up with three scheduled meetings. Obviously, I was very short of my goal, and the rejection was killing me. In fact, I thought that just maybe I had decided to do the wrong thing. It appeared that promotional products sales were just not for me. But before I threw in the towel, I talked to one of the veteran salesman at the company and he told me to try his approach--get in my car and go out to see people.

To make a long story short, making personal calls turned out to be much more productive than I had anticipated. After two weeks in the field, I found eleven new clients, and was traveling on the road to success. Even today, some eight years later, when I see people desperately calling for appointments, my heart races and I remember that horrible feeling of rejection.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After reading that salesman’s story, are you still sitting around waiting for people to call you back, hoping that you are going to set this industry on fire? If so, then perhaps you need to do something else for a living. Selling in this industry is not for you if you refuse to go out and visit new people each and every day.

When we say that you must go out and see people, we do not mean that you run aimlessly in circles talking to every person you meet on the street. You should select an industry that you feel comfortable with, and then set out to make personal calls on a frequent basis. A good example might be the mortgage business. If you know something about that industry, sit down and make an organized list of companies in the field. Then methodically go out and call on every one of them. Don’t stop until you complete the list. Then make your follow-up telephone calls until you cover the list. Select another industry, and repeat the process. Remember that planning, personal visits and follow-up calls go hand-in-hand.

This three-step process will enhance your sales in the following ways:

Keep your prospect list hot.

Force you to expand your referral base.

Give you the chance to make quick sales.

Increase your repeat order log.

Keep you on the straight road to success.

You now have the tools to set this industry on fire. Go out there and do so every day!