1: What’s the best time to make a sales call on a decision-maker?
Any time.
“Excellent selling times are before eight o’clock any morning and after three on Friday afternoons,” Jeffrey Fox writes in How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients.
Why are early-morning sales calls productive?
First, there are fewer or limited interruptions. Second, agreeing to meet at an unusual hour is likely a buy signal.
“Friday afternoon is [another] wonderful time to see customers,” Jeffrey writes. “The customer is often more relaxed, more forthcoming, less harried, and less defensive.”
For “some customers,” he notes, “deciding to go ahead with the project provides a sense of accomplishment, gets something off the ‘to do’ list.”
Another reason? “The competition is not seeing customers on Friday afternoons. The other salespeople have started their weekend early. The other salespeople have left the arena, giving the Rainmaker an edge.”
2: What else do Rainmakers do? They fish where the big fish are.
“Rainmakers talk to customers who are familiar with their product,” Jeffrey notes, “or who already use the product, or who have a high probability of using the product.”
Customers who want our product are simply better targets than those who need it because the latter group may not know it. “They must be educated, persuaded. This takes time and money,” he writes.
“Customers who want our product are partially sold before they see us.”
3: Rainmakers know they either made the sale or they didn’t.
“No one wants to hear why we didn’t bring in the business,” Jeffrey observes. “No one cares that ‘the peso was devalued,’ or ‘the customer went bankrupt,’ or ‘the economy is lousy,’ or ‘a huge competitor opened next door.’ “
A young brand manager wanted to move the needle. She offered attractive prizes for achieving defined sales quotas.
“The contest rules were easy,” Jeffrey writes, “reach your quota, you win; fall short, you lose.”
Then, three weeks before the contest deadline, an earthquake hit Los Angeles.
“The California sales office was badly damaged, and business was interrupted,” he notes. “The California sales team did not reach its quota.
“California was the largest market in the brand manager’s company. The California sales team had great influence in the company.
“The California sales team wanted the prizes, but the brand manager said no.
“The California sales team used all its muscle, and the powerful vice president of sales insisted the brand manager award California the prizes.
“The vice president argued that the California team missed its quota by ‘only a few percentage points’ and ‘be reasonable… there was an earthquake.’
“The brand manager firmly stood her ground and replied, ‘Earthquakes don’t count.’
“The next year, there were record blizzards in Chicago, floods along the Mississippi, a brownout in New York City, a natural gas shortage, and a political crisis in Washington.
“The next year, every region in the country hit its quota–California came in first–and everyone won a prize.
“Rainmakers don’t make excuses.”
More tomorrow.
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Reflection: What lessons or takeaways do I take from the ideas from the Rainmaker book?
Action: Experiment with one of these ideas today.
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