Just Send Me Some Literature
"OK, so what's the problem," I asked him. He had come to me because he felt his sales should be much higher than they were.
"Well, Mike, it's like this," he said. "Whenever I reach a prospect on the phone they tend to ask me to 'drop them something in the mail'. So I do that and then when I call back they are either not interested or they are impossible to reach".
After spending a little more time with him it became clear that this was really affecting his sales and income (not to mention his attitude)! He had a pipeline of dead and dying prospects and things were obviously going from bad to worse.
This young professional has a common problem, one which results in wasting huge amounts of time and money dealing with low-probability prospects. He, like so many people I deal with, thought the solution was having some kind of tricks for getting through secretaries or getting these prospects' attention. That is the wrong end of the problem.
"In the first place," I said, "make it a rule to never sendout literature unless you have a good reason for doing so. Before you put that brochure in the envelope you need to ask the prospect some form of 'what happens next' questions."
How one does this is a largely a matter of personal style. I know a truly great sales person and trainer who responds to requests for literature by asking people what color their wallpaper is. When they ask why he needs to know he replies, "because my brochures come in different colors and I want to be sure I send you the right one since it's going to sit unread on the corner of your desk for the next six weeks and I don't want it to clash with the decor". That may be a bit strong for some readers, but for some people it works. (And this man makes a LOT of sales.)
Another man I know simply says "I'll be glad to ..... will you read it?... and then what...?"
"Be sure," I continued, "before you invest money, time and emotional energy that you have an agreement with the other person about the next step. Want you DO NOT want is a next step that sounds like 'just mail it to me and if I like it there might be some possibility that we could possibly do business someday, at least we could talk about it so you can call me back sometime if you want to....' ".
"Yeah," he said. "That sounds familiar. I hear things like that all the time."
"Right," I replied. "You have to learn to recognize and deal with this stuff."
(By the way, if you will read the above "prospect sentence" out loud, it might sound familiar to you, too.)
The bottom line is — don't do anything unless a) there is a mutual commitment and b) you have a clearly understood agreement about where things are going. Start doing this consistently and you will have more control and increased income.
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