“When the Nose of the Camel
Is in the Tent…”
By Mark Matteson
My
new job was to sell Commercial Service Agreements. It was a fine company.
They were growing. They wanted
to expand their Service Base. I had a
territory that no one wanted. It was
the farthest away from the office.
“There is no business there!” was all I heard from everyone when I first
took the job. I also heard, “You’re
nuts! Why did you give up the security
of being a Technician?”
I
had to. I was stale. I was restless. I was a C+ technician on my best day.
But
I had people skills. I made friends
easily. I liked people. I took the personality profile. I was made for the job. I read a lot. I was curious. I was ambitious.
I have always been an entrepreneur.
Now I was an Intra-prenuer.
Selling
Commercial Service agreements in Seattle Washington is tough. The Pacific North-WET. Average annual rainfall, 32 inches. Average annual temperature, 55 degrees. When compressors fail, we switch to Outside
Air, Economizer mode, aka, “Free cooling :-)
I
was calling on people who didn’t want to see me and talk about something they
didn’t care about. Getting the
appointment is the toughest part of the sale.
I would walk into 50 buildings, to get 40 names, talk to 30 people by
telephone, to secure 20 face to face appointments, to close 5 deals. Start with 50, end with 5.
One
such person was Barb Gregory. She was
the facility manager for Bartell Drugs.
They had 40 locations. One
contractor was serving all 40. They
were a good company. I had friends
working there.
As
I listened to her, it was clear she was fairly content with whom she was
using. It’s a common challenge. How does a salesman (or saleswoman) overcome
that one? Then something I had read in
a Sales Book by Frank Bettger sparked an idea.
“Compared to what or whom?”
“How
do you know you are happy?” I asked Barb.
“Pardon me?” she asserted. “How
do you know you are happy? Compared to
what? You have only ever had one
contractor. As good as they are, one
thing I do know about human nature.
When we think we have it all, arrogance and complacency creep in. Wouldn’t it be nice to raise the bar a
little?” It was a bold move. I had nothing to lose. I hadn’t made a sale in awhile.
“Where
are you going with this?” she asked, leaning forward like the RCA Dog listening
to the phonograph for the first time.
“Well, I just wonder how much better your service would be from ABC
Mechanical if they knew WE were in one of their stores.” The silence was deafening. I just smiled and sat back. I knew I had struck gold. Thanks, Frank. It was sound business logic.
What could she say? I had
established reasonable doubt, a rock in her shoe.
Waiting
for her to finish her thought process, I finally interjected one more
idea. “All I am looking for is one
store,” I said with a smile curling up slowly from one side like the Mona
Lisa. “Just one, the worst one. The one you have the most problems
with. It will give us a chance to
demonstrate our competency. How do you
feel about that?”
After
another long pause, she said, “Okay.
Just one. Here is the manager’s
name and number. The address is…” I was delighted. It had worked!
We
went after that store with gusto. Our
best tech solved their ‘Three compressor failures in six months problem.’ There were two problems, liquid migrating
back to the crankcase and occasional Brown Outs. We installed a crankcase heater and phase protection. We eliminated the moisture in the
system. We made the manager happy.
Barb
said to me over lunch a month later, “Okay, I am going to give you guys another
two stores. But don’t get your hopes
up. I will never give you more than half the stores.” I was speechless. 20
stores! I could hardly contain my
glee. Mona Lisa was gone. I am certain I looked more like Ronald
McDonald at that point. “Fine,” I said
with a big grin. I finished my pasta
marinara with McChicken.
We
talked about the Mariners and Sonics.
All
I could think about was the old proverb, “When the nose of the camel is in the
tent, the rest of the camel isn’t far behind.”
Who else could I call?
Sales are like
a four legged chair. The legs are:
Trust, Relationship, Competence and Timing.
If one of the legs is missing, we don’t sit too well or comfortably.
Mark Matteson
Pinnacle Service Group
Raising the Bar in Organizations Nationwide
Telephone Toll Free
877.672.2001
Fax 425.745.8981
Email psgmarkm@msn.com