Approaching A Sales Prospect
After prospecting and the pre-approach, the next step of your sales procedure is to get face to face with your prospect. Professional buyers are the easiest to reach. They hold regular hours for buying and are readily accessible to salesmen. But individual customers in their offices or homes are not so easily contacted. They seldom phone a salesman and invite him to call. And if a salesman calls unexpectedly, he may be unwelcome. When the doorbell rings, he may be interrupting the viewing of a TV program. Then, too, some housewives are annoyed constantly by peddlers. Others have had unfortunate experiences with pitchmen who were crudely insistent once they were inside the door. Prospects are likely to greet an unknown salesman with cold suspicion. Further, most people are unaware of their needs and so try to avoid listening to the salesman’s story. So how do you go about bridging the gap between you id your prospects?
During the Interview
Methods of getting an appointment, the personal call, introduction by a friend, the telephone call, the company letter or card, and the sample or gift.
The Personal Call
Once you have qualified a prospect as one who has a need for your product and the ability to buy, one way to reach him is to call on him without an appointment. You just drop around.
In such a cold-turkey call much depends on the first impression: the salesman with a confident manner and good appearance is most likely to get an interview. Many salesmen use the door-to-door method effectively. Their assured manner makes it plain to a prospect that they expect to be admitted. Such an attitude forestalls a prospect’s first impulse to turn them away. The success of the unscheduled call hinges on the ability of the salesman to arouse curiosity and develop interest rapidly. Word your introduction carefully to answer the first questions in the prospect’s mind who is calling and why. So you say, “I’m Tom Davies of the Aluminum Company of America. May I tell you and your husband how can keep your home cooler and airier all summer long?”
Getting by Barriers
When you call at the office of your prospect, you have to get by the receptionist or the prospect’s secretary. These barriers are generally keen judges of salesmen, for their job is to keep nobodies and peddlers away from their bosses. Also, they are required to make certain that the executives see the men they should see. That is why, when the receptionist asks your business, it is good tactics to state some broad advantage, to say, “Please tell Mr. Watres that I want to see him about plan to save a fourth of the cost of lighting this factory.” The secretary will deliver such a message to her boss. Many salesmen tend to high-hat the secretary when she asks the purpose of their call. They insist that their business is personal, or that they just happened to be passing through. Consequently, they frequently do not get to see the executive. They would do better to give a straightforward statement of their name and company and then to state an advantage that will arouse the interest of the prospect.
If the prospect cannot see you at the moment, try for an appointment later in the day or next day. Then on your second call you will generally be taken right in.
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Sometimes the executive will send back word through his secretary asking you to talk first to the plant superintendent, the credit manager, or the head accountant, depending on the nature of your product. Always accept this offer. Say to the man to whom you have been referred, “Mr. Watres suggested I talk this plan over with you first and get your opinion on it,” Seeing a department head who has charge of the activity in which your product might be used has advantages you gather from him specific information on present methods; and he usually can authorize you to make a survey of the company’s methods and very often will do so if you call attention to the possibility that your product or method can help the company to keep down manufacturing costs or to speed up production. Later when you bring back the results of your study, the department head, if he is impressed by the findings, will help you to sell the product to the head of the business or to the purchasing agent. Many typewriters, business machines, and laborsaving appliances are put in on the say so of engineers who have made a survey of the prospect company’s problem.
In course, always try to see the head man if the sale of your product requires his approval. He may only have time to consider the main advantages, but after you have made a survey, try to present your findings directly to him and to any associates he may call in.
Creative salesmen develop a set method of handling the excuses of executives who believe they are too busy to see them. When the executive sends out word asking for more specific information on their proposal, many salesmen write on the back of their card a general statement, such as “Training of your employees,”“Financial independence,”“Your defense orders.”
Appointments with executives can often be obtained for you by your friends. Your friend phones, or gives you his card or a letter, Armed with this, you call on your prospect, saying to the receptionist, “Please tell Mr. Dodge that a friend of Harry Warren wants to see him.” Or, “I’m calling at the suggestion of a friend of Mr. Dodge.”
Personal introductions open inner doors. But you should not presume that the introduction by a friend is more than a means of getting you face to face with your prospect. It is simple for your friend to pick up the phone and say, “Jim, I’m sending over a young man who represents the new annuity plan of Hopkins Insurance Company. I hope you’ll see him.” But don’t presume that this is equivalent to an endorsement. You still have to interest your prospect and without delay put over your sales story.
Telephoning
The telephone can be helpful in getting by barriers. A call cuts through red tape and in most cases allows you to talk directly to your prospect. The sole purpose of the appointment call, whether local or long distance, is to get your man to agree to see you at a specific time; never attempt to sell over the phone busy executives appreciate your courtesy in asking for an appointment rather than just barging in. If the prospect cannot see you at the time you propose, ask him to suggest a time convenient to him.
Plan what you will say carefully. It even helps to write it out Here is a typical telephone call for an appointment: “Mr. Harris, I’m James Whittaker of the Drako Manufacturing Company. May I show you a novel way to make recordings of your sales interviews, say right after lunch, at one forty-five? Through practice you will develop a fairly standard telephone approach.
In telephoning for an appointment at a man’s home, salesmen find the prospect is more likely to consent if the salesman states an advantage to the prospect: “Mr.
Harris, I have a plan for that daughter of yours. I understand she’ll be going to college ten years from now. ‘Will it suit you to see me at seven this evening?”
Advance Letters or Cards
Some salesmen have their company write the buyer, saying that they will call at a specified time. Such letters or cards are sometimes mailed by the salesman a few days in advance. Telegrams serve the same purpose. Any effort of this type to assist the salesman in turning a call into an interview pays off in a higher proportion of interviews to calls.
Gifts or Samples
The Fuller Brush salesmen made the gift idea a door opener. Today the gift is a part of the accepted door-to-door approach. Sometimes a teaser card is mailed, to he exchanged for a gift when the salesman calls. Life insurance companies are a little more subtle.
They advertise a free memo book, automatic pencil, or gold-engraved card case. These are delivered to those who have requested them by the salesman, who thus gets into the home or office to see the prospect. One hosiery company uses free stocking-mending kits. A farm equipment company distributes plastic models of tractors as gifts for the prospect’s children.
Phony Approaches
Just as the high-pressure salesman is going out of vogue, so are many of the tricks of typical salesmen of the Roaring Twenties. In order to get an interview, these fast talkers often pretended to be conducting some customer research. They would go from door to door, stating that they were conducting a survey. They would ask the prospect to fill in the answers to a set of questions printed on a blank.
When the answers indicated a warm prospect, they went into their sales pitch. Another gimmick was to pretend to the receptionist that they were old buddies of her boss. All these threadbare schemes are taboo with the creative salesman. The trained salesman knows that such pretenses backfire or create a bad impression. Further, the use of ruses cuts off the possibility of future calls.
So today, most salesmen use aboveboard, but gently insistent methods of getting to see their men often the so-called inaccessible man is readily seen. A good reporter knows that he frequently reaches the man who has made headlines just by calling at his office or home and asking to see him. It is often as simple as that.
If your company is well known and a leader in its field, your business card, carrying the name of your company, can be an asset.
But if you represent a small unknown company, the use of a business card may prove a handicap this is especially so if the card discloses to every prospect the nature of the product or service the salesman is offering. This information may lead the prospect to refuse an interview, deciding on the spur of the moment that he has no need for the product of an unknown outfit.
Natural curiosity helps most creative salesmen to see their prospects. Most prospects are interested in new ideas. Too many salesmen anticipate difficulty with the customer and worry about getting the interview. They reflect this uncertainty in their approach. The novice may walk around the block three times before getting up enough courage to force himself to enter the prospect’s office.
But as his experience grows, his timidity gives way to inner confidence. Once the salesman sees his job in the right perspective, he realizes he is calling to benefit his prospect. Salesmen perform a valuable service- They help their customers to enjoy product advantages. They inspire decisions which contribute to fuller and happier lives. They promote progress.
Use Your Waiting Time
Once you have arranged an appointment by any method—phone, letter, or personal call—be there a few minutes ahead of time. If the receptionist brings back word that the prospect is busy at the moment, but can see you in half an hour, you have to make a decision. You may find it to your advantage to go onto the next call, and so you suggest an appointment at a specified time later in the day.
This strategy often results in a definite appointment, later, with no time lost sitting in the reception room. But if you have come quite a distance to see the prospect and he can see you within a reasonable time, accept the appointment and sit it out.
Don’t, however, waste this waiting time by leafing aimlessly through publications on the reception room desk. Such intervals can be employed constructively in reviewing the presentation which you will make when you come face to face with your prospect. If you refresh your mind in this way, you will not greet him with the letdown feeling which waiting so often induces. Briefing yourself makes you surer of your ability to help your prospect, and so inspires you to deliver an enthusiastic story tailored to your prospect’s needs.
The Vital First Few Minutes
The longest and most crucial period of the entire sales presentation is the fateful first few minutes. In that brief interval, your prospect decides to give you his attention or to get rid of you.
As you walk in, verify the name of the man you are calling on, speaking with a rising inflection. “Mr. Harris?” you say, and then wait for his confirmation. Instances have occurred where Mr. Harris was on vacation or out of town, and the man the salesman thought must be Mr. Harris, his prospect, turned out to be someone else. After this opening, state your name and, in most cases, the name of your company (except when for obvious reasons you may find it good business not to disclose too definitely the nature of your product or service). The usual accepted greeting is “I’m Davis of Pittsburgh Paint.” If the prospect extends his hand in greeting, take it. Otherwise, skip this part of the introduction. It is his place to welcome you, not vice versa.
Follow the accepted social customs, with discretion. One of the most valuable abilities which the creative salesman can have (and one which he must develop if it doesn’t come to him naturally) is the sixth sense of feeling what his customer holds to be good taste. Throughout the sales presentation much depends on the salesman selling himself to his prospect as a person of discrimination and judgment. Probably the best course the salesman can take when he is in doubt is to put himself in the other fellow’s shoes.
Attitude of the Prospect
At this point the prospect’s attitude is probably one of slight annoyance at being interrupted in whatever he was doing. He may stifle a yawn and think “Ho-hum” as he leans back waiting for your opening remarks. He may have been thinking about a conference that is coming up that morning, for which he hoped to make some notes. He may have left his wife in a huff over the coming visit of her mother. The first job facing you as the salesman is to snap this indifferent prospect out of his preoccupation.
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