Today Barbara had a wonderful reminder of persistence in business.
Let me explain…
Late this afternoon, Barbara got a follow up call from a Wine Society. Now we’ve bought stuff from them before and been very happy with them.
And over the years they’ve kept in contact. We’d get a call from them every few months with an offer.
And there were times we’d buy something, but most times we didn’t.
But we gave them permission to keep calling and call they did. Not intrusively, but persistently.
So about a month ago, a telemarketer from the Society called. Barbara wasn’t interested at that moment, so she asked the telemarketer to call back in a month.
Today was that day.
And the conversation (which is an excellent example of unobtrusive selling) went something like this…
The lady, let’s call her Margaret reminded Barbara that she’d been given permission to call back and had an offer which was a one off delivery (rather than their normal 12 month supply).
Barbara got to choose from a couple of options (note the fact that restricting the options can actually lead to sales as there’s less confusion in the customer’s mind regarding choices – think cafeteria with 50 things on the menu versus 10).
Margaret stressed the value of the offer – The wines were selected from vineyards right across Australia, with an average retail price of $16 per bottle. We’d get 12 bottles at a package price making it $13/bottle. Don’t we all love a bargain?
To sweeten the deal they threw in a bonus of12 crystal wine glasses, free delivery and insurance.
I stood there watching Barbara chat away with Margaret and fish out her credit card smiling all the way.
Money well spent she said – “We got a really good deal”. She’s happy and the Wine Society’s happy.
So once again, this reinforces the point – create a system to keep following up with your prospects and clients. Keep accurate records of what your prospects have said and what customers have bought.
Put special offers in front of people. You never know when they’ll buy. (But you can be sure they won’t buy if they don’t know about the offer.)
Margaret knew what we’d bought in the past, what we liked and what we didn’t. She knew exactly when we were last contacted and when we’d given her permission to contact her again.
And on that point, ALWAYS ask for permission to call back. It’s very rarely refused. And SET A DATE to do so. Then when you do call back you can mention that you have permission to do so. Makes it easier on you and you won’t get rejected.
Remember the keys to success. Persistence, follow up and action.
Go sell something!
Rashid.
