Sales Tip: Hold Um or Fold Um You Decide

Problem: Billy had gotten the contact name from a referral at a company he wanted to call. After contacting the buyer at the company he was requested to quote on two products they use on a consistent basis. 

Billy sent quotes that he knew would beat their current supplier prices.  Billy felt if he could get his foot in the door with these two products, he would be able to drive more business from this new company to his company in the future.

Three days latter he called the buyer as instructed to follow-up on the quotes.  The buyer told Billy that she hadn’t had the time to look at the information that was sent, but promised she would get back to him Monday or Tuesday of next week. About this time Sue, Billy’s sales leader came in to visit when he asked her what to do about this situation.

Diagnoses Sue referenced Billy to the information from the book “Baseline Selling” by Dave Kurlan, “getting to first via a walk.” She reminded Billy that what could be happening is he thought his referral alone was all he needed and since he got a free base on balls he could somehow skip some steps in the DNA Solution sales process and go directly home to score.

To verify her point Sue gathered this information in a conversation with Bill

• The quote was given to the buyer because Bill felt she was open to switching suppliers
• The reason for Bill feeling this way was because his strong endorsement from his friend and the fact that she indicated a need to order these two parts.
• Bill priced the two parts very aggressively (no profit) to win a small order today that he could up sell latter.
• He marked the opportunity at third base on the pipeline going home because he felt the low entry price plus great relationship would get him the business
• When asked why she wanted the lower price Billy said it was an assumption on his part plus it was how he had gotten other business in the past when he worked at BC Supply

Bill is running a play called “low entry price”. Billy was tackled out of bounds by Mr. Put Off a 310 lb defensive tackle unfortunately no one was there to blow the whistle.

Sue explained to Billy the play is dead and she is going to blow the whistle and extend a penalty to Billy the runner for a personal foul for taunting Mr. Put Off the defensive lineman. In addition she is going to act as the coach and call and new play.

First Sue explained to Bill how to read the defense. If you call the future client and ask, “have you had time to look at the quote” or “where are you in the process” that is taunting the other team. The reason is your answers are pre wired it is normally, “no I have not had time”, “it is on the top of my pile” or “call me back next week.”

Prescription Sue recommenced a new play called the statue of liberty it goes like this.
Hello Ms Buyer it is Billy, thanks for taking my message. I have a booklet of your data from our visits sitting here on my desk and before I closed this chapter and put the booklet away I wanted to know if you would be going ahead with this? It is Billy call me at 464-8XXX

So now you may be asking will the statue of liberty play work? Don’t know I do know this, if you call and ask if they have read you material they will automatically give you a stall. Remember stalls are for horses not sales people.

Do you have a more that 60% chance this will work? Yes you do, but only if you mean it and you do indeed intend to find a better opportunity than the one you are closing. Just remember hope is not a play you can run to consistently to win the game.