In response to my original post on not overlooking a prospect because you think they're building is beautiful, they're too new, etc., Sean Woodruff replies with this valuable story from his sales career.
10 years ago, as a sales manager of an industrial supply company, I was training a new salesman. We drove past a small office building with signage indicating a dentist office, an insurance office and a manufacturer. A manufacturer? Huh?
In an effort to teach the lesson you are teaching here, I told my new rep to pull into the parking lot. We cold called the manufacturer who was just getting started. His office was actually in the basement.
Later I would come to find out that he owned the building and the plant was in another location. This was just the home office.
A year later I became the Vice President of the company and have been in that position since. I own stock in the company and have earned over a million dollars by not judging this 'book'.
We now have plants in two states and are developing new products as fast as we can. We still operate a multi-million dollar company from the same basement.
Thanks, Sean. Great story, valuable lesson.
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