Took a phone call from a salesperson from a major business magazine my company is considering advertising in.
I raised an objection to him. I said, "You know, right now we advertise on the Internet extensively. We like it because its less expensive, and pretty targeted."
Then I added with a chuckle, "Of course, you're a sales guy...so you probably have a good comeback to answer that objection..."
Then he replied, "Actually, I don't."
I fell silent. He wasn't following the normal phone sales professional "script" that I had imagined.
He went on. "If you have advertising that's working for you, you should keep it. I wouldn't ask you to make room for us in your budget unless you knew that it was best for your company."
We then went on to have about a 10-minute conversation about the media kit he sent me, discussed options, and agreed on a follow-up time to talk. The entire time, he was composed and communicated very clearly.
Before I hung up with him, I knew that he would be a topic for discussion here at LandingTheDeal. He did a great job side-stepping my objection, and re-directing the conversation. The result: Another meeting to discuss the options that he's presenting.
It's always nice to deal with professional salespeople who can answer
questions and diffuse objections. This one did a good job of doing that.
I'm sure that was very refreshing. It's always frustrating when salespeople read from a script and don't even seem to listen to what you're saying. What's even more frustrating is when they can't keep their phone records organized. A few weeks ago I had three different people from the same sales department call me on three consecutive days, asking me to advertise with them. I had to tell them, "I just had this conversation yesterday." Each of the three times I said "No."
framerate.blog.com
Posted by: Clint | October 3, 2006 9:14 PM | Permalink to Comment