Valeria Maltoni on the world's worst seller.
[I think I may have spoken with him.] An excerpt:
All without once, not even for a minute, listening to and internalizing what I was saying. I ended the call with the request for more information to share with my team. Information I have not received. Sadly, this was his version of lead generation – pushy, unkind, and one-way. A conversation it most certainly was not.
Now, I have no problem with sales professionals. I think they are very special people – it takes patience, resiliency and ability to adapt to be in sales. Today, it also takes a generous reserve of emotional intelligence. If this is your sales team, pull them off the phones and teach them some manners.
[HT: Tim Berry ]
1 comment:
So let's look at it another way.From the perspective of a salesman who markets to advertising agencies - often I'll get calls from prospective clients who need prices, prototypes, handholding, designs, sketches, etc all within a compressed time frame. I try to service them as best I can by pushing my team to respond under pressure, show the prospective client our best designs (often offering 3 even if they only ask for one). We'll go thru one round, two rounds, then when they come back for a third I begin questioning whether there is something wrong with our designs, is their client genuinely interested in this program, and considering that we are doing this on spec, is it possible to begin billing for the dozens of hours we're putting into this project.
I'm usually met with either arrogance or disbelief that I would even question the needs of a client with the promise that there's "plenty of work here" even if this project doesn't come thru.
At which point I ask for a commitment - either on the project or on payment for hours put in.
At which point, the relationship comes to an abrupt halt.
It doesn't mean I won't do somersaults in the future. But I think that professional courtesy, honesty, and straight talk should be found on both sides of the selling fence.
There's more than just buying and selling going on here.
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