Coffee is For Closers
I have had a very humbling past few weeks. I found myself in a situation where I needed to cold call (after cold e-mailing), a significant amount of people who had no idea I existed prior, and essentially asked them for money to partner with me at the upcoming Graphics Of The Americas.
What did I learn? I am NOT a closer. I won’t get the Glengarry leads, or win a Cadillac Eldorado, or the set of steak knives for that matter. Luckily I work for myself, or third prize would have been mine! Closers know what I’m talking about.
It wasn’t shocking to me that I had no sales technique because I am a buyer and used to being on the easy side where I control things. Once that flipped, not only did my world fall apart, but I also realized I had no idea about the art of sales, or any style.
A-I-D-A. Attention, Interest, Decision, Action.
I honestly think my biggest problem was confidence. I believed in the Print Media Centr partnership package I was offering, but not so much in how to make it happen. I was uncomfortable and I’m pretty sure I made a few people equally as uncomfortable. At one point I even stopped my spiel and asked for feedback. Awkward.
Then I decided I needed to first tell people who I was, and what Print Media Centr is, and why that should matter to them. So I tried that a few times but found myself rolling my own eyes about halfway through and wishing I would get to my own point.
About 15 calls in, I changed tactics again. This time I would just assume that the person had read my e-mail, and that I was calling to follow up and see if they had any questions. This went a little smoother, and I think it’s because I sounded confident. A few people even found the e-mail in their inbox and reviewed it with me. Then I got the “ok, well now I need to pass it along to the real person who makes such decisions,” but that was certainly better than crickets.
- Categories:
- Business Management - Marketing/Sales
Deborah Corn is the Intergalactic Ambassador to The Printerverse at Print Media Centr, a Print Buyerologist, international speaker and blogger, host of Podcasts From The Printerverse, cultivator of Print Production Professionals the No. 1 print group on LinkedIn, Girl No. 1 at Girls Who Print, host of #PrintChat every Wednesday at 4PM ET on Twitter, the founder of International Print Day and the founder of #ProjectPeacock. She is the recipient of several industry honors and sits on the board of the The Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi, and is an advisor for the Advertising Production Club of NYC.
Deborah has 25+ years of experience working in advertising as a Print Producer and now works behind the scenes with printers, suppliers and industry organizations helping them create meaningful relationships with customers and members, and achieve success with their social media, content marketing, event marketing and sales endeavors.
Twitter: @PrintMediaCentr
