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Tell em Columbo Sent You!

Last week I received a lead in my territory from our manufacturer!!!  OMG, these are rare nowadays!

 

Before I called the Decision Maker, I did my due diligence and checked the company out on their web site.  I got a feel for what they do and what they would use one of my color systems for.

 

Today, I made the call, spoke with the DM and was not surprised that I was one of four companies that they had called to get a proposal on replacing their aging 75ppm color system.  It seems the incumbent is not even in the picture, however I'll find out more tomorrow when I meet with the Controller.

 

This will be a net new appointment, probably 75ppm color or larger and quite a bit of color volume.  I readied a few pricing scenarios, have my power point presentation ready, but, I needed something else.  I need to find a way to tips the odds in my favor right?  That's what we all look for, that little something that will make us stand out from the field of competitors.

 

I visited their web site again, went to the about us page and was able to see the name of the President, the VEEP and also the person I was going to meet with.  I then checked the President and the VEEP to see if we had anything or anyone in common.  Nada, nothing for the two of them.  I then focused on the person I was going to meet with (Controller). 

 

When I brought up the Controllers page, I noticed that the Controller has 240 connections.  However, what I was looking for was someone that was connected to me!  There has got to be that one connection!!!  Down on the left side of the page, there it was!  A level one connection, woohoo, I thought.  I then noticed that the level one connection was the owner of copier dealership ( Through the P4P Hotel ).  Dam, what am I going to do now, the Controller has a direct relationship with owner of another copier company and not a bad one either.

 

Thus, I finished preparing my presentation, along with the questions I need to ask (to see if I can use a tie down feature). I know up front this is going to be a lesson in futility, however, I got nothing to lose right?

 

Thus, this is going to be my last question, and probably going to do this as I'm packing up my bags. "Oh, just one more thing, I noticed that you are Level One connection of Mr. Dealer Owner on LinkedIn and......." This is where I would like to hear from others,  how would you finish that sentence or would you even make that statement at all??

 

Let me know.

 

-=Good Selling=-

 

 

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Comments (8)

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If he gave you their lease pricing, he'll give them yours. You were right to hold that back and if price is all important, before I gave him mine, I would ask if all other proposals are in. If yes, then I'd ask, "If my price is best, any reason we couldn't go forward", etc. If price is all important and all prices are in, what else id there to do?

Thus, I took all the comments and made zero mention of the LinkedIn connection. I did ask about all of the other players and received.

 

Names of the three other vendors, machine models, and monthly lease pricing for each of them.  AS predicted price will play the most important part of the buy in, however, I was able to get me and my company to the top of the list (did not give the price yet)m due to the knowledge that I brought to table for automating a workflow process.

 

Gotta just figure out the pricing now.

 

Thanks to everyone

Art, I would not ask that question. They may not be in the deal and you do not need another competitor. I might ask however how important relationships are. That will tell you a lot about him.

I also try to see who they do business with to try and connect with someone who I know that might know a c-level person inside your prospect. Just thoughts. Carl

Sent from my iPad

> On Feb 17, 2015, at 10:33 PM, Print4Pay Hotel <alerts@hoop.la> wrote:
>
I agree with dr print.  I always ask who my competition is and I know them well enough now to ask which rep it is.  I've found lately with one company the owner has been traveling on appointments with a new rep.  I've been using this to our advantage as the owner of that company is quiet an aged fellow that knows little about our industry anymore. 

Find out who your competition is and if that company is listed, ask how they came about selecting them (since you mentioned the incumbent is out).  Ultimately find out what the decision making criteria is and show them why you're the best.
I would ask him - Who else are you going to involve in this process. If he mentions the name of the owner’s company, ask how do you know him. You may need to ask a follow up question to get to the owners name. If he does not mention the owners company don’t bring them up, you may end up putting that company in play. You never know how well he knows the controller. I might have 1,000 linked in connections, some of them I may not think of using. That’s my advice
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