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Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person "The Hunt for Wide Format"

 

I wasn't too excited that "The Hunt for Wide Format" was going to take place on a rainy day in Jersey.  I had two choices, one was to start the hunt in the rain or go back to office and make phone calls. I choose to do the hunt because working the phone lately has been terrible. In addition I can't afford to waste time when you can't get DM's on the phone.

My day started with a 9:30AM appointment with an existing account that has three separate equipment leases.  I placed a courtesy call a few weeks ago to see if their devices were running well. About a week later, my client called and wanted to meet. Which told me that there were some issue (none that I knew of).  By the end of the meeting I had addressed both issues and left with an upgrade opportunity. Not a bad way to start off the day I thought.

I pre-planned my hunt yesterday.  I culled my CRM for fifteen or so net new prospects for wide format and mixed in a few existing clients that I hadn't seen in sometime. The plan was for twenty-five stops after my first appointment.

I was armed with Ricoh MP6700SP wide format brochures and business cards.  In addition I carried a notebook bag that I received from a recent show that had Engineering embroidered on the out side of the bag. Thought that might help with the net new clients.

One of my stops was to an existing wide format Architect.  Luckily my Architect was in the office and what was suppose to be a meet and greet turned into a thirty minute appointment.  My client did not have a need to replace the existing device, however we yucked it up about getting old, the high taxes in New Jersey, and thought of leaving New Jersey.  My client then asked what the rest of my day was like and I responded with telling him about my next two stops.  He then told me that hew knew both principals and had worked with both principals in the past. In addition he asked that I tell both of them that my client said hello.

Alrighty then, I had a couple of additional arrows in my quiver when I tracked down the next two prospects.   Back into the car and down the road I went to my next two stops.  With those next two stops, I was not able to connect with either DM because they weren't in the office.  But, I was able to make the connection with the receptionist that I had a message for both DM's.  As soon as I got back in the car I accessed Linkedin and sent inmails to both DM's to connect. I'm good with that because I can make the connection between all three clients with the next email, inmail, or phone call.

The rest of the day proved to be unfruitful, not many of the DM's were around (I did not expect them to be). I was able to make note of three additional suspects with new construction projects that I passed.

One other funny note for today. I've been wanting to stop in this one account for sometime. I noticed that they moved about a year ago, however I kept driving by their place.  Today as I drove past their building slowly, I spied what type of wide format mfp that they have. I was stunned because the wide format was placed in front of a very large window. Soon as I saw it I knew the manufacturer.  I doubled back and then knocked on that door also.

Did I get any wide format opportunities today? No, I didn't. Did I get the opportunity to learn more about each business? Yes.  Was I able to identify future suspects?  Yup

Thus, there you have it.  One day each week every week for the rest of the year this old dog will be out in the field hunting wide format and any other copiers that I spy.

-=Good Selling=-

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