ne ?
Now , let ’ s imagine REAL salesmanship and leadership existed in these companies . The Fairy Salesmother visits , waves her magic wand , and suddenly , there ’ s a professional and effective sales program in place . Now , instead of having some goofball with greasy hair tucked under a baseball cap who stinks of smoke and is talking to their friends on their cellphone while I patiently wait to ask them what it would cost to fit my 9,000-square-foot home with the retractable screens they were selling ( and who didn ’ t hang up but just held the phone away from their mouth and said , “ You need help ?”), someone actually gets a friendly , enthusiastic , and well-trained SALESPERSON to WORK the booth . They address people as they walk by , do not have their nose glued to their cellphone the whole time , and who actually attempt to ask some closing questions and ask for my email address — or heck , even a mailing address ( gasp ) — that they type into an iPad on the spot so it instantly gets entered into the company ’ s CRM , which then automatically associates it with that show for ROI purposes and kicks off a series of automated messages designed to get me into the showroom . Maybe one of the tasks set up is to mail me a Shock-and-Awe box with an authoritative book , a box of popcorn to entice me to watch their well-crafted sales presentation , along with a book of happy client testimonials , a client bill of rights , a guarantee certificate , and a personal , handwritten note from the person in the booth thanking me for my time and offering me a bonus , discount , or other incentive to entice me to buy NOW . And then maybe it triggers the salesperson to actually call me and follow up the following week .
Now , stretch your imagination a bit further ... Let ’ s imagine there ’ s actually some MANAGEMENT going on . That the sales
manager or owner of the company actually goes on-site with the rep for at least part of the show to ensure they have the pitch down and that they ’ re capturing prospects ’ information correctly before setting the sales guys loose with no supervision for the four days of the event . Let ’ s imagine they actually sit down with the rep after the event and review all the leads that have come in , questioning each one to find out what happened , what the next steps were , who ’ s likely to close , etc . And let ’ s go wild and assume that the owner / manager actually picks up the phone and secret-shops 1 out of every 10 leads who didn ’ t book an appointment or who didn ’ t buy to check up and see what went wrong .
And in a complete flight of fancy , let ’ s imagine that after a few weeks of these productivity and sales reviews , there are actual consequences and people actually lose their jobs for not following a fully detailed sales process or for simply being sloppy and lazy with the leads that were produced . Unheard of !
I ’ ll bet you a dollar to a doughnut that many of the reps / companies that were there produced ZERO return for their investment of time and money , complaining all the while about the show , the lack of qualified prospects , etc ., etc . You know , I don ’ t expect everyone to be as experienced and capable at sales and marketing as I am , but COME ON ! How do these people actually stay in business ? And if YOU want to make sure you ’ re not in the same boat , you had better get to work on crafting a marketing / sales process , then constantly review , tweak , and INSPECT IT to make sure what you want to be done is actually being done . The SAME goes for the technical / operations side of the house . Don ’ t expect what you don ’ t INSPECT . Remember the Boy Scout motto : Be prepared . n
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