Iam sure that most of you remember Rodney Dangerfield , the American standup comedian , actor , producer , screenwriter and author . He became known for this selfdepreciating one liner humor . He became famous for his humor about “ I don ’ t get no respect .” A couple of his lines were pretty good . “ My wife and I were happy for twenty years , then we met .” “ I get no respect . The way my luck is running , if I was a politician , I would be honest ,” “ My psychiatrist told me I was crazy , and I said I want a second opinion . He said okay , you ’ re ugly too .”
How does this relate to a salesperson ? When the salespeople are occasionally treated with overt disrespect and indignity , they should be thankful that they option of eliminating the lead or discontinuing active marketing . I call it the big “ D ” for delete . Yes , delete , delink , defriend . Poof ! they no longer exist in my world . This should only be done when the salesperson is absolutely someone that they have no interest in working with this person in the future . A few prospective and budding relationships are not worth the abuse .
The salesperson has 3 kinds of lead interfaces
1 ) The salesperson works diligently over a period to develop many relationships where the person ( s ) becomes mutually familiar and appears pleased to hear from you . Familiarity , mutual trust , concern , and kindred values help grow the relationships . Periodic personal contact is a must .
The business motive is to develop ongoing friendships and mutual respect where you have a high probability of referring business back and forth .
2 ) The salesperson may follow up leads where the person on the receiving end will take the calls and be pleasant , willing to develop the familiar part and the friendship part , but somehow never find him or herself in a position to deliver business nor reciprocal referrals . The salesperson ’ s awareness of this type of lead will be proven out over time by multiple calls without result . But if you are solicitating or communicating with someone who may or may not have an interest or have other clients who can benefit from your services , the business motive should be understood . This type of lead should be marketed digitally , such as email , direct mail , online presence such as LinkedIn , Facebook and similar mediums or but should be eliminated as a personal contact . The time spent following up personally is limited and should be coveted .
3 ) The salesperson may follow up leads by direct contact , which is short , disrespectful , or condescending . When his occurs , the salesperson should give them another chance in case they just had a bad day . It is best to send them an email which says something like this . “ Thank you for taking my call this morning . In our very short conversation , it appeared that you had little interest in hearing from me . Would it be appropriate that I do not contact you personally in the future ?” Based upon the response you have the option of continuing to call them with a periodic direct call , keeping them in your marketing database for email , LinkedIn , Facebook and other mediums that do not require personal contact . Of course , the last option is the big “ D ”?
74