| Author |
Message |
Taek-Ho Kwon (Stickanddice)
Junior Member
Username: Stickanddice
Post Number: 234
Registered: 11-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 12:36 am: | |
Oh, by the way...
If you are planning on closing some of the bigger companies (Holiday Inn, etc), be prepared to have a probe shoved up your business's (expletive deleted). If you are planning to close the entire franchise, the investigations can be annoying and exhausting.
Cold calling is a bit tacky if you ask me for some of the bigger chains. It's a fact of life for the "Mom and Pop" stores out there. |
Taek-Ho Kwon (Stickanddice)
Junior Member
Username: Stickanddice
Post Number: 233
Registered: 11-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 12:34 am: | |
John,
I have a business that does, well...business...with some supermarkets in the western region and we are also looking into closing some deals in the east coast.
Shoot me an email and I may be able to get you an audience for some of these supermarkets. I know this type of thing would be a godsend for their produce section. |
DES (Sickspeed)
Advanced Member
Username: Sickspeed
Post Number: 3291
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 10:05 pm: | |
John... As an ex-salesmans who hates sales, whether it's business to business or business to consumer or whatever, it's a numbers game... Whether you do it or you have someone else do it, it's all in the numbers... As a stock broker, i'm sure this is all too familiar to you... But yes, even with things like anti-slip thingies, it's still a numbers game... Sales is sales... Good luck, by the way... Let us know how things turn out... |
John (Cohiba_man)
New member
Username: Cohiba_man
Post Number: 41
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 3:48 pm: | |
Thanks, all VERY good ideas, keep em' coming.. |
Jere Dunham (Questioner)
Member
Username: Questioner
Post Number: 333
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 2:50 pm: | |
John,
You might consider putting together some statistics about how much it costs businesses who have suffered from "slip and fall" accidents. Someone steps on wet floor on the produce aisle of your local supermarket and slips backward, hitting their head on the tile floor. Huge lawsuit coming their way. Workman's comp claims due to an employee on the line at McDonalds slipping near the cleaning sink and twisting an ankle or falling and breaking a wrist trying to stop the fall. Got the idea?
As Jim said. Put together a good presentation of why this WILL save them money in the long term and have a nice color brochure or even one of the new CD discs done up that you can drop off. Once you get in "just to drop it off", you have your foot in the door and get to see someone face to face.
I would certainly look to the larger sales by targeting the corporate offices rather than the individual businesses. That is how Ross Perot got started with IBM. He saw the big picture and went straight to the companies that could give him the biggest orders. Don't waste your time calling on 50 individual customers to get maybe 5-7 orders. Call on corporations that can give you 25,50,100 orders on one call. Getting thru to them may take some work but it will pay off with huge dividends.
Oh, BTW, Ross Perot found out very quickly that IBM was going to cap how much he could make in a year no matter how much he sold. He soon was reaching his cap for the year no later that March so he decided to strike out on his own. That is how EDS came to be. |
Jim E (Jimpo1)
Intermediate Member
Username: Jimpo1
Post Number: 1620
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 2:18 pm: | |
Good luck calling and getting a meeting, but that would be the goal. Develop a 30 second pitch that outlines features and benefits, then get on the phone. Or put together a nice brochure, drop it off in person. |
John (Cohiba_man)
New member
Username: Cohiba_man
Post Number: 40
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 2:16 pm: | |
Thanks for all the responses so far, good info...
Quote: "It's called "Cold Calling". It's a fact of life when you're a salesman. I'd absolutely show up at hotels, you only have to score on a few to make it worth your while."
I know about sales, I used to be a stockbroker but I had no experience in business to business cold calling, I know that business to consumer cold calling is very common....
Also, would you all reccomend face to face and show them samples etc right off, or face to face and schedule a meeting/presentation, or a call and schedule a meeting/presentation? |
Jim Schad (Jim_schad)
Member
Username: Jim_schad
Post Number: 975
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 2:13 pm: | |
If you do call on the mgr of the establishment he may brush you off. If it is a chain you will need to get to the Operations Mgr for the area/region. If you convice them then he may use your product for all stores in the area. If you don't like cold calling you can always use color mailers. Expect a 2% to 3% repsonse, but it is easier than walking all over town. |
Jere Dunham (Questioner)
Member
Username: Questioner
Post Number: 329
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 2:12 pm: | |
Check to see if the hotels/motels you intend to call on are franchise or privately owned. If franchise, you will need to talk to someone who can make the decision for all the ones they own. You can make one call and maybe get the business for 10-15 different locations. Find out who owns the McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's etc. franchises near you. Make a presentation for their bathrooms and kitchen/preparation areas. Another chance to make a really big sale with only one call. Same goes for chain restaurants, cafeterias, convenience stores, supermarkets.
They could all use an anti-skip treatment at least on certain areas of their businesses and it only make sense to make one call at the central office rather than many at each location when the person at the central office is going to be the one making the decision anyway.
Let us know how it turns out.
Best regards, |
Jim E (Jimpo1)
Intermediate Member
Username: Jimpo1
Post Number: 1618
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 1:56 pm: | |
It's called "Cold Calling". It's a fact of life when you're a salesman. I'd absolutely show up at hotels, you only have to score on a few to make it worth your while. |
Brian C Thenhaus (1day)
New member
Username: 1day
Post Number: 31
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 1:47 pm: | |
IMO, it is a bit tacky, but I have some friends who make six figures selling telecom packages to small and medium business door to door. Just be ready for some rude responses! |
John (Cohiba_man)
New member
Username: Cohiba_man
Post Number: 39
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2003 - 1:44 pm: | |
I'm going to be opening a small franchise in the near future, which provides an anti-slip treatment for tile flooring and bathtubs etc. I haven't done this sort of thing before and I was wondering if in the business community it is considered tacky to show up at a business (a holiday inn for example) and pitch them on my product, or alternatively, call them and pitch them... It seems a little tacky to me, but maybe thats how its done, I just want to know if I would be within my bounds to solicit thier business directly... Thanks |