First Meetings.

Floorwizard

I read in a builder magazine about meeting people and giving them your card. For instance, I am in flooring. Let's say I overhear a couple people chatting while in the elevator, and I found out one of them is a new home builder in my area, If I want to give the guy my card, I have about 30 seconds to make a good impression and tell him what I can offer him.
Before I read this article, I probably would have introduced myself, gave him my card, gave him some spheel about the company I work for or whatever, and I probably wouldn't have gotten a call back.
When in fact, what really needs to happen, is tell him in 30 seconds what I can do for HIM. Any shmoe can give a name and say HI, and tell the guy who they work for. But if I tell him something like " My company specializes in cutting cost of materials to builders, providing customer service for their buyers, and increasing productivity with a hard work ethic" It sure beats "my name is BLANK and I work at a flooring store"
After reading it, I am going to start thinking about what I say alot more carefully.

remember, you have about 30 seconds in this kind of a situation. Better start practicing!

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"

Mike Finley

Great advice. When I am the one spending money the only thing I want to hear from somebody I am going to spend it on is what they can do for me... not what they do. If I talk to 20 vendors I might be lucky to run into one who understands that.

Grumpy

I agree 100%. We are all selfish, especially when spending money. What is the benefit to me?

On a side note, once my cousin has his Shirt business setup to operate, I am going to buy a bunch of Shirts with printing on the back that says things like "I replace roofs!" or "Is your roof leaking?" etc... Wear those around town, to the grocery market, gas station etc...

TimWieneke

The sales calls I do for the staffing business are such that I have to drive around to jobs I've never seen before, walk onto the job and find contractors I've never met before, and stop them in the middle of their work to make a sales call.

As you can imagine, under these situation I literally have about 30 seconds to make a sales call (would you let some anonymous guy interrupt your work for more than 30 seconds?) I've had to make an effective 30 second "commercial" that I taped on a digital voice recorder (has an internal time so I can check the length). I wrote it out and then kept cutting it down until I could tell them I'm 1. make it clear not tryin to make a hard sell, just want to give them info 2. give an overview of our services in a normal speaking speed in 30 seconds and 3. end with the sentence, "Is this something you think your company could use?"

A lot of the time I'll get a "yeah, do you have a card" so I give them a card and a 1-page explanation of our services. I then ask for their card so I can send them a rate sheet. It's a quick way to build a rapport as a no-nonsense business person but it's also a nice soft sell that doesn't put pressure on a person when they're not in the "decision-making" mode. They've been very effective for what I do and I imagine they will work well for "spur of the moment" sales calls.

Tim

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As Steve the Foreman would say, "Forgive him Lord, for he doesn't know what he's doing."

Teetorbilt

Grumpy, I did the T-shirt thing many years ago. Negotiated the artwork and bought seconds from a wholesaler, pretty much cut the printer out of the package. Times were tough then.
My logo was from a felt finger puppet that my son had made in pre-school. Those shirts quickly became one of the hottest items in 3 counties, not because of me, but for the graphics. I gave away the first 100 and should have gone into the T-shirt business after that, people were offering up to $50 for a shirt.
I'm going into the hospital for a few days starting tomorrow but I have made a note to post the graphics when I get out, Thurs. If you don't hear from me after that, I'll be in the morgue and won't be back.

PipeGuy

Godspeed Teetor.

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Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for...for just such an emergency. -Foghorn Leghorn

Grumpy

I think you told me that story before Teetor.

Good luck at the butcher shop... errr I mean hospital. I hate those places.