Springing forward

Mar 08 2009

It should be no surprise to anyone in the business of selling anything nowadays that sales cycles are being lengthened by our poor economy. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just spring forward to the point that our prospects were actually ready to buy? And without losing an hour of sleep?

Well, it doesn’t work that way. It’s taking everyone a little longer nowadays to close business and it seems that instead of complaining about it, we should consider ways that we can use this extra lag time to our advantage.

A couple of sales people pushing an Internet marketing solution came into our office the other day. They didn’t have an appointment; apparently they were walking the building and introducing themselves. They asked if we might be interested in purchasing said marketing solution. I told them that I was familiar with their solution and that several of our clients use it.

I let them know that we were not interested as of this point, but that since our business was actually a marketing agency, we might be interested in scheduling a time to sit down and discuss ways we might refer business to each other. I thought this was a nice invitation to extend the conversation and develop a relationship that could be mutually beneficial whether we ever used their service or not.

They expressed some interest at the time, though they did not follow up for several days and their follow up was essentially a one sentence email referencing attached articles lauding the wonders of their service. It seems that these guys had one goal and one goal only in mind — to make a quick sale. And even worse, they ignored all the feedback I had given them throughout our discussion: yes, I am familiar with what you do, no I am not interested in purchasing and maybe, since we have complimentary businesses, we should look for ways to refer business.

Instead, they seemed bent on selling me now based on a five minute conversation had during a cold call. This all goes back to what I wrote about last week regarding value. Show me that you’re willing to listen to my needs, show me that you’re truly interested in my business and show me how you can save me time or money and we can build a long term relationship. There are no shortcuts, no “spring 1-hour aheads”, no “Advance to Go, collect $200″ in sales and marketing today. In fact, I believe the shortest route to a sale in this environment is in relationship building and creating trust.

And side note… No matter what industry you’re in, whether it’s marketing, real estate, technology, etc., there’s no reason to buy from a complimentary firm in your industry that isn’t willing to give you referrals in exchange for your business. It’s a demonstration of a deeper partnership and a long-term commitment to your company’s success.