- Paragraph 1: Have you ever been in a situation where you approached someone new and they rejected or ignored you? How did that experience impact you? Did you give up or push forward in order to overcome the initial reaction?
- Paragraph 2: What has this experience taught you about being persistent that you can leverage in your future as an OD professional? What has this class taught you that could have helped you handle the original situation more positively?
Part 1:
I have participated in a franchise trade show, so I think it goes without saying that I was on the business end of many, many rejections, some of which were by folks who had long given up on being polite that day. I did not give up and continued pushing, mostly because my bosses were present and very, very intensely of the opinion that one must be aggressive and volume is key. To be fair, there was some data backing this up that they were privy to – i.e. they knew the approximate numbers for a “funnel” to convert into a sale for what they were selling: a franchise. However, this is a pretty blunt instrument of measurement, and the “funnel” mentality is arguably not very accurate these days (or was ever) and makes a few key assumptions, one of which being that you need QUALIFIED leads not just leads. Long story short, I persevered with everyone who would talk to me, because we had to reach a number to be allowed to go home. Probably not the best. We got a few quality leads I think, but in general I don’t think any sales were made from the 3 days of leads from the trade show. However, they did something right (maybe changed methods?) because, although I left the company for something else, I hear they actually did close some sales a few months later in different locations.
This experience, and talking with one of the bosses who felt that the volume method was probably not best, solidified my opinion that a more targeted, authentic approach is probably better. Granted, just being at a trade show qualifies the lead somewhat, but it heavily depends on industry etc. “Pushing through” usually just resulted in someone giving you contact info to leave them alone.
Part 2:
I learned that it’s important to have a good process, and do it until it works (to a certain extent). It appears the bosses knew what they were doing, as they have been successful since – it probably just needed some refining and perhaps a different approach to whom they were selling to. It’s not always fun, either. I did sales with them (staffing company) that were not franchise related also, and I hated to admit it, but a lot of it was just volume. People kind of needed what you were selling, or they didn’t, and you couldn’t become disheartened because they might need what you were selling, just 6 months later than you had originally reached out. There is a lot going on with other companies, and catering to vendors and sales is frequently not their priority, even in the most functional of companies (and many are not very functional in certain aspects). For larger accounts, the relationships were absolutely key. You had to target a certain decision maker and work on it for months, hoping they stayed with their current company long enough to buy your services. In that sense, persistence is key.
One of the bosses was incredibly pushy and just fish-in-a-barrel when it came to sales; I hated that style, but he actually succeeded just through sheer force of will many times. That is definitely something I could have integrated to this original experience, including the aforementioned lessons – sometimes it isn’t glamorous or doesn’t feel particularly smart or innovative, but you just have to sell consistently over, and over again until you figure out what works or get lucky with the right target. Sometimes. SOMETIMES. At the very least, use the “no” as a learning experience and figure out your best chances for a yes.
