A recent post on the ICS message board discussed the benefit of persistence as it relates to to commercial marketing. I wanted to open up this discussion with you here. Here are my comments from the ICS board...
Fred,
Well done!
I agree with your findings 100%
Let me relate an experience that taught me this very lesson...
I once approached an an account (it was actually a floor care account) where they had 18 local convenience stores. I walked into their home office and made a brief presentation to the woman sitting at the front desk. She stopped me and told me I needed to talk to Steve. So I asked her if I could speak with him - and she told me that Steve was not in. So I gave her one of my flyers and a business card and I left.
A couple of weeks later I stopped back in. This time I asked for Steve. Again, the woman told me that Steve wasn't in. So I left another flyer for Steve. By the way, it was the same typewritten flyer I had left the first time (this was 1985 - prior to "desktop publishing").
A couple of weeks later I called again. SAME STORY. So I left another flyer. This routine continued again and again and again, until one day the nice young woman at the desk said that Steve would see me.
When Steve walked around the corner, I introduced myself to him. It didn't really surprise me when he acknowledged that he already knew who I was. After all, I had already left a ream of flyers for him. My persistence was about to pay off!!!
Steve asked me if I could do a demo on one of their stores that evening. Well of course I could. That started a relationship that lasted through the next 18 years for my young company.
Now lets look at the numbers. In the early years of that account we were charging $40 a store (it took about 30 minutes to service each small store and they were all relatively close to each other). We serviced 18 stores a week at $40 a pop - yielding $720 per week (not counting strip jobs which brought in even more money). So we grossed a minimum of $3100 per month --- more than $37,000 per year. And over the years our price continued to increase and we also charged considerably more for strip jobs, so those numbers continued to swell.
We serviced that group of convenient stores for 18 years. During those years we extracted in excess of $750,000 from this single account. Over 3/4 of a million dollars for being persistent! And let me tell you, as a young man in my 20's and then my 30's - that regular weekly account kept the wheels of my company greased nicely!
The bottom line is that persistence pays off. Here is the lesson that I learned. On the first day that I approached this account, they were not inclined to switch their floor care service. Nor were they ready to switch their service the next time I called, or the next time, or the next time. But eventually they were ready to make a switch, and they were willing to at least consider what I could offer when that time finally came.
We need to keep in mind that when when we make our initial calls on these prospects, they are most likely NOT ready to consider making changes to their carpet cleaning program at that particular moment in time. TODAY is probably not the day they were just itching to find a new service provider. But eventually that itch will undoubtedly develop. And if we've been watering that seed - it is very probable that we may become the company who gets a chance to scratch that itch. Persistence definitely pays off when it comes to acquiring commercial accounts.
This coming Tuesday evening I will be a guest presenter on the Lone Wolf webinar. The topic will be Commercial Marketing. Drop in if you can...
Title: Commercial Marketing
Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM CDT
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
Lone Wolf sign up Space is limited.
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Rick Gelinas