Today for reasons unknown I had a successful day setting up meetings for the time I am in Durban. My business partner has been unable to set up meetings with these prospective clients and I managed to land all four. Maybe it his approach or something else he is doing wrong and need to dig a little deeper and find out why this could not be achieved. I do think he used emails instead of a phone call and why he has not had any success because emails people can ignore.
I have to travel down to accompany granny who is looking after her mother who fell over and has now had a hip operation. The plan before this was to travel down for two days and spend time at the house that is being renovated for selling in the next month. One week is too long to sit around and this is no holiday so seeing clients is being proactive and this could end up being a lucrative 7 days.
Today was like any other day and maybe the stars were aligned or something because this never falls into place like it did today. There are also two appointments scheduled for when I return to Johannesburg after my week long trip.
I am no fan of Durban even though I lived there for many years and maybe it is just too small after experiencing life elsewhere. When I worked in Durban I virtually knew everyone due to the promotional work I did combining this with sporting events. The company car full of livery would have cars flashing their lights saying hello when driving around the city and outskirts. I wish i had all those contacts today as this was thirty years ago and people have moved on. Guaranteed I will bump into people I know and that could open more doors so the 7 days will be busy. Where I am staying is a very upmarket gated community and across the road is the majority owner of one of the retail giants in South Africa who I have met before and actually helped him with some research work many years ago before his business was so big.
What this did though was give me a grounding to talk to anyone and being a people person can get through most doors others cannot. my business partner will be coming with me on my appointments so at least he can watch and learn and maybe give him some selling tools he may be lacking. I just presumed he was good at doing this sort of selling thing because he is highly successful and maybe I overestimated his abilities.
The training I received at the cigarette company was unlike any other I have seen as we had an entire in house television studio designed to help improve your interaction with others. Not everyone is comfortable in front of cameras or dealing with people and do not think this is something you can necessarily train and you have it or you don't. Cameras or no cameras made no difference as I do think one has to be natural in what you do and selling is not one big act and is more of a game.
Every prospective client will offer different challenges and it is for you to read not only what what they require plus their expectations, but also the character of the person you are dealing with. If you can get along with the people you are dealing with then this is half the battle won which tends to result in positive outcomes.
All the sales people I know who have had success have one thing in common and that they are likeable people and are very good listeners. If you listen and allow the other person to talk more often than not they give you a selling angle with you fulfilling their needs.
