This week I received the much anticipated list from the very well connected sales agent who has not really done anything as yet and is unlikely to do so. This lady has been in the logistics industry for over 30 years and apparently knows everyone. I have personally known her for over 20 years and even though she is not my cup of tea have got on well with her.
Last week I convinced her to send through her contacts so at least I could spend some time working on them seeing if I can at least make some progress landing potential clients. Having a contact name in a company is all it takes to find the right person who handles their purchases is the key to getting this done.
Apparently she has lost all confidence in her abilities which for myself is difficult to understand because all she would be doing is making contact with people she already knows. If you are a likeable person then why would they not respond due to the bond or friendship you already have? This for me was already a red flag, but have kept an open mind when dealing with her which has been hard work.
The anticipated list of clients took a week to compose which should have taken 30 minutes at most because she mentioned she had them all written down. Maybe she had them at hand as she has been out of work and had been contacting them for prospective work. I had offered her an olive branch to work for herself being an agent for the packaging business and thought it should be a match made in heaven.
This week I have been contacting the various people on the list and it was actually 11 as 2 I already knew and they are no longer working at those particular companies she listed. The 11 that remained I have so far made contact with 6 of them with 5 being dead ends and only 1 wanting bubble wrap which is product that would cost me to deliver so a no go as well.
There is still hope with the remaining 5, but lets say the enthusiasm has been waning and it is no wonder she has had no sales. The promise was I would work through the list and pass on any commission for successful orders obtained through her contacts. I did notice there were contacts missing that she had previously mentioned and to be honest I had more hope on those companies than what I am working through with this current list.
Apparently there is another list coming so I will cross off the remanding 5 today and put this list to bed. Thankfully this week ahs not been a total bust and have been working according to my own plans and managed to make headway with other clients.
Starting up again is a bit of a déjà vu moment ,but at least I have been down this road before and know what it takes having previously had a successful business in the packaging industry. We closed this last business down due to lack of raw materials during the covid lockdowns and only recently started back up again supplying the Johannesburg region.
There is plenty of hard work that lies ahead to create the base from which to grow and each client added makes us that much stronger. This should be easier than the first time and I am under no illusion or fantasy this will be easy and the process needs to be followed.
