The Sales Head Office; Selling and Sales Management

Bill Porter is likely the most intriguing sales person you’ve never heard of.

Bill Porter started with the Watkins Company in 1955 selling their products door to door. For those of you that haven’t heard of Watkins, they have been selling natural home and health care products since the late 1800′s. Their roots are as a direct sales organization with reps selling and distributing product door to door.

Bill Porter has cerebral palsy and the story of Bill Porter is one of perseverance.

Bill persuaded a Watkins manager in 1955 to give him their worst route, a 10 mile stretch in Portland, in order to prove himself. At first he struggled to connect with the homeowners on his route but Bill persevered and over the course of 4 decades built amazing relationships with his`clients. He was named Watkins salesperson of the year in 1989 and knocked doors on his route until 1997.

In 2002 TNT released a made for TV movie called Door to Door based on Bill Porter’s life. William H Macy plays Bill and does an amazing job. If your expecting the Boiler Room or Glengarry Glen Ross you’ll be disappointed. If you are interested in an inspiring story about a sales person that overcame huge odds to produce great results, make the effort to track this movie down.

My current team is generating excellent prospecting activity. They are willing to hit the street every day and meet with business owners to uncover opportunities.

The biggest challenge my team is having is managing follow up; more accurately ensuring that follow up is taking place in a timely fashion.

I was scouring the web the other day and found a video from a Vanouver sales trainer named Shane Gibson.

Shane highlights a great eample of persistant, creative follow up, that ultimately led to a sale. A good lesson for all of us:

2 Right 2 Left Prospecting

If you are doing business in an area of town, an office building or an industrial complex, you should always take 10 minutes and visit each 2 companies to the left and right of the company you are there to see.

If you keep some information packages in your car, you will have everything you need, to walk in and have a very brief, informal meeting with the companies around your customers. Don’t be afraid to tell them why you are in the area – visiting current customers.

In most industries the receptionist is not the decision maker and has little influence. When faced with a live person and not a phone call, though, they will be much more inclined to give up information. If you generate a good list of opening questions to ask the gatekeepers you should have good success at getting a brief, impromptu meeting with the person who you want to speak with.

And the sales cycle begins!

If you did this with a portfolio of 70 clients, you will hit about 280 additional prospects during your regular visits. If you close 5% of those, you have just found 14 new accounts. The 14 new customers would represent approximately $xx,xxx in net new business for your region.

Keys to success:

Yes, it’s basic and straightforward which makes you wonder why so many salespeople drive home or back to the office after a meeting.

3 Wide 3 Deep

Expand Your Knowledge and Sphere of Influence

With any account or prospect there is almost always more than one point of contact that you can be working with. The goal of this program is to find as many of these people as possible to increase your penetration and ownership of the account. By focusing your efforts on expanding relationships to 3 different departments and speak to at lest 3 people in each of the business areas, you have a much better chance and maximizing the potential of your accounts.

When speaking to your customers, remember that all departments have product needs; you just need to find out what they are. If you have existing relationships to work with, once they are qualified, use these relationships to help you penetrate new areas of business.
Some areas of business to focus on are:

• Marketing
• Human Resources
• Training
• Corporate Office (Executive Assistants)
• Purchasing/Procurement/Strategic Sourcing
• Logistics
• Customer Service
• Sales
• Promotions
• Corporate Relations