Tony Shelton
BS Detector, Esquire
DJ, it took us a little more than three hours to whittle that list down. After the initial public records research that produced the big list (took two in the office more than a month) it took approximately 4 months of at least two full days per week to winnow the chaff and cut the list down to 40 and not one minute of it was spent on cold calls. It still isn't.
It takes a long time to generate the kind of trust between you and a client that results in a tight bond that is not easily broken. Out here cold calling is just like the lottery and rarely produces results that are long lasting. Any customer who will fire their current company because of a cold call and one meeting with you and your awesome sales pitch will fire you just as soon as he gets another cold caller with game.
Lastly, for everybody else reading this thread, DJ has some great advice. We would probably do well to take his advice on the timing of the followups and mailers.
There is one aspect I'd take issue with though. I, personally, don't ever BS a customer with any BS at all. If I have an appointment available I would never try to "take control" of the sale by pretending to be busy. One lie leads to another, then another, then another. One might call it salesmanship, I think it's lying and will eventually come back to bite you. All it takes is one lie to be caught and from that point on you are forever marked as a liar. The PM community is not as large as one might think. It doesn't take long to burn an entire market. Do whatever you feel is right, I just don't do that.
Just my opinion.
It takes a long time to generate the kind of trust between you and a client that results in a tight bond that is not easily broken. Out here cold calling is just like the lottery and rarely produces results that are long lasting. Any customer who will fire their current company because of a cold call and one meeting with you and your awesome sales pitch will fire you just as soon as he gets another cold caller with game.
Lastly, for everybody else reading this thread, DJ has some great advice. We would probably do well to take his advice on the timing of the followups and mailers.
There is one aspect I'd take issue with though. I, personally, don't ever BS a customer with any BS at all. If I have an appointment available I would never try to "take control" of the sale by pretending to be busy. One lie leads to another, then another, then another. One might call it salesmanship, I think it's lying and will eventually come back to bite you. All it takes is one lie to be caught and from that point on you are forever marked as a liar. The PM community is not as large as one might think. It doesn't take long to burn an entire market. Do whatever you feel is right, I just don't do that.
Just my opinion.