Persistence number: Ron says 8, I say 9.

Tony Shelton

BS Detector, Esquire
Seems like nine is the lucky number.

Three times in the past 7 days the number 9 has been the magic number.

On the ninth stop in just to remind them how much I want the business, last week an HVAC company started me on the first of a boatload of buildings.

Like clockwork I stop in at the front desk of an office complex where I service about 10 business trying to get the complex to hire me for the whole building.

Last week was stop number 9.

Yesterday I got the call, today I met the owner, and according to him, tomorrow I'll know how many of his complexes he wants me to do this spring.

I thought he had two complexes, how many do you think he has? You guessed it.....Nine.

Today was my ninth time to stop in at the State of Nevada department of Buildings and grounds even though I know they are in contract with another company until January of 2010.

I still stop in there to keep my face in front of them.

Today I overheard them talking about getting a company to clean the concrete in front of four State buildings. (They are not sure if the contract has been awarded yet, but tonight I'm emailing my bid just in case)

In these very same places I've been told:

We do our own filters
We're not interested
We've already told you we're not interested
We already have your information, there's no need to fax us more
We'll call you if we change our mind.
Etc, Etc, Etc........ad nauseum

Some of my emails came back "not read".
NONE of my faxes made it to the owner.

I sit in the car and shake sometimes before going in.
Rude rejection makes my stomach sick.
I'm the worst salesman in the world.
I pray about it.
I plan what I am going to say and then I go in there and say something stupid instead and sound like Elmer Fudd.

But in the end, I just keep going there. That's what it takes.
 
You obviously have the gift of gab Tony at least in text. I'm an old cold call guy and I've found 90% of the people are decent and like to talk and realize you are just trying to make a living. The other 10%? They usually have ego problems or don't like their life.

Take a deep breath and go for it. Don't sit in your car and over analyze it. It will get easier I promise. I'm totally comfortable with one on one cold sales calls, but it took a long time. Get me in front of a large group, even mostly people I know and I get lock jaw.

If you haven't read it read: How to Win Friends and Influence People

I you have read it, read it again.
 
Tony

Your motivation is awesome! I can really identify - I'm not a natural salesman but sometimes I do awesome - and sometimes I really let myself down. Why can't I be on every time? One thing - your system is guaranteed to work - you will get jobs period.
 
12 years in sales and marketing and choke up every time. but only when i meet with the big dogs. but thoughout the years I've learnned that they are human too and we all breathe the same air,walk on 2 legs,etc so that makes me chill a bit. en though all me sentences start off with UUUUmmm! thats the only thing i have to loose my wife is a speach tharapist and she tells me that when you get the UUMmms before you start a sentence it sounds like you are un confident in youself or your services and should try not to start a sentence till you get over the UMmmms. but shes not a sales typea girl anyway
 
Have you ever gone to interview for a job you didn't really need or want - you already have a job. And its the best interview you could ever have. If you can get yourself in that mindset ...

How to Win Friends ... definitely required reading, and couple that with a genuine interest in other people and friendliness.

And if you do good work and your into it and you have your own unique equipment or techniques, that makes it easier to give a customer the opportunity to have you working for them.
 
Got it

PM called this morning and says they want me to clean coils on all their properties.

I'm heading out later this afternoon to do an evaluation on each property and a final count for the contract. This will be an annual contract.

I couldn't get the filter business from the PM, but the Owner of the property says he is going to send out a harsh letter to the tenants about the consequences of any repair work made necessary because of dirty filters.

I'll lower my normal prices by 1/3 or so for these tenants and still make almost twice the profit by doing it piecemeal with each individual tenant like this.

i.e. 1000 filters in 500 units @ $4.00/filter each unit makes me $16.00 each 2 units. -

But an individual office with two units can be charged $100.00/yr for four services - That's 2 units = 4 filters x 4 services = 16 filters - $125.00 / 16 = $7.81 per filter. That's about the same price they would pay per filter if they went to the filter warehouse and bought the regular paper filters, then they would have to still climb up on the roof and change them. My customers in there now are already paying $225.00/ yr for two units.

Nobody is going to complain about $125/yr and I'll still make almost twice the profit for the added inconvenience of billing hundreds of small accounts. But it's all done through email and automatic credit card billing for small accounts like that.
 
Tony

Your motivation is awesome! I can really identify - I'm not a natural salesman but sometimes I do awesome - and sometimes I really let myself down. Why can't I be on every time? One thing - your system is guaranteed to work - you will get jobs period.


I love the photo of T
 
That part of the job makes me sick. I'm not a salesperson at all and have pretty severe social anxiety. Most of the work I do is at night. And giving estimates and selling my services has proven to be the absolute hardest thing to do. My website generates the calls, but hate the selling part. Just gotta keep at it I guess. Nice post Tony!

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That part of the job makes me sick. I'm not a salesperson at all and have pretty severe social anxiety. Most of the work I do is at night. And giving estimates and selling my services has proven to be the absolute hardest thing to do. My website generates the calls, but hate the selling part. Just gotta keep at it I guess. Nice post Tony!

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Selling is easy. Nine out of ten people like to talk about themselves and will do so when asked pertinent and interesting questions about their business. It's surprising and really interesting how much you can learn about all the different businesses in this world.

Salesmen that like to talk about themselves, as too many of them do, can't sell. They're time wasters who potential customers hate to see coming.
 
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That part of the job makes me sick. I'm not a salesperson at all and have pretty severe social anxiety. Most of the work I do is at night. And giving estimates and selling my services has proven to be the absolute hardest thing to do. My website generates the calls, but hate the selling part. Just gotta keep at it I guess. Nice post Tony!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

I would've said that a couple of years ago. It's easily my favorite part now.
 
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