Progress

In my last post, I talked about the season of selling that I was about to begin. Maybe "journey of selling" is more like it. I have heard that many small business fail because they are willing to get out there and sell. This never made since to me. How can you watch your business go down but not put yourself on the line and do everything you can to sell it? Well, I can tell you that making cold calls, following up with sales leads, asking for referrals, and directly asking for business is not easy. Here is how my day went. I called 20 people from my list: 7 Messages 5 Wrong Numbers 4 Firm "No's" 4 Very Interested I think the funny thing is that the very interested group was at the end of my day. I left many messages and got a few No's before I was able to even talk to anyone that was interested or happy that I called. I think there are a few reasons for this. 1. You build up your Resistance - it gets easier to hear the no after you have heard it before. 2. Your sales pitch changes as you get No's - I think it gets better as you go because you are hearing people respond to it. I was feeling pretty good about mine by the time I got to the bottom of the list. 3. You begin to not take no. Now, when I say you begin to not take no for an answer, I mean you bring up different options for them like helping them plan the rest of their wedding, providing Italian Soda Bars instead of coffee, or doing a coffee bar for their set up team the day of their wedding. I tried to listen to why they did not want Cafe Evoke and tried to quickly come up with an option that would work for them. I think that is what it is all about. We need to be flexible and fit in to our customer's plans, not the other way around. While we have not booked any events yet from these calls, I was happy with how it went and it should lead to more booked events. ...be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, coffee, espresso, tea, bozeman, montana,selling The Global Exchange Fair Trade Store is your Online Source for Socially Conscious Gifts