At one time, I was in purchasing and had the opportunity to listen to many different kinds of sales presentations. One particular person called me regularly and he left quite an impression, perhaps for an unusual reason.
Ed sold industrial hardware, which included everything from small screws to mid-sized machine tools. He carried a large catalog of his products. We did not buy a great deal from Ed, maybe ten thousand dollars a year. In spite of our modest purchases, Ed was there calling upon us on a regular basis.
Frankly, I thought there were several negatives about Edâs sales technique. Each time he called on me he had a three or four-minute speech prepared about a different product. If we were interrupted by a phone call or someone else entering the office, Ed would start his little speech all over from the beginning. In a way, it was humorous if his call came on a day when I wasnât too busy to listen to the same information several times. Another thing Ed would do was try to sell things that we did not use. To me this was really poor salesmanship. Defining the customerâs needs should be one of the very first things the sale person does. One thing I did learn was that we were one of Edâs third Tuesday of the month, afternoon calls. You could set your calendar and clock by his calls. Somewhere between 1:30 and 2:30 on the third Tuesday of each month, Ed would stop to give me his speech.
After a time my job changed to the management level and my contacts with the purchasing functions were reduced. Ed no longer called upon me. Maybe eight years later, I was flying home from a meeting and started to chat with my seatmate. I learned that he was the vice president of the company that employed Ed. He told me that Ed had retired a few years earlier. The company really missed him. It seems that Ed was one of their top sales producers.
I had considered Edâs sales technique almost laughable. He certainly was not eloquent and not as knowledgeable as some others and yet he was a top producer for his company. This went against what I believed a sales person should be.
Ed had his territory carefully organized and he had it just crammed full of customers and prospects. Just like our company, they all got their regularly scheduled call from Ed. No doubt, some customers liked Ed. Perhaps some of them bought just to get rid of Ed. Maybe with others he showed up just when they needed something he had in his big catalog. For whatever reasons, Ed was a successful salesman, appearance aside. Not all sales people are what they seem to be.
The lesson that I learned from Ed was that really hard, hard work could bring success to an individual who perhaps was not blessed with all the attributes that we consider important in a sales person. Think about it!
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