Thomas Szaky shocked his parents a few years ago when he decided to drop out of Princeton University to start a business making organic plant food. To their dismay, he explained that the product came from worm poop and would be packaged in recycled pop bottles.
But today the 23-year-old Canadian is having the last laugh. His fledgling firm has landed the Wal-Mart account, one of the most prized in retailing, and expects to do more than $15 million in sales next year.
Each week, thousands of inventors and sales people try unsuccessfully to get their products stocked on Wal-Mart shelves.
So how did a young Mr. Szaky nab the business at mighty Wal-Mart?
“I don’t know” he says. “I made sixty one phone calls and one of them worked. I guess it was just sheer persistence.”
Virtually every successful sales person, sales manager and sales trainer knows the value of persistence. Share this story in your next sales meeting, then ask your sales people to examine their own commitment to persistence.
Do they believe enough in their product to call a prospect 61 times?
What is it about each account executive’s approach that makes them stand out from the other dozen or so advertising sales people whom the average business will get a call from this week?
From a customer’s perspective, why should a prospect accept their phone call or read their letter?
Having the right answers to these three questions will help your people sell more poop, instead of just being full of poop.
But today the 23-year-old Canadian is having the last laugh. His fledgling firm has landed the Wal-Mart account, one of the most prized in retailing, and expects to do more than $15 million in sales next year.
Each week, thousands of inventors and sales people try unsuccessfully to get their products stocked on Wal-Mart shelves.
So how did a young Mr. Szaky nab the business at mighty Wal-Mart?
“I don’t know” he says. “I made sixty one phone calls and one of them worked. I guess it was just sheer persistence.”
Virtually every successful sales person, sales manager and sales trainer knows the value of persistence. Share this story in your next sales meeting, then ask your sales people to examine their own commitment to persistence.
Do they believe enough in their product to call a prospect 61 times?
What is it about each account executive’s approach that makes them stand out from the other dozen or so advertising sales people whom the average business will get a call from this week?
From a customer’s perspective, why should a prospect accept their phone call or read their letter?
Having the right answers to these three questions will help your people sell more poop, instead of just being full of poop.
Planning a sales or management conference? Talk to Wayne at ENSMedia Inc. about having him or one of the professional trainers from Noll & Associates facilitate a memorable event for you.