Doing sales, you wonder what you are facing when you walk through every door. Most are nice. Most listen and respect the fact you put in some work. A very few see absolutely no value in you.
Eager to get started at my new station, before the business cards had arrived, I was off meeting business owners. I noted a pharmacy two blocks from my house and thought this will be my new pharmacy. I walk in and ask for the person handling the advertising. The place is empty and the person is doing nothing. I say I'm Bill Turner with KGAF Radio. The lady says we'll call you if we're interested. Ah, the ultimate blow-off. I tell her I don't have my business cards yet but I'll drop one off when I get them. Rather sternly she repeats she'll call if she's interested.
I walk out and think I'll watch her close her doors. All she had to do is be nice and she had a new customer. She lost that. And she ticked me off. I decided I was calling on pharmacies that afternoon. I was taking what I bring to the table to one of her competitors. She closed up the next year. In fact, my client ran a spot telling their customers his pharmacy would love to earn their business.
As amazing as it was, my next call was a pharmacy. I walked in and got a grin and friendly handshake from the owner and I said "you know what I need on the radio? I need a pharmacist that wants to voice some educational spots and health tips in order to be the expert among all the pharmacists in town." He said, Wow, Bill, I was talking with my partner last night about maybe some online video clips but radio would be perfect. He spends three times what the average business spends on the station. May will mark 4 years and he's still on.
My point is the ones that are jerks are not worthy of your time and your hard work but their competitors likely are. The sad reality is most people that treat you poorly are simply reflecting their past experience with salespeople. They just don't give you a chance to prove you're not like the rest.
You can't win them all but you can win some of them. If you are sincere and truly work for their success, they will be with you always because they trust you and respect you. As my first boss used to say, "Now go out there. Make some new friends and work for their success"
