Electric Heating Co., Inc

Travel Well (Too)

I have traveled with distributor salespeople for years and have observed an interesting phenomenon. Occasionally we will pass a plant and I ask, "what do they do there?" Often the local person has no clue and I am always surprised that someone who has been in a territory for a long time is unaware of prospects.

Travel is very expensive ... it is always enlightening to calculate your cost per call, factoring salary, benefit costs and travel expenses. So how do we maximize? One way is to increase your customers so you can make more calls in a given locality. During client discussions, casually ask who else in the Industrial Park or in the city might be a potential customer. People know their neighbors and people have worked for other local companies ... and they will be generally happy to make suggestions.

Another customer expansion tactic is parallel application selling. This involves asking your customer who their competitors are. Sometimes this must be done casually and sometimes your client may be eagerly helpful. Another way to find competitors is to cross reference that application or industry in Industrial Manuals or on the web. Once you have that customer name, you can walk in their plant with the confidence that complete knowledge of his operation brings. The client will see your understanding of his application as a real benefit.

Friday Funnies

After all of the background checks, interviews, and testing were done there were three finalists - two men and one woman. For the final test, the CIA agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

"We must know that you will follow your instructions, no matter what the circumstances. Inside this room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. You have to kill her." The first man said."You can’t be serious. I could never shoot my wife." The agent replies, "Then you’re not the right man for this job."

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about five minutes. Then the agent came out with tears in his eyes. "I tried, but I can’t kill my wife." The agent replies,

"You don’t have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."

Finally, it was the woman’s turn. Only she was told to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one shot after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow and said, "You guys didn’t tell me the gun was loaded with blanks. So I had to beat him to death with the chair."

Dalton Electric Heating Co., Inc (978)356-9844
28 Hayward Street Ipswich, MA 01938 USA

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