Sometimes in this industry you can get so fed up with the day to day bull that you just need to put the pedal to the metal and get it done. Today was like that, sales for the better part of the month have been lackluster and it’s not from the work effort. On a day when many of us took a vacation day or called in sick, I stuck it out and went to the office so I could finish up the week with my 150 calls.
In particular one call stood out from the rest, it’s an existing account that I inherited from a previous sales person. This account has a duplicator (purchased), and a MFP (leased), they also have or had a color MFP from another vendor. I visited them twice over the last 18 months and they’ve changed administrators twice since then. As many times as I’ve called the new administrator (with no return calls), I’ve also kept in contact with the one of the operators of the equipment about every three months or so. In the last few months I had some e-mail exchanges with my contact person, it was all prompted because the lease on the MFP is due to expire in November of this year. But the e-mail exchanges were sporadic and one even stated “I think you might be able to help us”. After three weeks of nothing from a few phone calls and e-mails I sent an e-mail today that stated we needed to meet to discuss the end of the lease options NOW, because you have a 90-day notification clause. Thirty minutes later I had a reply to please call so and so at AP and that my contact would call me on Monday.
I called that person and found out that they had upgraded the color system (from the other vendor) and our system many months ago! To boot I was told they upgraded with a vendor who is now closed (rumor has it they duped a leasing company for $1.2 million in creative leases and is under Federal investigation). The person from AP was not sure where the machine is and personally at this time I don’t care where the system is either.
I sent an e-mail back to my contact and asked, “we’ve been in contact many times in the last 18 months and you didn’t have the courtesy to tell me that you’ve upgraded the systems, why would you waste your time and my time like this?” I did call first and was told my contact was not in the office today. Am I going to call them on Monday, no way, I’ll let them wallow in their own dirty deeds and I hope the dealer that went out of business did have their old system and it’s nowhere to be found.
However, at the end of the day, I finished my goal of 150 calls for the week, got two appointments when I thought I would have none and moved a few potential sales closer to closing, but what made me feel the best was the e-mail I sent to the account. Looking forward to a great week next week!!
Good selling!
