There is this prospect in your territory. They’ve been with one of your competitors for years and for as long as you’ve known of them, they have never even entertained changing suppliers.
Different Beliefs
You believe that because this prospect hasn’t considered changing, they never will. You’ve never tried to nurture relationships within this account. You don’t know anyone inside the company, and no one inside knows you.
One of your competitors doesn’t believe the fact that this prospect hasn’t changed suppliers in years is no indication of what they might do in the future. In fact, she thinks that they are overdue for a change. She believes that, given a long enough time line, everyone changes. This competitor has been nurturing relationships since she started in this territory, feeding ideas to the contacts within this company.
Because you have to, you have been emailing one contact that you presume to be the decision maker inside this company every ninety days like clockwork, always requesting that they call you to discuss what you and your company might do for them. No one ever calls you back. You think you might need to change the language in your email.
Persisting Persistence
Your competitor only sends emails as a follow up to her phone calls. If the contacts within this company are being honest, she’s been a bit of a nuisance, and she is seriously persistent, and a number of them have recently taken meetings with her. They came away impressed with her tenacity and her smarts.
Now, your dream client has decided that they have given their existing supplier enough time to resolve their long-unresolved problems, and they’re going to move the business—if they can find the right partner.
How do you feel about your position? The truth is, you wouldn’t know any of this is occurring. You gave up a long time ago, remember?
- How many prospects in your territory have no idea who you are, that you are responsible for acquiring their business, and that you can create massive value for them, should they entertain changing partners?
- How many of them could quickly and easily identify you as the person with the ideas and experience to help them move their business to a better result and a better future?
Never give up. Never, ever, ever give up.
