etailinsights eCommerce Data and Sales Blog
Sales Hack: Use Company Names to Schedule In-Person Meetings
posted by Darren Pierce
Planes are Struck by Lightning
Did you know planes get hit by lightning all the time? In fact, each
commercial aircraft is struck by lightning more than once per year, according to Scientific American. There’s a very good chance it happened to an aircraft you were in, and you didn’t even know. Most hit the nose of the plane, and none of the strikes cause significant damage or accidents (after 1967).
I was on a flight and witnessed a lightning strike to the right-wing. Right outside my window. The plane was one of those smaller deals with two seats on the right and one on left. The mother and child in the row in front of me screamed and started crying. Mom reached across the aisle to dad who was trying to fake confidence. He turned around and looked at me for assurance.
Why me? Because I was in a suit carrying a briefcase. I was clearly a traveling salesperson, and the dad knew it – I had that look. If I looked calm, then he knew everything would be ok. So, I too did my best to fake confidence. The plane lost altitude for a few seconds, then regained, and we flew through the storm without issue. But the baseball-bat-sound of the lightning hitting the wing sticks with me.
Air travel is very important in SaaS Sales. A plane is the greatest tool we have in the shed. Getting on a plane to meet face-to-face is important to earn trust and learn more about your prospect’s pains. But if you are going to spend all that time out of the office, you want to maximize the value of this trip. Do this in two ways: a) work on the plane, and b) meet with other prospects while in town.
Sales Hack: Use Company Names to Schedule In-Person Meetings
Let’s start with an exercise. Think about your local network of professionals. What major companies are in your immediate area? What competitors? Partners? Who works where? If you had to work in one other place, where would it be?
Now, imagine you receive an email from a salesperson at Salesforce.com asking to meet with you. She is going to be in town next month. She has a new feature coming out that she thinks you will LOVE. And, she also mentions that while in town, she’s also meeting with three other companies that you know, and one of them is a competitor.
Did it work? Do you want to meet with her? More often than not, it makes a huge difference to list the names of companies in the local area. Always list the names of companies you are meeting with (unless under NDA). It provides more legitimacy to your brand and your trip. Furthermore, your eCommerce lead is more open to meeting with you because ‘you are already in town.’ It’s a little easier for them to agree without feeling queasy that you’ve come all this way just to meet with them. We believe in this Sales Hack so strongly that we built a What’s Near Me feature to help find eCommerce leads in a specific area.
Bonus Hack: Meet with one customer on each trip, even if you don’t manage customers. For starters, they know the local area too and will give you guidance and possibly an introduction. Then, when meeting with prospects you can say “Yesterday I met with customer x, and they are using this feature of our product and love it.” Finally, it helps your confidence in sales to hear how amazing your product is from a client.
