Advertising And A Lesson In How Not To Sell
Advertising your business and lessons in how not to sell
I was prompted to write about this subject today as I spent an hour of my time that I could ill afford with a journalist trying to sell me advertising space over the phone. So I thought I would try and share my lessons with you all.
OK this journalist had rang me to sell me some advertising space. He didn’t check what authority I had to make decisions or whether it was a convenient time for me to talk. First alarm bell ringing in my head – why would a journalist be ringing me to sell me advertising space if his publication was as popular as he said it was?
Next alarm bell – I explained I would not be able to make a decision today as I wanted to carry out some research into his publication. He told me that I had to make a decision today as someone else had pulled out and they were going to print. He told me he couldn’t send me a copy as it was too expensive. How anyone can expect someone to part with their cash without being able to touch and feel the publication is beyond me.
Third alarm bell. The price was quoted as X£s. When I told him I couldn’t make a decision today the price immediately dropped – yet I had already told him that the price wasn’t the issue. The issue was that I needed to research his publication and his company. Plus I needed to make sure that I would have the resources available within my company to cope with any increase in demand for 4Momentum’s services as a result of me placing an advert in his publication. To which he then replied it wouldn’t produce a lot of work immediately….having previously informed me how much additional work advertising in his publication would bring 4 Momentum.
Fourth alarm bell. He continued to talk and talk and talk and talk….he wasn’t listening to what I was saying and I got so fed up with this guy that in the end I said I must go because I have to attend a meeting (which was the truth) and that I would contact him again after I had the chance to do some more research and planning. I repeated this four times and I told him that I would have to go and that I would put the phone down on him if he didn’t stop. So after my final warning I did exactly that.
So the lessons are – when buying advertising don’t agree to anything that you haven’t had the time to research and are completely comfortable with.
And when selling make sure that you listen to your client, know what authority they have, check to see if now is a convenient time to talk, listen to his objections, give him the opportunity to research your goods/services, don’t assume the reason for him not buying is because of price and don’t overstay your welcome with his time.
Ask yourself, given my experience today, am I likely to want to do business with this company in the future? You bet I won’t be.
Paul Stanford is a Director of 4Momentum http://www.4momentum.co.uk. 4Momentum provides business advisory services to small businesses, charities and social enterprises primarily in Sussex. Services include advice on starting a business, growing and transforming a business and selling a business. Clients typically contract 4Momentum for short periods of an hour to long term consultancy over many months for advice on subjects such as mentoring, business planning, sales and marketing advice, bidding for contracts, raising finance and general business advice. Paul is approved by the UK Government to deliver business advice on their behalf through Business Link and is a member of the Institute of Business Consultants. Visit his blog at http://www.paulstanford.co.uk/blog
Copyright 2008 Paul Stanford
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