A couple of months ago, I was contacted via email by a member of the board of directors of a large company. I’ll call him Norm. I’d never had any contact or correspondence with Norm before.
Norm’s email was short and to the point. His organization was interested in Sandler. There were X number of salespeople, and Y number of managers, working in Z number of different countries. Would I be so good as to send him a proposal?
Most of us have had an experience like this. Out of nowhere, we get a query from a company that, potentially, represents a lot of revenue for us and our organization. But there’s been no information-gathering, no conversation. The message in front of us presents no real option for one. In fact, it hardly contains any facts at all.
In a real-time, voice-to-voice setting, we could say something like, “We’d love to set up a proposal for you – so, just to make sure we get you one that gives you the right information, can I ask you a couple of questions?” In other words, we initiate a human-to-human conversation. We connect. We start learning more about the pain (the emotionally-driven problem) that led to the person reaching out to us in the first place. We like that conversation. It’s where we thrive.
In an e-mail setting, though, it’s tempting to follow one of two paths that are considerably less promising.
The first temptation is to start posing questions, via email, about the reason the person got in touch with us. Some people are better at this than others. Most aren’t very good at it at all. And it’s not my first choice.
The second temptation is to build a proposal out of the near-zero-level information contained in the email. This is definitely not my first choice.
There is a third option – one that either doesn’t occur to a lot of salespeople, or that, if it does occur to them, is dismissed instantly as “too risky.” What on earth would we be risking? We have nothing yet. David Sandler had a saying that seems relevant here: You can’t lose something you don’t have.
The third option was the one I went with. I replied to Norm’s email with the following message:
Norm – Tomorrow morning at 10am, Zoom meeting. Yes or no?
I didn't provide any additional explanation or monologue, just that direct response. The next morning, we had the Zoom call. I’ll make a long story short and tell you that Norm’s company ended up signing a $350,000 contract with me.
That was a significant deal, especially for the small market I operate in where the average monthly wage is only around $600-$700.
This story goes to show you two things. First, you don't have to be in a huge market to land big clients. And second, there’s a strategic advantage to being willing to do things a little differently – by being just as direct as the prospect is. We don’t have to be afraid of that directness. In fact, I think we’re much better off embracing it.
