The Sales Archaeologist

So as part of my recent speaking engagement I was able to attend the Exhibit Hall one of the afternoons – you know the scene; hundreds of vendors, suppliers and others offering their wares and hoping to find more prospects and more leads. Sounds like a great concept but in reality what I saw and what I have experienced since has been pretty much a sales disaster.

The first contact and approach was all wrong.

• “Hi Frank (reading my name tag) so and so is a Company that specializes in_____ and we blah, blah, blah, blah”. Remember why I was there? To Speak, I was not even a prospect for 95% of these people. They didn’t know that because they didn’t ask. While they were spewing this on me they were missing other prospects that walked by. Even if they did talk to them (potential prospects) is this really what they say? Does it work? They all sounded the same and nobody took time to learn that I wasn’t a prospect. That also means they didn’t take time to find out what type of prospect their real prospects were.

The follow up is even worse!

• A phone call that goes like this – “Hi Frank we met at ____ and I wanted to follow up with you and see if you had any questions or if you needed more information blah, blah, blah…” Why would I need MORE information? For what possible reason? Why do you all sound exactly the same????
• A package arrives that probably costs $14.77 to mail filled with brochures and other crap – why?

Why the compulsion to share so much about themselves and their company – they assume that everyone at the conference is a fit. Even if they are so what, you still don’t start with a presentation. They are scared of answering questions that they are not used to answering. They are afraid that you will move on and not know anything about them and they should be worried that you will move on they won’t know anything about you.

This Happens not only at Trade Shows and Conferences - it also happens when sales people decide to follow up on an inbound lead. They simply jump straight to sharing information without getting an undertsanding of the "why" are you a lead?

This is typical and very upsetting to me. The CEO’s of these companies are paying good money to be at a show like this. (as they are for lead gen) They pay to have their people fly and then stay at a Hotel for 3 days. They hope to get leads and drive revenue and the only revenue that goes up is expenditures (especially postage). Do they know this is what it is happening most of the time? Here are some rules that might help at least a little:

1. Nobody is automatically a prospect
2. People are sick of your “information”
3. If you act, sound and look like everybody else then it is your fault you are a commodity
4. Prospects and Clients expect and Deserve a little Creativity
5. Know who you are talking to – first
6. Don’t mail anything to anyone for no reason other than to mail something

I am sending this post to every CEO that had some people at the conference exhibiting. They have a right to know don’t they? They think they are investing in a lead generating and revenue producing activity - but in reality it is just pseudo sales.