Inline Plastics Playbook v2 JUL-21

Sales Stories I had a customer at one time, who was a major commercial pie maker. I only had a small piece of his business because we had one container that perfectly fit a niche item they produced. We were doing maybe $150k per year with them when I took the account over. I had met with the owner a couple of times at this point, but I didn’t really have a relationship established. I did, however, keep notes about generally how the conversations went, and his personality. He was a very jovial guy; you could tell that he had a sense of humor and was personable. I could also tell he was a religious person and family oriented – he talked about his kids a lot and their mission trips. One month, they didn’t place their regular order on the expected date. I gave it about a week, then I started trying to contact the owner to see what was going on. I called his cell phone and left a voicemail, also pinged him on email. Two days pass and I hadn’t heard back, which was unusual. So I called him again and shot him another email. No response. At this point we still have not seen a new order from them, and I’d been trying to contact Dave for over a week. I knew I had to do something to get his attention. I thought back about my meetings with him and tried to figure out what I could do that would resonate with him. A joke! My messages and emails to this point were very formal – “Hi Mr. David, this is Johnny, I’m trying to reach you... blah, blah, blah..”. The exact opposite approach for his Amiable Personality Type. So, I knew that a humorous approach might be my best bet at getting a response from him. But what sort of joke? As I mentioned, he is religious, so I couldn’t be too “off color” but at the same time if I wanted to get his attention, I needed to find that line right at the edge of “dad joke” and offensive. It also never hurts to be self- depreciating in these situations. So, my next voicemail to Dave was roughly: “Hey Dave, this is Johnny I’ve left you several voicemails and sent a bunch of emails and haven’t heard back. I have an easier time reaching my wife’s boyfriend that you.” He called me back almost immediately still chuckling. He explained that it was their busy part of the year, and he’d meant to call me back and just hadn’t found

the time. He invited me out for a meeting the following week because he was having some challenges with his other supplier. By the time I left the company, Rocky Mountain Pies was doing about $750k with us annually. The key take away here is: early on I took note of his personality type, interests, and values. This allowed me to identify the approach needed to get his attention and call him to action. I feel like if I hadn’t tailored my message to his personality, I’d probably still be leaving him unanswered voicemails. In a nutshell: Customer was unresponsive in efforts to reach him. I identified his personality type and changed my message to fit his style, with much success. ****** After identifying a contact with the Prospect, I started calling or emailing the contact once a week. Every week. Consistently. I received no response at all for a couple of months, but he still got a “touch” from me once a week. This was challenging because I knew nothing about the guy at all, so I had nothing to use in tailoring my approach. I decided to use confusion, and again, self-depreciation. I made my weekly call, and in my message, I started off by apologizing for apparently getting off on the wrong foot. I told him it seems like I must have done something to turn him off or upset him. I told him that even if I couldn’t help their business, I hoped he’d accept my apology and allow us to start over. Now, of course I hadn’t done anything wrong or offensive – I hadn’t actually spoken to the guy. But I had to do something to grab his attention, and appeal to his emotions. He actually called me back. He got me in touch with the decision maker and helped set up a meeting. What didn’t work: Knowing nothing about the target and sending cookie cutter messages. What almost worked: Regular, consistent “touches” through email and voicemail meant that when I finally changed my message, he knew who I was. What actually worked: A message that grabbed his attention right away and worked on an emotional level. After two months of attempting to reach him, there was no need to continue to introduce myself and make my pitch – he’d heard it. When I got his attention and he actually listened to the message, he responded.

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