Most business owners hate being sold to – in fact many actually become offended when one pitches their business on many B2B services – why?
The matter of the fact is that businesses hate to be sold to, yet love to sell but constantly miss one very important fundamental unspoken rule about corporate etiquette and that what goes around actually does come around.
Here’s a true story:
Roughly 3 months ago I was solicited by a business services company who was persistent on selling me on using them as a vendor for all of our printing needs. Currently we have a few pretty solid relationships with printers around Colorado but what could it hurt talking to another? After all businesses in this economy seem to come and go so it was worth at least talking to them.
Their sales rep came to our offices and we sat down in our conference room to casually discuss why their product was dominate to the current providers we were using. I quickly came to realize that the product wasn’t in fact much different and it cost a lot more than who we currently were using. Before I could reject what the salesman had to offer he quickly asked me about the type of business we were in.
We had a nice conversation and that was about it. I thanked him for his time, asked him for his business card and made sure that he knew that if something happened to our current vendor I’d be in touch for a temporary solution. We shook hands and he went on his way.
3 weeks ago I received a call from this very same rep. He quickly added he wasn’t calling to sell me on something but that he was impressed with what our company was doing and the services we offered and he had talked to the owner about hiring us for web development, chatback and search engine marketing services. I thought – WOW? We declined your business and now your sending us work. That’s pretty cool.
Here are a few tips on how to handle corporate or business etiquette:
- E-mail Solicitations: Always respond, even if you don’t want to do business with the company. It’s important to at least acknowledge the company and even if there isn’t an opportunity to do business together today – there might very well be in the very near future.
- Phone Solicitations: If your the gate keeper politely take down your solicitors information and let them know you will be passing the info down to the appropriate person for follow up. If your the DM make sure you actually follow up if your gate keeper states you will. People remember this and it does go a very long way.
- Interviews: Recently interviewed a candidate that doesn’t fit the bill? Don’t blow them off – politely let them know that there was another candidate who better fit your needs and you will keep their resume on file if something opens up and thank them for their time. Just because a candidate didn’t fit that particular position doesn’t mean they are stupid. Treat them as you would a business partner. Respect goes a long way.
I recently contacted Dish Network regarding some ideas that are ‘outside the box’ and could serve as a great opportunity for their retailers. I was quickly routed to the manager of online marketing who appeared as if he responded to satisfy his boss. I quickly told him a quick run-down of what we did with the expectations that I would get some sort of acknowledgment email back.
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