National Wine Day.

Or as we call it in our home, "Peggy Day."



On to other news....

The product Rick invented a few years ago is selling very well.
Because we have had a great many boat owners love how well it works on the faded vinyl lettering and/or vinyl strips on their boat we had an idea.
We bought a mailing list of boat owners who bought things for the boat and their boats had to be 5 yrs or older. We did it all after buying the mailing list. Made the postcards, made the labels, mailed them.
We just don't have time for that now.

Yesterday Rick sent emails to 4 companies to see if they could help us.
They all contacted Rick.  The first 3 were good. They would get the specifics of who we needed to reach, make the postcard, mail the postcard and we don't have anything to do. We already have a postcard made so we really just need them to get the mailing list of the particular people we need to reach and then make the labels and mail them. Easy right?

Companies 1 and 2 asked some questions and gave Rick the data he needed.
The 3rd company was superior Rick stated to me last evening.
The young man who called him asked him a boat load of questions, as a sales person should do.  He wanted to know who we wanted to reach, why these people and he gave some input about a few other avenues we never thought of.  Together he and Rick really came together as a partnership of ideas and a plan. They then worked on the price. Rick told him he'd get back to him after he spoke to all the companies. The young man said he understood and if he had any questions along the way to contact him. 

Rick and I discussed company number 3 and felt this man "got it" and he also was collaborative, not just spouting off numbers and prices and asking for the sale.  We were pretty sure at this point we were going with him. The price fell in line with the others, but $0.01 more per card from the lowest one. We could live with that if we were going to actually work with someone who wouldn't just be an order taker but a partner per se and help us and give us input/ideas.

Later that day Company number 4 called. He asked how many did we want to  reach. He said, "It will cost you this and if you give me your credit card we can move forward."  Rick said, " Whoa, we haven't discussed what my list will consist of or who we are targeting nor have we discussed who makes the postcard etc."  The young man said, "We are the best there is sir, no one can beat our price, so if you will just give me your credit card number we'll get started"

Ooh, Rick was hot now.  I was standing near him and saw his face. Thankfully for this kid he couldn't see Rick's face, or he'd have hung up.
Rick said, "I am not comfortable with your hard sell.  I wanted to discuss the marketing plan, not just price. While price is important so is the person I am working with. I am not interested in moving forward, you just want to close the sale without selling me you or your company. "  The kid was livid and said, "Your loss, we're the best out there"

Rick hung up. He looked at me and said, "How the hell do these kids get jobs and keep them?"  Rick said he wanted to smack the arrogance off his tone. That made me laugh I have to admit.

Then a bit later Rick received an email saying he thought Rick was ready to buy since he sounded urgent. (if you know Rick, nothing he says sounds urgent, you don't know how funny that is.)

Rick wrote back thanking him for the apology and said, as a former sales person may I suggest you ask the consumer their timeline, questions about their product so you know how to sell it, and what they are looking to achieve so you can help them. I wish you much success, however, we are going with another company.

I felt Rick should just let it go. But he wrote it anyway.  Here is what the little shit wrote back. Complete with the highlight he added.

I am not too worried about its good luck finding a company that will provide as accurate info has the number one data supplier in the nation. Go ahead and find another company that will provide written guarantees to protect your investment. That’s not my business but no other company does what we do.

Based on your enthusiasm, I went for the close I wouldn’t change what I did for one second.

When you go to the other company they leave you with a bad taste I can put you in contact with someone in our firm. I’m not your personal business advisor but I you should maybe get one.

Your giving up on best company in our field because a SALES REP asked for a sale I think you should revisit you thinking process on this.

So good luck with this project Rick.

Well, that got our laid back Ricky all fired up. He then forwarded this email to his boss, VP of sales, the CEO and the director of training. 

I, again, would never do this!!!  I did understand Rick's frustration with this little shit but c'mon, be the bigger man. What made me laugh was this little shit writing us and telling us to call this company later to get a different sales rep and he thinks we'd ever call this company again?  

I heard from Rick today from out in the field. Apparently he recieved a voicemail from the CEO who would like to discuss this with him. 

I can't believe Rick did this.

I am writing this as I am shaking my head.  He could have just gone to Yelp or let it go. But no, laid back Rick was poked too many times, then he is no longer laid back and is fired up. You don't want to mess with him once he gets to the fired up stage. God knows I don't want to.  This is when I duck and hide. 

Having spent 20+ years in sales I know you don't work like this if you are going to be successful. You ask questions and then shut the hell up and listen. That helps you see what they really need, value and wish to accomplish. You sell to those things, not what you want to sell. You build trust and you honor their requests. It always worked for me. Then when I need to show them something else that we now have that they may need, they were open to listen to me because I listened to them.  It's called respect. Pushy only brings regret to the person buying if they bought in the first place. How can't he know that?  Idiot.

So it should be a fun afternoon when Rick speaks to this kids boss.

Hopefully, he won't be fired, but just get some training. For the love of God, he needs training. And Rick needs to step away from email for awhile.  

(btw...that big yellow ball in the sky is rearing it's head here today.  yipee)