Printing & Copying

I was spammed by a local printer.  Here’s the email:

My name is Jack LASTNAME and I am the Account Executive at COMPANY in Milwaukee. At COMPANY we specialize in 4 color digital printing, which I am sure would be a great fit for some of your printing needs. We print anything from business cards, envelopes, to 4 color digital brochures, sell sheets, forms, mailers, newsletters etc. Even if you may be satisfied with your current printer give US a try and see what we can do for you. Along with great customer service, we will probably be cheaper!! I would like to spend 5 minutes with you or whomever handles the printing for Enormous Group and see if COMPANY can be of help to your organization. If you are not the person who handles the printing I would kindly ask that you point me in the direction of the person who does!! Thanks for your time.

Jack shouldn’t yell.  Too many exclamation points, Jack.  And, Jack should have done his homework and figured out who handles printing at my company.  I won’t be doing his work for him.  And, he assumes he’ll be cheaper than my current printer.  Maybe, but every business relationship isn’t always about price.  Relationships matter, value matters, quality matters.  Sometimes these trump price.

A good company shouldn’t spam prospects.  I’m guessing that Jack will not receive a single positive email or phone call from his spam.

That’s because spam doesn’t make a good first impression.

Email is completely different than phone calls and direct mail.  Unsolicited mail and phone calls in the B2B world are expected, especially mail.  But email is still personal and protected.

I understand Jack’s situation, I’ve been there before.  And I’m sure I made some of the same mistakes.  How do you find new customers in the age of spam, spam filters, do not call lists, anti-direct mail programs, office managers, receptionist and assistants who block your calls and sales attempts, and all other sorts of roadblocks, detours, hurdles and closed doors?

It’s tough out there for salespeople.

A few jobs ago, I had a prospect who had signed up for my agency’s email newsletter.  The email newsletter was popular, and while it wasn’t just a sales tool, it included a lot of information about the agency’s services along with client case studies.  The sign-up form for the double opt-in newsletter included information that said the agency would have permission to contact the person registering for the email newsletter by phone, mail or email.  So, the prospect was included in a mailing, and then a couple weeks later I put a call into the prospect.  By this time the prospect had received 2 email newsletters and a mailing.  I got through to the prospect after talking to his assistant.  The prospect ended up being the president of the company, and I quickly explained who I was and that I was following up to see if he had any questions about our email newsletter content and if he was in need of advertising and marketing services.  His response was, “I don’t accept calls like this at work.” And then he slammed down the phone.

Where else would he accept a business sales call?  At home during dinner?  On the weekend?  And why had he registered for the newsletter in the first place?

Like I said, being a salesperson is tough.  It takes a special kind of person to be successful in sales.  My hat’s off to them.  But, spam and annoying sales tactics are not the answer.

As a salesperson today you have to be more resourceful, more creative, more real, and much more cognisant of boundaries because there are more and more of them.