Selling is not dating... I can cheat on you!
Warning: This post really contains no sales or marketing ideas. Its a rant, because I am frustrated with salespeople that try to woo customers with lunches in the hopes that they purchase their products.
As someone in sales I have a couple 'rules' I live by, and one of them is: You never take a client out to lunch.
Period.
What's the point? You show them that you know how to pay for someone else's meal!
Wow, I am impressed.
Its really a lot like dating, you take someone to lunch and hope that they fell the obligation to see you again? Is this our thinking when we take clients to lunch?!? Hope is a pretty thin proposition to rest a sale on.
So what happens when your client decided to purchase from someone else? You feel betrayed don't you? Darn it, you spent all that money on the client and they didn't buy from you!! Shame on them.
No-shame on you! Your not dating your client, you are trying to solve a problem for them. And unless your a soup kitchen I don't think feeding them solves their problem.
Your not on a date, you are on a sales call! Sell to your customers. Save your dating for your personal life.
The Selling Point:
Just because you take a client to lunch doesn't mean that the client has any obligation to purchase from you. You shouldn't use guilt to sell your item. If you do, your item really isn't that good anyway and you should seriously find yourself a new company.
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