A lot of conventional sales knowledge is just plain wrong. Before I was involved in Sandler, I was just as guilty of buying into it as the next salesperson! One thing many salespeople do that they shouldn't is buying food, snacks, or entire meals for prospects.
It's especially prevalent in medical industries.
My daughter has worked at a vet clinic for eight years. It is amazing to me what she shares that salespeople drop off. It may be pharmaceutical reps that are in the veterinary business, dog food reps, or something else entirely.
She used to work at a vet clinic in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, Stillwater is kind of a hub for veterinary medicine, because that's where the only vet school is in the state.
In an average month, twenty or so work days, they would have lunch bought for them 17 times by sales reps.
I asked her, "How many of those products did the vets actually bring in?"
She responded, "Of the seventeen lunches, only one of them do we actually carry the product line."
Think about that!
I have a friend who was working for a major pharmaceutical company back in late nineties, when they were launching a new drug. Her territory was Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic is.
Her expense account was $22,000 a month to wine and dine doctors! If she didn't spend every penny of it, she would get chastised. In public, in front of her coworkers! The company sent out an company-wide email listing everyone who hadn't spent their expense account.
Of course, that's much more regulated in the medical industry. But it's crazy how we think, Oh, I just need to drop off cookies, or bring donuts.
And before Sandler, I was guilty of it as well. I can't even tell you how much money I spent on breakfast for people. And guess how many sales I got out of it?
Zero.
So how much wisdom is there in that particular piece of sales knowledge? Not a lot. Save your organization money and save yourself time. Use prospecting techniques that work instead.
