Not long ago I was talking to a friend of the family who is in the business of selling big ticket items to apartment property corporations.
Of course, when you’re dealing with corporations and asking them for six-figure deals, you get stuck with a longer sales cycle.
The friend I’m referring to is a salesperson so they don’t get a deal put towards their sales goals until a deal is closed.
While talking about how business was going, this friend kind of starting crying around about how he had multiple deals on hold at the time where the people had told him “Yes” …but had not signed the paperwork yet.
He then proceeded to tell me that this was an ugly problem because the difference in his commissions would be massive if the deals didn’t close by a specific day and the sale ended up carrying over into the next commission cycle.
I asked him, “Does this happen often? People dragging their feet on signing the paperwork?”
He said, “Uhmmm… not on every sale but it definitely happens enough for it to be annoying.”
I said, “So what do you do to get people off their ass?”
He said, “I just email or call.”
I said, “Let me guess… you hate doing this because it makes you seem all desperate… which in turn has the effect of making the person avoid you even longer… and when they finally do sign, the transaction ends on kind of a sour note because your contact overtly or covertly resents the fact that you hounded them?”
He said, “Yep. And that’s why as much as I want to get in people’s ass to get the shit signed, I hate to think that what I’m doing is actually counter-productive.”
I said, “Man, it never ceases to amaze me how unimaginative the people in the corporate world are. I can’t believe your bosses don’t have a better plan of action for this issue.
I think I might have an idea you can use.
I remember listening to Dan Kennedy talk about working with a chiropractor who had started teaching other chiropractors how to market their practice.
This chiro had a great process for putting people into a 12-month coaching membership program that cost something like $25K per person. The problem he ran into was that he had a drop-out rate that was unacceptable to him.
Now common sense tells you that it costs WAY less to keep a customer than it does to get a new customer.
So, he presented this problem and Dan’s solution was to deliver a ‘shock and awe’ box one month before their membership expired that was ‘party themed’ and was sent to the chiropractor’s office under the guise of celebrating their upcoming ‘anniversary.’
Inside the box was a bag of party balloons… a party music cd… ‘Best Year Ever’ banners to hang, streamers, party games, celebratory themed plates and cups, plastic ware and some kind of decadent dessert like cake, brownies, cookies, etc. from a posh bakery that was big enough to be shared with a chiropractor’s staff.
Along with all of this came an anniversary certificate and a congratulatory letter explaining why this box had been sent, success stories from other members, and probably some kind of teasing of what was coming up in the next year’s curriculum.
Of course, the odds are high that hardly anyone who received this box actually threw a party. Didn’t matter.
All of this shit was sent because Dan wanted a fun and logical reason why to show up and try to get this person re-excited about renewing their membership. Something that was the opposite of JUST a hard pitch.
What would you say was the most important piece that was included in this box?”
He said, “Uhhh, the certificate?”
I said, “Nope. The food.”
He said, “Why the food?”
I said, “Because when they eat your food, this induces reciprocity in a way that is very hard to replicate. Delicately prepared food is perishable and it needs to be consumed quickly.
Sending them a gift certificate for a fancy restaurant in their city is not the same as you showing up with awesome food that needs to be eaten now.
Sending them a generic gift card for Apple music or movie tickets or something of that sort can be put into a drawer and forgotten about for months… but worse than that, you lose that personal touch.
Think about the difference between someone giving you a gift certificate for a restaurant… and someone cooking an elaborate meal for you. Two different feelings.
And of course, no one thinks you actually baked the desserts you’re sending but you can still create a favorable impression if you buy something from the right bakery.
That’s why you don’t want to cheap out on what you send. You want to blow them away with something truly remarkable from a world renown bakery like the Milk Bar…
