Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Teleprospecting Tips From A Five Year Old

  

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For those of you who are not aware, or have not read my spotlight on AG’s Tumblr account, I am the proud father of three incredible kids.  The other day I was reminiscing with my wife and some friends about all of our kids and the antics they try to pull off and over our eyes.  Then it hit me…  They are just trying to maneuver through the bureaucracy in our family dynamic to get to the proper decision maker, and also get the response they want.  Like in many businesses there is a hierarchy to follow and people who are delegated to evaluate certain things and refer to others to get the final decision. 

So let me run you through a scenario that happened with my son:

Son:  Daddy may I have some popcorn as a snack.  
Me:  Did you eat all of your Lunch?
Son:  I ate all of my sandwich and chips.
Me: OK, Go ask your mother. It’s OK with me if it’s OK with her.

Now, we jokingly and lovingly call my wife the CMO (Chief Mom Officer) and my son could have just gone to her and asked her first.  In my many years of life, whenever I asked my parents for something, it was always go ask your father or go ask you mother, and times have not really changed in my household.  So my son was incredibly smart to get a referral from me before going to the CMO.  Here is how the next scenario went:

Son:  Hey, Mom.  May I have some popcorn for a snack, Dad said to ask you and that it is OK with him if it’s OK with you?

CMO:  Dad told you it was OK with him?  Then you may have some Popcorn for a snack.

My son did at such an early age what we all do in the teleprospecting and business development world.  He talked to a title that has in the past been able to give proper information to get in touch with the decision maker.  He used this referral to speak with the proper personnel and ended up getting the deal closed because he had everything in line before he went and spoke to the CMO.

Little did I know that the popcorn in question was caramel corn with a chocolate drizzle.  Had I known that, the outcome might have been slightly different.