A Taxi Tip to Increase Sales
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Nov 28, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
Today’s post is about all those prospecting calls you make that amount to nothing, and those small-revenue sales that don’t add much to your paycheck. As I tell people in my inside sales training courses, these are the keys to making bigger pay days, because they help you get to higher-revenue sales faster. I was reminded of this in a taxi ride I took last week, and there’s a parable here, so read on.
I live 5 miles from my airport, so when I take a taxi ride home, it’s a short fare for the driver. And sometimes he’s waited 2 hours in the taxi pool to get my fare. I tip well, but it’s still not a very profitable fare. I understand, because I paid for a lot of my college education by driving a taxi in Boston. Sometimes I drove in the airport taxi pool too, and got plenty of short fares, then had to go back in line for another hour or so. One day, I actually averaged it all out, and realized that overall, I did pretty well, because even though not every fare was a great one, I got enough long fares that it averaged out well. But I had to be in line to get them, so I began to think that if you’re going to be in the game, the short stuff is part of the mix. My philosophy evolved to the point of understanding that I wouldn’t get the long fares without doing a lot of short ones, so in essence, the short money enabled the bigger money.
And I think that’s why, a few year later, when I became an inside sales rep, I handled non-profitable prospecting calls so well. If I didn’t make them and slog through them, I’d never find the more profitable customers. I’d be grateful for every tiny order, too, because at the end of the month, they’d add up.
In the inside sales world, not a whole lot has changed since I was a rep. There are never enough great leads. The database is slow. One of the products has a technical problem. Someone else has a better territory. But great reps make every day a new adventure, hit the phones at 8 am, and open every call with the passion that THIS call could be the one that makes the whole month worthwhile. I made pretty good money as a cab driver, but I’ll bet that all of you reading this post make a whole lot more than the cab driver around the corner. But those folks have an ethic for hustling that we can all learn from, and it all starts from understanding that the small or no profit stuff, from short rides to disqualified prospects, are liberally scattered along the path to success. So please consider embracing them as a necessary means to making you and your company more profitable.
Coming into the final month of the year, add enthusiasm and passion with every call you make to your Best Practices Playbook, because the next call could be your best one. And always remember to tip your cab driver.