Flesh out a ‘shopper’

by Don Sanders, 11/01/2002

A prospect called our office requesting catalogs. He stated that he was referred to us by one of our customers, and he, too, was in need of promotional items. When I tried to set a time for a personal meeting, he claimed that he only wanted the information sent by mail.

Since his office was nearby, we decided to hand-deliver the materials that he had requested. When we arrived at 12:30, there was no one at the front desk or anywhere else in the office. But we did find something quite interesting. Evidently, some of our competitors had also been referred to this prospect. Several of their company catalogs were laying on the front desk. Since we now know this, we will not spend too much time with this new prospect.

Moral of the story:

You must know who you are dealing with!