Opportunity Tirade

A non-themed thought from me today. Why are so many people unwilling to listen to a sales pitch?

I know a lot of the excuses. There are people who say I'm too busy. There are people who feel they weren't looking for anything. There are people who just can't afford to purchase something that they hadn't already planned on. But really, why not listen?

Both consumers and businesses carry this same attitude. And to a degree, I can identify with the above excuses. After all, I've skirted the island stand people at the mall, avoided eye contact with a representative in a department store, and politely told telemarketers to move on to the next dial.
As a salesperson though, this is frustrating. The product I'm pitching is designed to help them and I know it provides a strong Return on Investment. So why won't they listen to the offer before making a buying decision. If they knew the ROI wouldn't it then make logical sense?

I will probably write more about this when I get my head around more if it, but today I'm thinking about the networking aspect of meeting salespeople.

Suppose you're a business owner. You wear more hats than you can count on a daily basis. Ultimately you went into business because you had a passion for the product, but to make it work you have to run a company. You're smart, ambitious, and possess a solid work ethic, so you've managed to figure out enough to get it all done. But you know that you'll never do it perfectly, you're not a financial advisor or a marketing buff, and there's a new product out like every 3 min that you have to check against your current line. Some days you just wish you had VPs of those departments to handle that stuff.

In walks a salesperson. They may be a banker, media consultant, distributor, landscaper, or just about anything else. This is the person who you need to make friends with. They are there to sell you something sure, but in the end they'll pitch you an idea the same as your VP of Product would, you'll make a call and if you buy it, it costs what you would pay if you had scoured the internet and found it yourself. AND you save the VP salary because this guy gets paid by someone else.

I'm not saying that you need to take time to deliver your entire business plan to everyone who walks through the door with a "padfolio" in their hand, but you couldn't get hurt making friends with a few from each line. Even if you aren't looking for that service today, what if 6 months or 18 months down the line you are? Now you have to do all of your own homework.

This same argument can be made for consumers. So they're not out of this. How could you be worse off by learning about a product that a company spent millions of R&D dollars on to make sure it provided good value for you?

OK, a bit of a soapbox, but I feel its a good question. Why are we afraid of opportunities?