Why are people so impatient these days?
In this interview Richard and I discuss a machine company. I ask Richard: How were you introduced? How did you get them as a customer? He answers that the Dakota Machine comes through the MEP (Manufacturing Extension Partnership). Richard had discovered them when they came to the workshop he had. He followed up with a free consultation for them and closed them on four projects on his HMA system.
Instead of charging their entire consulting fee at once, Richard decided to use the pay-as-you-go plan because they liked the idea that they could stop using Richard after step 1 was completed if they weren’t happy with the results.
The next question I asked Richard was, “How much did you charge for these projects?” Richard: It’s between $3,000 and $4,000 per step. In response, I asked him, “What were some of their challenges?”
Richard says: “Here we had a company that had a salesperson who made cold calls. They specialized in smaller machine parts. The salesman had received lists of leads and was making calls. The salesperson making the calls was an asset. He was open, willing to change, and even make changes if needed. We have also already developed a good USP to help.”
Many times in manufacturing, one of the biggest issues, problems and gaps in the market is getting the product completed and delivered on time. This is what they call “run time”. He decided that in the first step (USP) they could guarantee lead time or free shipping. This became the new scenario for the seller.
Another thing we found the salesperson wasn’t doing was that he wasn’t qualifying the leads very well. He was talking to manufacturers who would never need or want the specialized machine parts offered by Dakota Machine. The seller was wasting a lot of time. Step 2 of Richard’s system states: When you have a USP, you begin to teach salespeople what to ask of a prospect to determine if they want to spend more time with that prospect.
As a result, conversion rates jumped 20% to 30%, in just 60 days. As a result, we now have this small engineering company with more capacity and they are introducing second and third shifts.
#people #impatient #days