Day 57 - Selling

Before I even started, and even still today (and probably in the many years to come) I know selling the BEVINCO service is going to be one of the largest challenges that I will have to face. The past 2 weeks I have focused my attention on contacting bar owners in my territory through any means possible. Have I been successful? Well it’s way too early to tell, I think in a year’s time I can ask myself that question again and I should have a better answer. I started to contact bars that I thought probably won’t need my service and use the experience as a learning one and hone my sales techniques......and I have made many mistakes already, but I already have a list of things not to say and a list of typical objections that I was not prepared to answer. I have used direct mail, email, cold calls and drop in to the bar approaches to contacting the owners. I have had some success with email, but stopping by the bar has been the best approach so far. However, asking to speak to the owner hasn’t got me very far, but if I already knew the bar owners name I was always able to get past the first line of defence (bartender). I was fortunate enough to know a local brewery representative for my territory who was able to provide me with a few contacts which has helped immensely. But just talking to the owner hasn’t been enough since you typically only get 30 seconds of their time. I have since changed my approach to once I meet them just try and set up an appointment for a later date to discuss the service and not try and sell in the 30 seconds that I have. I will have lots more to discuss on this topic in the weeks to come.