Don Mastrangelo 07.AUG.08 I'm often amazed by a salesperson - sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes - not so much. Last week I decided to run a few classified ads to sell some stuff. I called a weekly shopper publication owned by the local newspaper on Friday. The publication comes out on Wednesdays, and Jen, the salesperson who took my call told me the deadline was Monday at noon. Great! I had the weekend to write up the ads and get them turned in. Jen gave me her e-mail address and assured me that as long as she received my ads by e-mail no later than noon Monday they would run in the Wednesday edition. I e-mailed four separate ads to Jen on Sunday.
Monday around 10:00am I called to verify they had been received. The phone was answered by - let's call him "John" - not Jen. "Hi John, [more...]
Don Mastrangelo 14.FEB.08
Have you recently been bombarded by all the talk about recession, hard times and all the rest of the “Gloom and Doom” speak going around out there? Me too, and frankly I’m laughing at it. I’ve been a sales professional for over twenty years, and I’m here to tell you what’s happening right now is no different from what has occurred at least half a dozen times before in my personal career. When things get tough, certain members of every industry go down with the “economic” ship. The weak fail and the strong survive. The weak usually include start-ups, because most new businesses are undercapitalized to begin with and without an established customer base the start-ups can’t weather the storm.
For those of us making a living selling a product or service this can be very disconcerting, especially when prospects tell you they are not spending any money because they are simply trying to survive. Again, I’ve been through this before and I want you to know that the current situation is – in fact – a tremendous opportunity for you to rise to the top of your field, regardless of what you are [more...]
Who would have thought a cheap tie could become a great sales tool?
Louis Mastrangelo 24.JAN.08 (Story originally published in late 2006 - back by popular demand...) The winters in Arizona are extremely mild and this particular day in 1990 was no exception. The sky was bright blue and the morning sun was not the raging beast it was in the summer. I turned my car off the main drag and slowed. My destination was just ahead- a fairly new industrial park with about 40 units. You know the kind I mean; they are all the same with small front offices and warehouses that have roll up loading doors in back.
Any parking spot would do because I didn’t have an appointment with anyone in any of the suites in this complex. I pulled into the first available space I saw and turned the engine off. On the seat next to me was my portfolio stocked with flyers, selling tools and business cards. Next to it lay my demo cellular phone fondly and accurately nicknamed “the Brick”. [more...]
