Sales Calls and Customer Acquisition

I flew into Nashville on Tuesday evening in the midst of pouring rain. It did not bode well for the appointments that I had on Wednesday (yesterday). I hate driving in the dark in the rain on unfamiliar roads with high-speed bumper-to-bumper traffic but that is what I did. Thankfully, I reached my motel in one piece and checked in. After a bite to eat, I retired to my room , happy to be out of the rain.

Wednesday dawned with cloud cover, but no rain. The snow which had been forecast failed to materialize and the day turned out to be great. My big worry became a minor scheduling conflict between my appointments. I called the first one early hoping to move it up and low-and-behold, that was the way it happened. It was a 40 mile drive to meet him at his operation south of Nashville. I headed south on I-65 thanking my lucky stars that I wasn't in the inbound traffic that was backed up almost 15 miles south of Franklin in parking lot mode.

The appointment went even better than I had anticipated and I met not only with him but also one of his neighbors that he had invited over. Both of them are now new customers. I then headed north to my next appointment in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I arrived about 20 minutes early which was great because it gave me some extra time to prepare a couple of items that I felt needed to be added to my arsenal.

The meeting went extremely well and we parted with the agreement to take the next steps. I then called a contact in the area that I didn't have on my schedule and he invited me out to his place northeast of Bowling Green. It was well after dark-thirty when I left after a great visit.

As I hit the north edge of Nashville my cell phone rang. It was the veterinarian who does the work for my afternoon appointment. He had lots of questions and said that I had made a favorable impression. We talked for almost 30 minutes as I drove back to my motel. (I know, I shouldn't be talking on the cell phone while driving but the traffic was light at that time of evening.)

This morning I received a call from our home office to let me know that the veterinarian I had spoken with last night was ready to go ahead and utilize our services for his client. He had called before 8:00 a.m. We will be shipping him the items he needs to get started today.

Yep, it has been a good week so far. Three new customers picked up yesterday in an area where we are looking to expand. Now I'd better get off of here so I can catch my flight to New Orleans.