WHAT YOUR EMAIL TRASH FILE CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT GAINING ACCESS TO DECISION-MAKERS
“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Several years ago (back when I was half as old and twice as cool), I used to love going to the movies that had incredible sound quality and the THX opener – “The Audience is Listening.”
The sound actually shook my popcorn and the room, and I always thought the “deep note” literally traveled in my right ear and came out my left. It basically meant that I needed to buckle my seatbelt because the sound quality was about to part my already great-looking hair for the next couple of hours.
In part one of the Trash Can series, we evaluated a portion of the current state of selling and the fact that much of the sales world is experiencing the opposite problem from that THX opener. The audience isn’t listening. And they may actually be wearing email ear muffs, at least as far as their communication is concerned.
The ambient noise that most sales people make today never even reaches the ear of the decision-maker. Decision-makers generally have an interest level somewhere less than zero for being pitched, prodded, or Power Pointed by sales reps, and yet thousands of people with business cards that read “sales consultant” keep using methods they have already proven don’t work. Isn’t there a word that describes what we are when we keep doing the same thing and expect different results?
In 'THE TRASH CAN CHALLENGE' FOR SALES PROFESSIONALS -PART ONE: THE BREAKDOWN we dissected this epidemic from an analytical perspective and challenged readers to conduct their own research. Now we are ready for some help-me sauce – the build-up. For those of you took the challenge and currently find yourself surrounded by a handful of Pulitzer Prize-winning examples of how to not get the decision-makers in your life to open up and become receptive to engaging with you, let’s help you start the shift, begin the restoration process, and get the audience listening.
