THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Today a local IT shop dropped off a brouchure.  They gave it to the receptionist.  A few days ago a Copier person came in to meet regarding copier leases.

First the copier person did something right as they called and got ahold of me and we were/are in the process of looking for a replacement color copier/scanner.

First the local IT shop blew it because they drove around doing a "cold" drop off to non clients.  It finally got to the right person (me) but in dropping it off with the person at the front desk, they tuned out the person giving the sales pitch.  Rule one in busy offices, never just 'drop in' unannounced.  Make an appointment.  You'll get a person who's ready and open to talk to you.  Know the firm's busy season.  We once had a copier rep "drop by" on March 15th.  If you know anything at all about CPA firms you'll know you don't go near them from about January to April.

Second the copier person knew their product.  Kudos on that.  But the history lesson on the copier name changes probably wasn't necessary.  Personally I think I threw him off his normal sales pitch because I knew I wanted color, certain speed, connectivity to the network and we already had a Ricoh color copier/scanner and were just looking to have a second for redundancy.

Second the local IT shop had a nice touch with the letters of testimony from past clients.  But when I went to the web site the information about the company was a little bit canned.  The brouchure was actually a bit more enticing than the web site. Let that be a lesson.  Your marketing materials have the greatest impact when the message is maintained the entire way.

Interesting comparison nonethelss of two "cold call" experiences.