By Dave Fellman
I read an interesting quote recently, attributed to Louis Pasteur, the famous French chemist and microbiologist. “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal,” he said. “My strength lies solely in my tenacity.” Pasteur conducted thousands of experiments while studying and developing both treatment for and preventative techniques against contagious diseases.
I also read that Pasteur scrapped a lot of those experiments as soon as he realized that he was barking up the wrong tree. His definition of tenacity was to keep moving forward toward his ultimate goal, even if that required him to move backward or sideways every once in a while.
Many printing salespeople seem to have a different definition of tenacity. They tend to “hang in there” with someone well past the point where it should be obvious that they’re not going to succeed. As I’ve written before, it takes three things to be a truly qualified prospect. First, they must buy exactly the kind of printing you want to sell. Second, they must buy enough of it to make the pursuit worthwhile. And third, they must show some interest in buying from you.
Yes, there are people who don’t show much interest in the beginning and later come around, but that’s not the situation I’m talking about. Rather it’s the situation where a salesperson calls sporadically over some period of time, often without even being sure that this “prospect” is even qualified in terms of the first two criteria. That’s not tenacity, it’s a waste of time!
“An experiment is just that,” Pasteur might have said. “You begin each one with the hope that it will succeed, but you must pay careful attention to the signs that it will not. When you see those signs, you must try a different approach.” In selling terms, that means two things: first that if what you’re doing isn’t working, you should try something else! Second, the better choice is often to try someone else. Pasteur’s goal was prevention and cure of infectious diseases. It was not to make any particular experiment work! A printing salesperson’s goal is to sell a certain amount of printing—or perhaps better stated, to create a certain amount of profit. As the owner, I don’t think you really care who buys all that printing, only that somebody does!
I want you to be aggressive about disqualifying prospects, in other words, to take advantage of the breadth of your market opportunity. My definition of tenacity is to evaluate lots of companies and printing buyers, identifying the ones who are truly qualified and giving them a place on my prospect list. It’s about working hard to find those good prospects, not about “hanging in there” with bad ones.
Dave Fellman is the president of David Fellman & Associates, Cary, NC, a sales and marketing consulting firm serving numerous segments of the graphic arts industry. Contact Dave by phone at 919-363-4068 or by e-mail at dmf@davefellman.com. Visit his website at www.davefellman.com.