This morning I picked up the box of over due samples and could not resist a quick detour on the way home dropping one of the two blue rolls with a prospective client. These rolls are all different specifications even if some look similar. I am a firm believer getting your product into the right persons hands at the right price and more often than not an order will follow.
The story with this client is when I first visited I had no idea they used blue pallet wrap for storing their high end products. All I knew is they had 6 warehouses and this was a business that grew from someone's garage into the monster it is today. This is an online platform selling items so this business is still growing and is in the top 5 of online platforms in South Africa.
Funny how you can have dreams and never know what you have until it takes off and 6 warehouses tells you the type of volumes they process daily. To give you an idea of the types of value a client may hold for us this order is worth between $1500 and $2000 in profit each month. This you have no idea until you have visited and why you just never know and why this is really good fun. If you enjoy what you do the chances are you will be successful because it is not just a job and becomes a passion. Working for a company or someone else you have to work very hard for an extra $12K increase per annum and adding this one client today did just that.
To top it off an order was placed this afternoon and this is the magic of what the samples can do. The operations manager had no idea I was even making him a blue roll as he had been sampled a clear roll on day one. I felt it the right thing to do and they really appreciated us going the extra mile and possibly what swung them our way. This client took roughly 10 weeks to land from start to finish which is pretty good and not really that much of a chase/hunt.
Normally I would try and put them off until the New Year to make a clean start, but this is not a difficult client and will actually enjoy working with them. Some places give you the vibe they will be hard work and I do not get that from these people. The owner of the company who started in his garage back in 2010 is still very much hands on and expects the same work ethic from all his managers which is how it should be.
The only worry is the operations manager mentioned they were running low of stock and need to order shortly which should never be the case as we all hate making a plan under time pressure. One should always have enough especially with Black Friday and the Festive season upon us. This is their busy period and they need to focus by being fully prepared or the wheels come off.
The other blue roll is my army buddy who also stores high end electronics and even though does not use the same types of volumes as todays client all these orders add up quickly. I understand why they use colored packaging to hide the expensive items, but my thinking is it also highlights where the value is. Rather wrap and hide everything besides the obvious label so anyone looking to steal would struggle finding the good stuff.
Bzzz, nice one! 🐝 Ten weeks from first visit to first order, and a blue roll nobody asked for that probably tipped the scale: that's how real bees work, flower by flower. 🌼 I also like your point about colored wrap: it hides the goods, but it also tells a thief exactly where the honey is. 🍯
One honest question, bee to bee: you downvoted my comment to offgridlife at 100%. Can you tell me why? If I did something wrong, I'd really like to understand. I answered with a downvote on this post in the heat of the moment: if it was a mistake, I can removed it. 🙏
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STOPI think understanding the customer's real needs and paying attention to details that may not seem important at first glance is one of the most important skills in sales. (Of course, I don't have this and I can't sell my paintings.) Congratulations on this new customer.
Dropping a blue roll off and landing a client worth that much a month in profit is exactly why getting samples into the right hands works.