Hi, Ted Smith, senior vice president of CNET Networks,Business to Business portfolio, and today I'd like to talk with you a littlebit about surviving a sales rep by controlling the clock and that soundsexciting, right?
Controlling the clock, what do I mean by that? Well, anytimeyou've ever been called on by a sales rep, there might be questions about theyear, so your quarter system. There might be questions about days of the weekthat maybe you are available to talk and maybe hours on the clock that you canmeet. For each and every one of these things, there are probably going to bequestions that a sales rep will ask you. Let's introduce our sales rep who isvery curious and then let's introduce you, you're also curious and busy. Let'sthink back to the last sales call that you might have had. So what are some ofthose questions, perhaps related to the year? How about your budget? When doesyour budget cycle end/begin? How about when did you promise the project wouldbe delivered? When does the contract with your current vendor expire? These areall questions that relate to quarters on the calendar.
Now, let's think about the days of the week. So I'm sureyou've never had this happen. I'm going to be in town on Monday, so how aboutif I stop by and give you a presentation about our capabilities? So that's anexample of a sales rep taking some control over your week, probably just asmuch fun as when I stop by, I plan to spend about 2 hours giving you a completeoverview of what we can do for you. So now they are controlling the hours inyour day. So let's talk about what you might be able to do to use these verysame tactics to take control back. At the very least you might want to knowwhat kind of budget cycle they are on and when they need to deliver somethingto their management. You might want to know something about the products thatthey're selling you and how they connect to the calendar-- so are they brandnew, just been released or are they actually at the end of their useful lifeand there is a wave coming up? You probably want to know about that, so you'reasking those questions. You might also want to know how long this person hasbeen on the job? Are they new? Do they have something to prove? So again you'refocused on taking control back on the level of the quarter.
Now let's talk about the week. They told you that they couldstop by on Monday presumably because they had a plane ticket that they hadalready booked and maybe they are visiting somebody else, I don't know. Butmaybe you know that Wednesday is a day that your whole team is meeting.Everybody is at your location and in fact that's a much better day. So maybeWednesday is the day that you should suggest and don't actually just cave towhatever you're being told is best for them and then finally when you thinkabout your work day, 2 hours seems like an awfully long time. Why don't yougive him an hour and why don't you see if there's anything useful there? So asyou can see what we're trying to establish here is the notion of control. Theyhave got a lot of control when they are asking you all the questions about youryear, about your week, about your day. You've got an opportunity to do the samething.
So when you look at the whole situation here, I think thisis pretty fascinating. When they control the clock, I would say that you'rebeing sold. When you control the clock, I would say that you're buyingsomething. So I wish you the best of luck in controlling the clock.
