These things take time

“Congratulations on the XXX order–they didn’t even give us a chance,” said a competitor’s salesperson to one of ours.

Ahh, yes, we are basking in the glory of booking one of those orders that everyone in the market knows about. It’s a huge order and now our parking lot is overflowing with the cars of new hires. And success is doing its usual thing of attracting even more business.

The neat thing for me is that I remember the seeds of this sale from ten years ago. I was there, I helped plant them.

One of our top customers at the time had to outsource some work to XXX and recommended our product. I stopped by their booth at a show we attended just twice and was lucky to talk to one of the people involved.

He acknowledged the recommendation and told me that their current supplier was too much trouble when it came to service. His tone was friendly and I appreciated his candor. I walked away with a slight bounce in my step, the way you do when you ace a test or an interview.

I was happy for the opportunity to actually meet someone in person, when that would not normally be the case for such an small order, especially as an ‘inside sales guy’. I think the meeting was important for the person I met, too–to put a face on this new prospective vendor.

They ordered the first unit, then another. They visited our factory and bought some large units the following year. Then their sister facilities made a few purchases. And so it continued slowly over the last ten years. And now we are their supplier of choice, no chance for the competition.

And I was there at the beginning. I helped plant this success, just by striking up a conversation with someone. Very cool. For that reason, I don’t mind not having anywhere to park!