Do You Need This Technology?

As a business owner, there are tools that we need and tools that people try to sell us; sometimes they are one and the same, but often, they are not.  If you are registered with your State or if you have every filled out any paperwork with your company information listed on it, you have most likely received sales calls about an endless number of products that you, “cannot live without”.  You “need” a consultant to tell you how your industry works, or the latest tracker, or new insurance, or telephone system;  the relentless sales call is the entrepreneur’s time-sucking nemesis.

As a flooring contractor there are specific technologies that we need to make our business more productive, but we don’t need people calling dozens of times per week to set up a forced meeting.  Time is important to all of us, and no matter what industry you are in, productivity drives your success. Along with new technology, we all should adapt to new sales techniques that don’t waste our customers time.  I would not be successful pounding my customers with wasted calls to sell my services to an uninterested prospect.

It is important for new businesses with good ideas to get the news out about their products, but we live in an enlightened world that can access new products and information by searching on Google or Amazon.  Most business owners today have a LinkedIn account or get some amount of information about what they need with online searches.  The challenge today is dealing with a growing impatient customer base that is not willing to listen to a personal meeting or phone call, but will read a post about a product online.  The challenge is to reach the people you need to reach without offending them or taking to much of their valuable time.

As a business owner, I have some advice to vendors trying to break through the baracade surrounding every small business owner.  Do not pester, but make contact; it is all about timing.  Give your prospect the option to read up on you and respond later; do not force an immediate answer.  Have links and literature ready with contact information easy to access.  If someone needs your service, they will reach out to you….if they do not, then you can try again later, but don’t pester them.  If you start with a negative interaction, then the odds of selling your product are low.

Moral:  “Do You Need This Technology?” is up to you, but don’t be pestered by a vendor.  It is better to move on to a vendor that is wiling to deal with you on your terms and time table.  Don’t let someone you don’t know tell you what is best for your business.  Don’t let fear force you into purchasing a service; make an educated and reasoned decision on any purchases.