Tic tacs got me in the door

When I was in specification sales I used a simple little box of tic Tacs to get me in the door.

I had to be careful what colour to give people so as not to offend anyone. After a while however, when they got to to know me and looked forward to me coming, it was unimportant what colour I gave them.

The most important person in any of the businesses I called on was the receptionist. They were the people who got my information to the right person, who gave me the information I needed, and who helped insure my calls were taken. It was therefore essential to ensure that I thanked them in a small way every time I visted their office by giving them a packet of Tic Tacs.

So you can see gratitude got me in the door and helped me meet who I should.

Now Tic Tacs are not a big gesture of thanks but done often enough, and every time, they mean more than a big bunch of flowers or a box of chocolates at Christmas. Plus as Darren Hardy talks about in the Compound Effect, it was the consistency that counted.

I also gave a packet to the person, or each person, I was meeting. Now this meant that people could hear me coming as I walked, but when I put my card down on top it made mine stand out. More importantly I wasn't forgotten.

The Tic Tacs also had other effects that I and Ferrero Roche didn't forsee. I remember one lady saying my Tic Tacs had helped her with a bit of indegestion or stomach pain. So she was grateful to me and She always did her best to help me after that.

Another customer used the empty boxes from my visits to keep fuses in. They said they were ideal and they reccoemnded me to others.

Why Tic Tacs, well they were a way of saying thank you for their time, without being able to be seen as a bribe. The effect lasted even after I had gone, so was better than a Rose in my button hole or a funny bow tie.

Gratitude can help you build a network of contacts that will remember you for years to come, and will give you information that is more accurate and up to date than information you pay for. In my case Tic Tacs provided me with more cost effective information than my company could pay for by buying leads that every other salesman had.

This meant that when I phoned up firstly my call was taken, and secondily it was passed to who I wanted to speak to because I was asking for the right person in a friendly and grateful way.

Even in the information age, gratitude is really important because time is scarce and so you need to attract people. For infomation on how to use the power of gratitude to increase your sales in the information age drop me a line to culbowie@btinternet.com

Regards

Peter