Sunday, April 06, 2014

Sales Joke of the Day (April 6) Ice Fishing.

A heavily inebriated salesman decides to go ice fishing.  He starts to drill a hole through the ice with his auger when a loud booming voice from above says, "There's no fish down there!  You can't drill down there!"


So the salesman stops drilling and moves a little ways and starts to drill again.   Again a loud booming voice from above says, "There's no fish down there!  You can't drill down there!"


So the salesman stops drilling and moves a little ways and starts to drill again.   Again a loud booming voice from above says, "There's no fish down there!  You can't drill down there!"


The salesman now very frustrated, looks to the heavens and asks, "God, why are punishing me?  Is it because I have drank too much?"


"I am not God," replied the booming voice, "look over here in the stands stupid.  I'm just the arena manager!"


Moral of the story.   Sales professionals know that just because you have the ability sell well; it's a useless skill unless you also have the ability to pinpoint where you need to be selling.   And to whom.   City websites, chamber of commerce websites, and some state governments have studies online that will cover what industries are hot in a given geographic area.  From there it's a simple step to narrow your search by region, industry and executive type through data.com, Contacts by Jigsaw; and it's only a matter of time before you bring in the big one.


Happy fishing folks!   And remember it's only by casting according to plan that you will be able to keep your sales career from becoming frozen.

"There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot."  
                                                         -  Stephen Wright