Day 132 – A sales call and perfect timing.

Sometimes your timing is perfect or, so it seems.

Today I had a stack of business card to go through and contact. It is Monday so I just sent emails. I will do follow up calls later in the week. I know as a business owner I don’t want to be bombarded on a Monday

One of the contacts was a local bar owner that I have only communicated through Facebook. We have talked a few times and he actually bought a bottle of Eve’s Apple Pie to experiment with at the bar. He liked it but was a bit skeptical of the lower alcohol percentage.

Now one bottle is not going to get it done and I knew that. One bottle is basically a courtesy purchase. One bottle will get sampled by all of the staff and a few regular customers that happen to be at the bar. When you follow up they will tell you that it didn’t sell or no one is asking for it. Well thats because no paying customer has actually had it.

I always knew I was going to go back and follow up but, when we decided to up the alcohol percentage I decided to wait. I knew that if I could take away that objection I would have a better shot at a bigger purchase.

In this business I need a sale of 6 bottles to be sure an owner is committed to the product. If they purchase 6 bottles they have motivation to get it moving because inventory is cash, literally. There is no credit or terms on alcohol sales its all cash. So as an owner looks at bottles sitting that equates to a pile of cash and they want a return.  They will be more apt to run specials or put it on a featured drink menu. The same thing can be accomplished if the staff, owner or both really love the product. Then they have a natural desire to share something they personally enjoy.

Since we have recently increased the alcohol percentage I knew it was time. When I reached out to him today he told me that he would be around all day if I wanted to stop by. Armed with a brand new bottle and a couple recipes I went to see him.

I shared the new formulation and he liked it. I shared a popular new recipe and dropped another account that was doing well and he poured a couple drinks for his staff and a guest. The views were unanimous! They all loved it.

I did not get the 6 bottle order that I was hoping for, because he loved it and he saw some potential, he ordered an entire case of 12 bottles! Not only that but he also dug out a chilling machine to serve cold shots and told me to get stickers made for it so we could brand it and have it prominently displayed with the Jägermeister and other cold shots.

So the perfect timing piece? The owner recently decided to stop carrying Fireball and thought this would be a great product to fill that hole. Fire ball is the most sold 750ml bottle of alcohol in Washington state and Eve’s being offered as an alternative is huge!

I would say that as far as sales calls go, this was a 10!