Techneur.com

I had just walked into a potential client’s establishment. I was met with a friendly greeting as any ordinary customer would be. But I was no ordinary customer. I needed this business as a launch pad to close other businesses like it. They were the best of their industry in town, and their competitors would follow them off a cliff just to stay within arm’s reach. They had no previous knowledge of my arrival or my business and that’s how I wanted it.

I met the receptionist with a warm smile and immediate rapport about the office décor. I was not a customer, I was selling – pitching an idea that I needed them to endorse. However, I wasn’t wearing a pitcher’s uniform, nor did I have a ball. In fact, I wasn’t even on the mound. I was the catcher, giving the signals and guiding the ball home. How could she know, I came in asking for help about learning their industry. I occupied a gray area and could not be classified as a salesman, and therefore was able to avoid the negative salesman stereotypes. Instead, I was asking for help and the receptionist was more than happy to assist.

With almost every small business, and most medium-sized businesses, receptionists are the glue that holds the company together. They are the mediator between corporate and client, between executive and entrepreneur. Receptionists are savvy to the ins and outs of the business and are willing to work with you as a customer. They also keep the office in order and expound the little details that make it feel like home. A small painting of a farm house or a picture of a girl holding a flower might have even come from their very own personal collection. They fill their home away from home with the same warmth they bring to their households. These are the small things, along with the tidiness to take note of and genuinely compliment upon entering. Receptionists are also the most overworked and underpaid. Their vastly superior organizational skills overshadow their creative skills in their job setting. Executives rarely ask them for valuable creative input. Like anyone, they will do what they can within these constraints to fulfill their creative needs. This is where you can help them.

Your idea is not your idea; it’s an idea of the collective. It’s an idea that has been spawned from your life experiences and the direct application of solutions to a given environment. Ownership of an idea is nothing. Ownership of a business that has incorporated that idea is everything. The difference is execution. In the latter you have successfully executed. That’s why, when you pitch, you don’t pitch an idea, you pitch a frame of mind and the limitations that come with your working environment. Then you ask the right questions, and let others come up with the idea. They throw the idea out and you catch it, congratulating them on their efforts.

If you truly believe that your idea will solve a problem for you client, than other people (including your client) will as well. You pitch that frame of mind to the receptionist first. Ask her for help. People are willing to give you all the time in the world to help you help them, but hardly any time if you are just trying to sell. And that’s why you don’t pitch, you catch. Give her the limitations you are working within and a loose frame on what you would like to accomplish for their business. She’ll pump out a few ideas and you can work together to reach your goal. Or you may come to a new idea that you can both take ownership of. Since you’ve provided the framework, you’ll have the associated skills to go along with servicing that framework. Since she helped create the idea, she’s now invested in that idea and your skills are the conduit to that idea manifesting.

With the receptionist on your side anything is possible. Meeting slots open up like crevices on a melting mountain. Information flows out like a tepid river. The cold lead has thawed to reveal a warm ally. The receptionist has become your evangelist. Even if you are turned down, she is quick to give you a reference to the nearest competitor and may even fight your fight once you are gone. The smaller the company, the more reserve power the receptionist will have.

Utilize the same technique during meetings with bosses and owners. Small startups are very willing to help and if you can create a product to solve a problem for them, then you’re in business. It just so happened that the receptionist I spoke with was also part owner. The owners rotated duties: taking calls and helping walk-ins. This worked out great. The co-owner and I came up with a whole new idea that utilized a framework that our company had already been working on. She even called over the other owners over for advice and all three became invested in the project. The meeting was interactive and symbiotic, much more memorable than the average sales pitch.

When your customers come up with the final product, you can assume the sale. “So, I’ll build a prototype and bring it so you guys can see all the cool features before you sign on.” Promise a prototype as though the idea had just came to fruition within your symbiotic meeting. Since you already have the framework developed, deliver the prototype week early. They’ll be impressed with your efficiency and you’ll be able to close the final deal much easier now that they’ve seen you in action.

Go in on their terms, into their business and you will blur the line between customer and salesman. Use that ambiguity to help you help them. Don’t throw the fastball straight away, you don’t need to. Instead give the right signals (ask the right questions) and let them throw to you. Then, catch your idea.

Don’t throw the pitch, catch it.
-Brian