Sales prospecting persistence on the Costa Blanca

Happy Easter to you all. I hope that you´re having a great one. I´m here in Spain and the weather is miserable! 330+ days of sunshine per year and I´m here when it´s raining! I suppose that´ll teach me to burn the environment up on short haul flights! At 55p per minute my sister took great joy in telling me that it´s glorious at home. I hope you´re all having fun!!

They are the most persistent salespeople you will ever meet…

I´ve just enjoyed a tapas Easter Sunday lunch on the front at Guardamar in the wind and rain. Just like a good old Yorkshire summer! Whilst we were eating we must have been approached 5 or more times by people selling sunglasses. It´s really quite annoying! That said, I have a lot of respect for these people… they are some of the most persistent salespeople that you will ever meet.

This time of the year is not exactly peak sunglass sales weather…

And they do not have it easy. Firstly, they all sell the same sunglasses. Exactly the same. Secondly, they are in a very competitive environment - there are loads of these guys and they are not all working together. Thirdly, this time of year is not a good time for sales as there really aren´t that many customers around and those that are aren´t exactly blinking in the radiant sunlight!

There’s a sales training lesson here!

But they persist anyway. They don´t sit down and moan that the market is saturated. They are not on the phone to their managers telling them that they cannot differentiate their products. And when the customer keeps his head down and refuses to look up they employ every rapport building trick that they can think of to get and hold your attention.

People are rude to them. People dismiss them. The vast majority of people say "No" to them but they know that if they persist they will sell sunglasses - by the fake Armani, bucket-load.