Built to Sell by Warrillow John

Author:Warrillow, John [Warrillow, John]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-09-22T05:42:26.212000+00:00

9

Gaining Momentum

The next few months at the Stapleton Agency progressed according to Alex’s plan. The new salespeople thrived under Angie’s leadership. Rhina’s attention to detail made her an excel ent manager. Chris hired a third designer and continued to improve the efficiency of the Five-Step Logo Design Process. According to Harry, the financial results for the first six months of the year were equal y impressive: Revenue: $1,280,000

Expenses: $995,000

Pretax Profit: $285,000

At the halfway point of the year, Alex was tracking to exceed both his revenue targets and his profit margin goal.

Mary Pradham asked to meet Alex over lunch, which was strange. He’d not heard from Mary for six months; his accounts were in good standing; and he usual y met her at her office at the downtown branch of MNY Bank, not over lunch at one of the city’s best restaurants.

The waiter arrived and Mary ordered sparkling water for the table. They worked through a painful few minutes of smal talk. Mary had never asked Alex about his personal life, so she didn’t have much of a foundation to work from. She resorted to weather and sports. She was stretching, and it showed.

After their lunch arrived and the waiter left, Alex brought the conversation back to business.

“It’s been a while since we spoke last. Why did you want to have lunch?”

“I like to meet with al of my clients face-to-face a few times a year,” Mary exaggerated. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, and judging by your account activity, you guys have been busy.”

Alex decided to put Mary out of her misery early and took her question as a springboard to describe their new focus on logos, charging up front, the sales engine, and the building of his team.

“That’s great, Alex. I think I have some other clients who could benefit from your focus.”

Lunch plates were cleared and coffee arrived. Mary got down to business.

“I think I can get you a better rate of return on the money you have on deposit with us.”

Alex nodded and gestured for Mary to continue.

She looked around to see if anyone was in earshot, lowering her voice as she spoke.

“As of this morning, you have $230,000 in your account, and judging by the pattern of your deposits, you’re not going to need that money in the foreseeable future. Have you ever thought about high-yield CDs?”

Alex listened politely as Mary droned on about FDIC insurance and interest rates.

After an exhaustive summary of the many features of MNY Bank’s deposit products, Mary launched into her next pitch. “If you ever want to expand, we’d be there to support you.”

“What exactly do you mean by ‘support you’?” Alex asked, tiring of Mary’s duplicity.

“We have very good rates on credit lines. You have a $150,000 line of credit now, but I’m sure I could get the credit group to up that to $300,000, maybe more . . .”

Alex couldn’t believe his ears. In the space of six months, Mary had gone from hounding him like a loan shark to offering a credit line increase over lunch at one of the better restaurants in town.

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