I Donut Like this Sales Strategy

I will start with a controversial take: Your sales manager, who ironically probably struggles with sales, is wrong - you do not bring donuts to your prospects; you bring them to clients.

I know, you have heard for years that it takes anywhere from 5-20 touchpoints to sell to large enterprises. Thus, you are probably thinking that you need to:

• Build rapport with prospects and their staff
• Get your foot in the door by leveraging the "reciprocity principle"
• Differentiate yourself from other sales/biz dev teams
• Create a positive association with you and gifts

While these concepts are crucial, how you execute this strategy is deeper than a $15 (inflation-adjusted) box of donuts. As someone who has sat on both sides of the interaction, I can assure you that donuts seem like a weak and unoriginal way to get an advocate within the organization who can help get your meeting or call replied to.

Am I saying people don't want donuts? Hell no, everyone loves donuts. However, I am not fond of the glaringly obvious transparency of a half-hearted sugary bribe to try and stand out from others who are already doing the same exact thing. So let us think differently:

Think Like a BUYER: Decision makers want to avoid cheap tactics and annoying salespeople who merely show up to stay top of mind (while often adding little value) as they are busy executing critical functions within the business. So instead try this:

• OLD: Prospect, I dropped off donuts today and chatted with (gatekeeper name), he/she said your team would really appreciate it. Just a reminder, I am trying to figure out the status of our project.
• NEW: I know you/your team are short on time so I would like to buy lunch for the team next week and spend 10 minutes showing you some compelling changes to our proposal.

Be RELATABLE: Transform into a sales / biz dev professional who finds ways to get your prospect reasons to discuss business needs rather than avoid you. Think about how you feel when you get that sales call for solar, home improvements, timeshares or otherwise - why do you hang up so fast? Now think about what would have kept you on the phone. You might be thinking about the scene in Boiler Room where Giovanni Ribisi schools the telemarketer. So instead try this:

• OLD: Propect, I keep emailing, calling, and texting without a response from you or your team so I stopped by today to drop off some donuts for everyone. I hope you enjoy them and we can chat soon.
• NEW: Prospect, rather than "popping in" with donuts or sending 20 emails about new products or services here are 3 times/dates to choose that hopefully work with your schedule for a quick discussion. I can only imagine how it feels to be bombarded by salespeople, so I want to respect your time but also allow both of us to move on to other projects if you have lost interest.

Stop the SALESTALK: I have yet to meet someone who behaves like a salesperson in everyday life. If someone asks me for directions, they don't tell me their name, state their company, qualifications, cost/benefit reasons I should listen to them or ask about my day first. Dropping off donuts feels to an enterprise executive more like "Hey prospect/gatekeeper here are some sugary treats to compel you to spend time paying attention to me because my product/service value is unclear and I am desperate." You don't want to sound or act like a salesperson, do this instead:

• OLD: Prospect, I have sent several emails previously but did not see a response. I am now going to type 6 paragraphs including 3 cost/benefit examples, some ROI modeling, case studies, a few customer references and a reminder that our discount expires at month end.
• NEW: Prospect, based on our meetings it's clear that you understand what we are all about, but I want to respect your time. Let's get out of our offices and do something interesting like: pickleball, sporting event, amazing coffee at x location, lunch/dinner at x location with some unique perk or winetasting on Thursday at X location.

In all of these examples, use clues from the prospect's desk, office, social media or otherwise, to pinpoint something you believe you can engage in "mirroring" with. You are a partner and consultant if you are doing it right – this means a thoughtful and personalized approach to relationship building, not a transaction. Thus, you need to do a better job at understanding how they buy, being relatable and empathetic to their needs (including not losing their job for going with you), and speaking like a normal human by getting rid of sales talk.

If you change up your strategy you can stop obsessing about basic sales tactics like bringing donuts to prospects and execute on bringing donuts to your new client for years to come.