Incognito

Master of Disaster

Notorious Answer

Fate is a fucked up thing (incognito story time)

After a long weekend getting my shit together, I realized that my pipe is looking kinda dry. Got one deal in the works but not much else that would hit until Q2. And apparently lots of DMs are either having babies, isolated with COVID, or so swamped with work so they don’t even want to think about the headache of switching brokers.

Fine, whatever.

Got a few of my referral sources new clients (I’m talking over 100M in revenue) so that should pay off. Hopefully. Sometime soon. But not yet.

Fine, whatever.

Proceeded to get into the mother of all fights with man meat because I’m that bitch who won’t take crap from no one. Stormed out to a local hangout to get food and utterly shitfaced.

Fine, whatever.

As I’m sitting at the bar (they know me so are pouring me like half a bottle of gin in each drink), I strike up a conversation with another regular about sports or some shit, make a joke about now being in sales. Asks what I sell. Mention construction.

Well guess what this guy does. A guy I see at least three to four times a week (the place is under my apartment). He’s an Albanian general contractor who does 8M in rev annually and has no fucking clue about labor laws, dealing with engineers, public work requirements (I’ll spare you the boring shit - if he gets classified as a minority or disadvantaged business, as he can, he will be in high demand as 20% of the work gets awarded to firms with these designations. They are hard to find) and basically all the things that could make that 8M turn into 40M within a few years.

Meanwhile I’m pitching like I’m on fire and getting completely and utterly fucking wasted.

Dude shakes my hand and is legit shocked that this weird, loud, tattooed, obnoxious girl who he has seen on the reg for like 4 years can change his life.

TL;DR - you never know where your next opportunity will find you. Talk to strangers. Don’t “clock out” at a certain time in public - ALWAYS be hunting.

Also also - eventually made man meat come down to meet this dude (he’s part of the pitch unfortunately) and after he wows the guy, I say “see? This is why he has access to my vagina”

🔎 Prospecting

🤝 Networking

😎 Sales Skills

26

26 comments

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Incognito

WR Officer

10

Master of Disaster

Side note : I feel like shit and may or may not have definitely slept in the bathroom

Filth

Politicker

8

Live Filthy or Die Clean

Never underestimate the power of drinking on the job. Good story, glad it had a happy ending after the apathetic start.

I was based in a physical territory in my past position and I made a point to get lunch and dinner in the area and sit at the bar. The amount of direct time with DMs made every stop as, if not more effective, than any cold call.

Happy Holidays & Happy Hunting.

Incognito

WR Officer

4

Master of Disaster

It’s why I don’t do the million dials a day tbh. It’s very rare in my industry for a deal to be closed over the phone or via zoom or some shit. I pick my targets and do everything I can to get in their face physically.

I mean, I currently have like 100+ targets, but I’ll use any excuse. Need to send me a form? I’ll pick it up in person. Confused about your policy? I’ll sit with you over lunch and go through it with you.

Hell, my boss physically flies across the country when a client acquires a new entity or is awarded a new out of state contract.

Maybe I’m wrong, though, too.

Filth

Politicker

4

Live Filthy or Die Clean

I don't think you are. So much harder for people to tell you to f*** off in person and so much easier to read prospects and business environments in the flesh.

You keep doing what works for you and hell, if you get to go places and meet new people while doing it, even better. Other than the money, its why I love sales.

saaskicker

Celebrated Contributor

2

Enterprise AE

Closed my first deal at Margaritaville in Las Vegas at my first trade show many years ago.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

7

🦊

Also adding never judge a book by its cover. ❤🦊

Incognito

WR Officer

4

Master of Disaster

I have the feeling that many fall victim to a badger in foxy clothing 🦊

TheOverTaker

Politicker

3

Senior Account Executive

bar friends are the best friends

LordBusiness

Politicker

3

Chief Revenue Officer

Hilarious. I need stories like this in my life. Kudos to you.

Incognito

WR Officer

2

Master of Disaster

This one was called “Sunday”.

Can’t wait till Christmas party season starts on Wednesday. And Thursday. And Friday. ⚰️

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

2

☕️

Does he know my homegirl Dua?

Incognito

WR Officer

4

Master of Disaster

Idk but dis my jam

Incognito

WR Officer

2

Master of Disaster

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

2

☕️

Gonna take that as a 100%

GDO

Politicker

1

BDM

This is why he has access to my vagina 😅

Incognito

WR Officer

4

Master of Disaster

It’s honestly the line that sealed the deal

GDO

Politicker

1

BDM

I’m gonna remind that one.

Diablo

Politicker

1

Sr. AE

Very motivating 😄

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

1

Rolling 20's all day

@Incognito is driving the sales rollercoaster and I'm sitting in car #3! Is the secret sauce to live above a bar? Maybe?

I 93% identify with that meme, and I'd be interested to hear more on how you brought high profile customers to your referral sources.

Incognito

WR Officer

3

Master of Disaster

My sparkling personality.

But, like, for real.

Every contractor needs a good construction focused lawyer, accountant, banker, bonding agent and insurance broker. If you ask them, the broker, lawyer and banker are disposable while the others are vital to their success. So guess who I target every bit as hard as my prospects? That's right - the CPAs and Bonding superstars (I'm a baby bonding agent, I do more insurance). The CPAs and Bonding agents have huge client rosters and it's very rare that a client leaves.

Now, one of my CPAs (aka man meats) is in a unique position because of the state of the industry. There are really only a handful of firms who are capable of doing the kind of financial statements Sureties require to write the bonds for contractors to get work (and is required for all public jobs...helloooooo trillion dollar infrastructure deal!). Two of the biggest just merged, so all of the clients from the smaller of the two just had their fees double. That leaves non-specialized CPAs trying to do niche work because they're cheaper, and it really isn't sufficient to increase the capacity required to stay profitable. So the big big firms (100M+ revenue) are fine with the big fees, but the mid market (5M-50M) has nowhere to go.

Guess who specializes in mid market construction and does every bit as good a job as the big firms for half the price? And guess who didn't even think about marketing themselves for the last 15 years? It's kinda like they got comfortable and forgot.

Well I reminded everyone in that demographic, as it is also my demographic.

As for the Bonding superstars, they want to write more bonds. It's how they get paid. They need a CPA firm to refer clients which fall into this category, otherwise their clients have less cash to increase their equity and therefore bid less. So I make friends, and also remind them about man meats firm. Some bonding agents do not do insurance. In fact, at my last firm, they will refer the insurance to a competitor because the insurance side is so bad it will fuck up the client. So they can refer clients to me for insurance, because my firm is awesome. Some construction companies want the insurance and bonding separate anyway.

So basically this is my secret sauce. I honestly can't believe other brokers haven't figured it out yet. Maybe it's their ego or some shit idk. More likely they have the brain capacity of an amoeba and don't understand how to even read a financial statement, let alone how to run a business. They just sell policies, which is the dumbest thing ever.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

1

Rolling 20's all day

Everyone looking for secret sauce: WRITE THAT DOWN
lol but this is legit. I’m sure many just settle for being mediocre when they could make much more, unlike you

Incognito

WR Officer

2

Master of Disaster

As salespeople, we always gotta look for that angle no one else has thought of yet. My superpower has always been making connections. What does literally every business want? Better margins. How can you make that a reality, even if it has nothing to do with your product directly?

FWIW my former industry was 100% word of mouth. No marketing. Nothing online. Nothing more than personal connections. For millions of dollars. Like, lets say I HAD a million to spend. If I didn't know anyone, I wouldn't have anywhere to spend it. Kinda out there considering all the SaaS peeps in here haha

Justatitle

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

See technically alcohol is a solution.

DatSaaS

Executive

1

Sales Executive

Great story. Always be closing

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

0

Bravado's Resident Asshole

We miss you! come back

MR.StretchISR

Politicker

0

ISR

Cuter than the goblins down in Marketing...

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