Opportunity knocks once

“A few months back, I was looking to buy a new car. I am not a vehicle geek and have heavily relied on peer recommendations and popular sentiments for my erstwhile purchase decisions. The decisions had been fine and the best part of involving peer recommendations had been that I had never spent a lot of time evaluating options. This time it was different - many choices, many views, a lot of recommendations and hence I decided to do a detailed evaluation.

I shortlisted 3 cars to test drive and called up the dealers. The problem of plenty strikes now - two of them have test vehicles, but not the model or variant that I want. The situation is more critical with another - no test vehicle for two weeks! They had a patient customer waiting, but not for long!

There was even a classic situation of lack of appetite for a new sale - I walked up to a dealer rep who was giving a test drive to another potential customer and asked if I can also take one. He showed me the building across the road, which was their showroom and asked me to go and book an appointment there. Audacious, right!? I got the message - I am done with the quarter targets, and I can’t sweat further.

One of those days, after a long test drive, I stayed later than usual to finish my work. That evening, I was about to leave my office. As I was walking out, I noticed our office phone ringing. I rushed to the phone and picked it up before the call dropped. At the fag end of a weekend, that was a business enquiry!!! I was startled - with all those options available to reach out, there was this one on a common office phone - a landline!

We took it forward and did our initial discussions. We patiently stood through the detailed process of vendor evaluation and bidding and finally, all went well. We have a new account, a promising long-term future partnership.

I had a customer ready to give me work and what if I had ignored or missed the call?

Have your test vehicles, demos and all other information ready and handy! Pick and return your calls on time and be patient for an enduring journey towards closure!

When you are in the job of growing your business, you can’t keep a customer waiting. You can’t afford to lose an opportunity.

The phone is ringing - either my car is out of its first service or maybe it is a new opportunity! Let me not miss it!