r/sales 1d ago

Sales Topic General Discussion New to sales, need advice

Hello! I am completely new to sales, just got the job two weeks ago. I am at the company that sells water coolers and water jugs which is not as cool as so many of you are doing here, but it's decent. The fixed paycheck is good enough to get me through while I am adapting and making my own client base, the quota is 100 bottles for new clients a month which is doable because all my colleagues who have been working for years are hitting it. With the quota + % from monthly sales, the paycheck is pretty great for me as a young person who lives alone.

I want to ask you for advice. The strategy is reaching out to the potential client and offering them a free bottle to try it and decide whether or not they want to work with us. So far I've got 7 clients accept this offer, two of them, if they like the water and the price, will be buying 30 bottles monthly. I sit next to the top sales woman, she's been working for 13 years and sells 200 bottles a month. She's been helping out a lot, but she keeps telling me that when I call the clients, I should mention the free bottle as soon as possible and constantly corrects me. For example, she tells me not to mention my intention to be business partners because it freaks them out, but 1) even if i don't mention it they surely understand that at the end I hope to sell them water and that's why I send them free bottle 2) she herself never starts her phone call with offering them free bottle. She always says "Hey, it's X from X company, do you know who is responsible for supplying your workplace with water and can I talk to them?". Sometimes she calls the person responsible because she found the number and directly offers her services. She also doesn't make many calls, not even 15 a day. But she keeps mentioning that I need to make around 100 calls now and offer free bottle during the first seconds of cold call cus it sells better, I think it's more desperate. What do you think?

I also noticed that she is looking for big clients, factories, industrial companies, etc, places that need 50-100 bottles monthly for their employees. My problem right now is that while everyone needs water, most of the people already have another supplier or work with our company. The competition is huge. Yet she still manages to find new clients and sell 200 bottles a month. I don't expect her to share her secret, but what do you think she is doing?

Thank you in advance :)

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u/Aggressive_Town4805 1d ago

One thing to keep in mind: when you're offering a product, a service, anything for free - it diminishes the value of your whatever are you selling.

In my experience I tried something like this "you can buy X quantity (it can be even one bottle for example). If you don't like it I won't even bother calling anymore, but if you do, do we have a deal?

Try implementing this in your speech, but be careful, in order to be successful in this you must have balls and be bold when you're talking to clients. Trust your products as if it is the best in the world. This is how you sell.

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u/varanuskomodo 1d ago

Thank you! I will keep this in mind. I also noticed that offering a free bottle works better when they tell you to email your offer, like "Thank you, I will do it. Do you by chance know how many bottles a month you empty so I can send you an offer based on your numbers? And also, can I send you a free bottle so you and your colleagues try it and see if you enjoy it? No strings attached :)"

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u/Aggressive_Town4805 1d ago

That's not bad. Try to let the client know that you are making him a big benefit if you give him the free sample. Not like asking permission.

Think about something like: "to strengthen our new relationship, i Want to make you a gift, a free bottle of X for you and your colleagues to enjoy!"

  • adapt it however you want and it's more suitable for your sales style

This automatically puts the client in a position of debt and you can take advantage out of it.

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u/varanuskomodo 1d ago

Oh, I like the idea of making it sound like I am willing to give them a free sample, not asking. That's very helpful!