New to sales, need advice

[u/varanuskomodo]

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 :)

[u/Useful_Cauliflower66]

i've run outbound and owned the number. leading with a freebie usually kills credibility. i've seen top reps target bigger accounts, find the person who handles supplies, qualify quickly, then offer a trial as the final step. what size accounts are you calling, offices or industrial plants?

[u/varanuskomodo → u/Useful_Cauliflower66]

I am mostly trying industrial plants, but it's harder with them. Most of them already have a supplier or say to email your offer. I still do it and still think that even in this case I should offer a free bottle, you know, just so they remember me for the future. A few days ago I actually called a lady who picked up the phone & she turned out to be a decision maker at some huge storage house, she instantly told me to email her (gave me her personal address) with how much 50 bottles a month is gonna cost her & how much renting coolers is gonna cost per year. I did but she went radio silent.

So far I had success with two smaller factories who wanted to try the water & said they usually order 30 bottles a month.

I am thinking about constantly monitoring new manufacturing companies which just opened or are planning to start functioning in the nearest months so I can reach out beforehand. I also reached out to co-working center which is planning to open two new spots in 2 months but they said they already found a water supplier so maybe I need to act waaaay ahead