About me
My name is Shawn and I’ve held various Supply Chain / Procurement roles over the last ~25 years. I have worked in industries such as Oil & Gas (upstream, midstream, downstream, engineering and supplier services), Aerospace (manufacturing), and electronics (packaging and distribution). I am the owner/manager of www.oilfieldsourcing.com - an online oil & gas supplier directory. I have a BS in Business Administration from Purdue and also maintain 2 certifications from the Institute for Supply Management (CPSM and CPSD). Early in my career I worked as a Customer Service Representative for Bank of America and an Explorer for the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. I believe that maintaining integrity, fostering relationships, patience, attitude, honesty, knowledge and effective communication are key factors for success.
In every position I held, I have had to interact with A LOT of salespeople. Some of them were great partners of mine, some of them I would like to run over with my truck… twice.
My goal in creating the TeamForbes blog is to share direct tips with real advice to salespeople regarding some of the mishaps I’ve been subject to over the years. I want this to be a source for you not only to learn these tips, but to take them and apply them to your approach when reaching out to any of your current and prospective clients.
Real Advice You Should Listen To
Seriously… This is advice you SHOULD listen to. Even if you’re a Rockstar salesperson, you may be doing/saying things that are turning someone OFF.
Do you ever wonder why some Buyers never respond to you or aren’t open to a quick coffee date?
- They’re Just Busy. After all, there are HUNDREDS, maybe even THOUSANDS of you and usually only ONE of people like me at my company. I don’t have all day to respond to unsolicited emails because someone tried 10 different combinations to figure out my work email address, entertain every 15-minute introduction or respond to numerous LinkedIn messages. Believe it or not, I actually have work to do.
- Did you do your research? Do I even buy what you are selling? I get messages from salespeople offering to save me significant amount of money on something I don’t even buy. That will either get a snarky response or you’ll be left on “Read”. I recently had a salesperson message me immediately after I accepted their LinkedIn connection request that said, “What would you say if I told you I could save you a significant amount of money on your manufacturing costs without sacrificing quality?”. My response, “I don’t manufacture anything.”
- Managing Priorities. I am usually working on specific initiatives and if you approach me with something that is not on my immediate task list, speaking with you at that moment is taking time away from my productivity and is probably not a huge priority for me.
- Orrrr…. Maybe, it’s just YOU.
Salespeople often get into bad habits of saying and doing inappropriate things; and us Procurement people notice… and we remember. Unless you’re receiving direct feedback, you have no idea what is turning your audience off. This is where I’d like to help.
I have taken extensive notes and created a long list of topics that I believe are simple things that could make a world of difference in your success. I am happy to and want to share these with you. I hope that you find my insights useful; and if not, thanks for reading anyway.
Stay tuned for future blog posts on various topics. If you have any feedback, you would like to propose new topics, or tell me how wrong I am, feel free to contact me. I may or may not respond based on some of the reasons I mention above. Also, if you'd like to combat some of my comments and give feedback to Procurement people, start your own blog.
Good luck out there!
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