Even Dilbert Knows That Face-To-Face Is A Waste Of Time

You know you’re onto something when your ideas are  showing up in Scott Adams’ “Dilbert” comic strips.

For years I’ve been preaching that the telephone is a more effective way of selling than face-to-face meetings. Now my ideas are hitting the mainstream.

The other day Adams made fun of the many people who fly cross-country to meet with ‘big’ customers when they could just as easily have the sales meeting with a 15-minute phone call.

I’ll get to his cartoon in a moment. But first, here are five advantages of using the phone more effectively:

1. You’re converting a one or two day trip into a short sales phone call.
2. You’re saving your company thousands of dollars.
3. You’re able to deal with the issues immediately instead of days – or weeks – in the future.
4. You’re much more productive because you’re in your office – at your desk – working.
5. You’re happier because you’re able to spend more time with family and friends.

A Bit Of Background
John, one of my consulting clients, sent me the Dilbert cartoon because that was why he hired me: To teach him how to better use the phone.

John was tired of traveling. There were too many sleepless nights in uncomfortable hotel rooms. Too many meals in bad restaurants.

Too many meetings with prospects who didn’t buy – even though he had taken the time to travel hundreds, or thousands, of miles to meet with them.

* He wanted to spend more time with his wife and kids.
* He wanted to coach his kids’ little league and soccer teams.
* He wanted to be home at night.

John wasn’t even concerned about increasing his sales volume. For him, quality of life was the issue.

John sells industrial supplies. His job was to travel all over the midwest – he had a 13 state territory – to meet with customers, potential customers, sales reps and distributors.

The size of the account wasn’t even important. His boss expected him to have face-time with his prospects and customers.

On average, he was out of town three days a week. And once a month he was out the entire week.

On a typical day John would meet with four or five accounts, that took a total of two hours time. The rest of his day was spent driving from one town to the next. Five or six hours was wasted each day.

After doing this for several years, John came to the conclusion that the majority of his meetings could be handled just as efficiently by phone. The face-to-face meetings weren’t necessary.

He realized that it was more important for him to keep in frequent contact with his customers, potential customers, sales reps and distributors – sometimes as often as weekly – than he see them once every three or four months.

That was why he called me. During the month we worked together I taught John how to use the phone to:

* Reach decision makers.
* Ask great questions to identify their needs/problems.
* Identify buyers and non-buyers in under 15-minutes.

This is what John had to say when we finished our engagement:

* By using the phone I have eliminated unnecessary trips.
* I’ve reduced my travel budget by 6 percent. Saving the company thousands of dollars.
* I’m able to look at my schedule and handle it more effectively by using the phone.
* My follow-up system has improved dramatically.
* I’m able to spend more time with buyers and less time with non-buyers.
* By asking better questions I’m able to disqualify a prospect in minutes.
* My lifestyle has improved because my out of town travel has been cut in half, giving me more quality time with my family.

Dilbert’s Cartoon
Here is the summary of Dilbert’s cartoon:

Dilbert is sitting in his boss’ office. The boss says “Fly to Austin and answer some questions for a big customer.”

“Doesn’t this customer have a telephone?” Dilbert asks.

“You don’t CALL big customers.” yells the boss.

“Um… Why not?” asks Dilbert sheepishly.

“You have to go in person to show that you care.” implores the boss.

“Actually, that would show that I don’t understand the concept of the telephone.” pleads Dilbert.

“Just Go.” the boss orders.

In the final frame Dilbert is sitting with a colleague who asks, “Do they have these where you come from?” while holding up a cell phone.

Speed, Efficiency & Time
In today’s highly competitive business world you can best serve your customers by answering their questions, solving their problems, and giving them over-the-top service.

The greater the number of people you can touch, the larger your customer base and the greater your income.

Let’s go back to the 80/20 rule: 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your activities. This means that 80 percent of your time is wasted.

How much of your time is wasted traveling to and from meetings that could have been conducted with a 15- or 30-minute phone call.

Convert wasted time into productive time and  your sales – and income – will soar.

– Jeffrey