Who’s Holding the Monkey?

I attended a conference a couple weeks ago where I met a vendor that I was interested in possibly doing business with. The vendor’s sales representative said to me,

Here, I’ll give you my card, and you can send me your email address, then I’ll send you some information.”

Hmm, I thought. I wonder how much money this company is investing to have this sales person at this show.

I was totally flabbergasted that he didn’t just offer to take my card and send me a follow-up message. He left me “holding the monkey” and I was so surprised that I decided not to follow up.  I just felt that the onus should not be on me as the prospect to do the work that the sales rep should be doing.

If you are trying to sell something to someone, it’s a good idea if you hold on to the monkey.

Don’t assume that your prospect is going to follow up.

You need to carry the responsibility to get the appropriate information to the prospect and then hopefully close the sale.

I don’t know whether this sales person was lazy, inept, or just dumb but in any case, he lost the opportunity to do business with my company at any time in the future.

If you want to make a sale, you need to hold on to the monkey.