Where are You When Orders Arrive?

May 8, 2008 · Filed Under Sales and Marketing · Comment

Thank goodness customers can’t see where we are when writing their orders. Our personal and business lifestyles find us in many places outside of the office when the phone suddenly rings.

I remember taking and placing phone orders in offbeat settings. But the location didn’t matter. The bottom line was that I got the order. I once:

Returned a call on a pay phone in my employer’s lobby. This happened in my first year of business, before the Internet and cellular telephones became the norm. Today, I don’t recommend returning a call in this location.

Called a client on a pay phone while sitting in my vehicle. I did this many times on my lunch hour while working for someone else. These drive-up phones still exist today.

Captured an order while walking on a street in New York’s Chinatown. The most-challenging part was when a fire truck and its ear-piercing siren sped down the street while I wrote the customer’s credit card number. I told the client, “Fire trucks are temporarily being re-routed through our industrial park.”

This topic, though not addressed in How to Start a Home-Based Gift Basket Business or The Gift Basket Design Book, is one that’s under the radar but critical to earning a living. Be ready to get the sale no matter where you are.

What’s the most-memorable place you’ve captured an order?