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Alberto Navarra of Performance Foodservice in Denver, Colorado has been inducted into the AFDR DSR Hall of Fame and is the DSR of the Month for February 2016!
After getting his degree in Hospitality Management and spending the first 21 years of his career in the Retail Grocery industry, Alberto decided to get into Foodservice Distributor Sales. Ten years later, he’s helping his 60 customers make money in their businesses in the Denver Metro area.
This DSR of the Month enjoys making cold calls more than any other part of his job. In his interview, Navarra goes into great detail about his approach with prospects. He explains that he makes every call about the customer and not himself. Alberto shares a good story about being thrown out of a cold call after the customer told him that she was happy with her current supplier. Four months later Navarro made an appointment for a second call, on what would become one of his best customers, but was “stood up” when he showed up at the scheduled time.
Navarra says the key to engaging a prospect when they don’t think they need you is to GET THE CUSTOMER TO KNOW (not just wonder) that you’re truly trying to help them make money and grow their business more than your competitors.
Navarra pointed out that the one mistake he used to make was getting all excited about closing the deal with a prospect and telling his peers and bosses about it which put undue pressure on himself. Customers don’t think it’s all about closing the deal
Alberto’s topics of advice discussed on this show:
- Make every call FUN! Prospects and customers will look forward to you coming in each time!
- If you want to be successful as a DSR, you must LOVE the hospitality industry.
- You need to love people and always be positive with everyone you interact with.
- Stay focused, which is hard for many DSRs because of all the transactions going on each day.
- Have a plan each day and make adjustments to the plan, and roll with it as things happen.
- DSRs need to learn how to take rejections by turning them into successful failures.
- Be persistent and keep going back into prospects because something always happens with the current supplier.
- His goal on his first call on a prospect is to get an appointment for the second call.
- Always have something to talk about with prospects and customers.
- Being consistent in your day-to-day is a key action item when managing A/R.
DSRs, Be a Resource…and Sell Something!
