Winning Grocery Listings and Random Taxis Drivers in Barbados

How Four Random Taxis Drivers in Barbados Taught Me How To Win Grocery Listings 

Heads and bodies bobbed slowly in the water.

A swarm of Bond-Villainous speed boats and jet skis roared towards me like menacing-metal sharks. Clawing and cutting through the sea, a frothing perfect white wake followed. Perfect white. Perfect like the white icing on a tall wedding cake at a Royal wedding. 

Scraggly clouds plop and punctuate the blue sky like splodges of milky tooth paste. 

The sea - a mosaic of fluttering turquoise. Arresting turquoise. Arresting like super model bomb-shell blue eyes. So blue. Like a laser cutting through a stone. Disturbingly beautiful.

Hyper-active kids juxtapose hyper-tired parents. Kids can't sit still and want to do something and Parents can't sit down and just to do nothing.

In the waves are splashes of beaming-happy, sun-cream orange and racing car-blue and hyper-barbie-pink swimming trunks and swim suits and boogie boards and bats and balls. 

I am half cut. 
Akimbo Rum Punch: pending 
Club Sarnie has been Cntrl Alt De-fakin-leted

Pon de extra Mayo
Pon Di Riddim

Currently in Barbados 

Four taxi drivers taught me how to win grocery listings. 

On the first night, we needed a taxi to a restaurant. 

The first driver, Kendrick, dropped us off and gave us his card. 

We lost it. 

Kendrick lost our business. 

On the second night we needed a taxi to the restaurant. 

The second driver, Warren, dropped us off and gave us his card. 

We lost it. 

Warren lost our business. 

The third driver, Wenny, dropped us off and gave us his card. 

We lost his card too. 

Wenny lost our business. 

But 

The fourth driver did something different.

• He grabbed my phone

• Put his number in 

• Saved it as Tricky Ricky. 

• Tricky Ricky WhatsApped himself.

When we stumbled out the restaurant needing a taxi. 

1. I remembered Tricky Ricky.

2. Tricky Ricky was on my WhatsApp, making it super easy to call him. 

Two simple sales lessons here 

1. Be Memorable - Tricky Ricky the name was catchy.

2. Take control and remove friction. 

Ricky put his number in my phone. It took 30 seconds and removed friction. 

Half the battle winning Grocery listings? 

Removing friction. 

Most brands have an amazing first meeting. Buyer loves the vision and brand and product and taste.

Then.
Nothing.

Why?

Friction.

Buyers are busy and pulled in hundreds of directions and have to manage up and down and have millions of emails to reply to and are constantly running around and have big brands and small brands and range reductions and range reviews and lives to live and go lives and delists. 

How? 

1. Take control after meetings and send the follow up notes

Bold and underline key actions.

Bold and underline your discussion points. 

Send them following up email immediately after the meeting. 

Set clear deadlines and dates for actions i.e. @Dan to send samples to @Melissa by Wednesday 17th Feb

2. Take control and send the calendar invite for the follow up meeting with location and date.

This stuff is so simple and so basic.

Tricky Ricky putting his phone number in my phone is so simple and basic.

But sometimes, it really is just doing the basics, brilliantly. Brilliant basics.

Sales is a process.

Always ask: what's the next step to move this along to a listing? 

Remove friction

Make it easy for buyers to say Yes.

Remove friction.
SO simple.

**for those thinking, how much of a moron are you for losing those taxi cards. It's more illustrative and I'd had a couple of rum punches 😉 

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