Standing at the receptionist’s desk was a young man.  He was clean cut, wearing a nice suit.  Over his shoulder was a briefcase and in his hand he held a bouquet of roses.

The receptionist didn’t look up when he said “Good morning!”  Instead she pointed at the clipboard and told him to sign in and take a seat.

“I’m not here for an appointment,” he said.  “I just wanted to give you and the doctor a rose in celebration of National Doctor’s Day.”

The receptionist actually looked up  – and the look on her face was one of complete and total confusion.  She even looked around, probably expecting to see a camera crew and someone jumping out and yelling “You’ve been punk’d!”

Then she saw the young man select a rose and start to hand it to her.

And she began to melt.

The young man asked if he could offer a rose to the rest of the staff, as well as the doctor, and the receptionist quickly called to the rest of the team.  Soon there were five people getting roses from the man.

At that point, he introduced himself.  Seems he is the new sales rep for a company that provides medical practices with document management services that help them save time and money.

And then he asked the receptionist if he could schedule 15 minutes with the person responsible for making those buying decisions.

“I would like to learn more about your current situation,” he said.  “And I like to bring coffee or tea for the office when I come back – so let me know what you all prefer to drink so I can bring you what you like.”

The entire exchange took 15 minutes.  The rose probably cost about $1.  And he got an appointment with the decision maker.

Next time you are brainstorming ideas for generating qualified leads, and the conversation drifts towards PPC, Keywords, SEO, social media and ‘a white paper’…remember that the fastest way to get from Point A to Point B is a straight line.