An Interesting Sales Call

As part of the Sales team at DNN, I like to build solutions that meet the needs of my clients. Recently, I took a sales call that I just couldn’t fulfill. Let me explain. 

Big City Beverage: A Website Built on DNN

The Town of Surfside, Florida is a suburb east of Miami of approximately 5,800 residents. It is also home to a specialty wine boutique with the name of Big City Beverage.

Photo: The scenic view from Surfside, Florida. Image courtesy of Ines Hegedus-Garcia on flickr.

Its owner, John DeLeo, can even claim some Bay Area roots, having attended Woodside Priory in Portola Valley. But that is not the extent of their Northern California connection. Their website is built on DNN. Our headquarters are in San Mateo, a mere 19 miles from Portola Valley.

A few weeks ago, I took a call from a woman looking for Big City Beverage. Despite the fact that Californians love to enjoy a fine wine now and again, I didn’t think I had a solution to this sales opportunity. I could easily have just told her this was DNN, not Big City Beverage and sent her on her way. But I was intrigued by the fact that she was calling California trying to reach a business in Florida.

I Did Some Detective Work

Photo source: Jessica Lucia on flickr.

Was this just a wrong number or a misdial? After speaking with her for a few moments, I was able to find the site that provided her the number that she called. What I found knocked me for a bit of a loop: it was our headquarters phone number (650.288.3150) listed on the "Contact Us" page of Big City Beverage.

I let the woman know that she did indeed call the correct number, but that the site had the wrong number listed. There was an e-mail address on the site and I suggested that she try to contact Big City Beverage that way.

But that isn't the end of the story.

Following Up with The Source

I also sent a message through the website to Big City Beverage, thanking them for using DNN and letting them know that our number was on their Contact Us page.

How did this happen? Well, the default skin (theme) that ships with DNN includes our phone number. Big City Beverage didn’t realize that they needed to change this to their own phone number.

NOTE: if you're building your website with DNN, there are a number of third party skins available for purchase in the DNN Store. You can select and purchase a skin, then apply it to your own website.

All's Well That Ends Well

I received an e-mail the next day from Dale Bingham, "We will fix this today, sorry!"

I replied, "No apology needed. But I took a call from a possible customer of yours on Wednesday, which is how I knew about this. Thanks again for using DNN."

So, if you find yourself in South Florida and are in need of a quality bottle of wine, you might want to look up Big City Beverage. You can reach them by phone!