Friday, May 13, 2005
Salespeople: Shooting Ourselves in the Foot
B2Blog: Is it too much to ask to talk to our salesperson?
My friend Dave Jung of B2Blog posts a story of frustration--trying to get an apparently qualified prospect to talk to one of his salespeople: "...we wanted to find out what he was up to and whether the model he picked out was the best choice--exactly what a salesperson should do."
Dave wonders: "Are these prospects afraid of a starting a relationship? Do they think they are smart enough to not need a salesperson? Are they overwhelmed with vendors?"
I love salespeople. I usually see one when I look in the mirror. But I think we all know that some salespeople ruin it for the rest of us.
Recent story: we're doing a little remodel around the house, and we need some new windows (okay, a lot of new windows.) We did our research--talked to friends, searched the 'Net, made some initial choices, and set appointments with two salespeople.
The first came to our home, vaguely insulted our half-finished remodel, looked at our windows and told us all the things he couldn't do. When we asked him how his windows compared to the competition, he cockily explained that his were the best, and that every other window was shoddy in comparison. He couldn't give us an exact quote on what he thought he could do (which wasn't what we wanted.) "Come to our showroom, look around, then I'll quote you."
The next guy came a few hours later. He listened to what we wanted, made a few measurements, sat down with his laptop and designed a solution that was even better than what we had come up with. When we wanted to look at other ways to do it, he reset the design, as many ways as we desired. He always had a total price running on his computer for the design. We finally made a decision, wrote him a deposit check, shook hands and were done.
One guy's a salesperson in name only, but he's leaving a trail of 'fear of salespeople' behind him.
The other guy--the guy from Pella--was a true salesman--confident in his product, but not cocky, able to create an answer to our needs, and price it out on the spot.
There aren't enough salespeople like that out there. And I think that's why a lot of people do everything they can to avoid having anything to do with salespeople.
The trick is to convince prospects that your salespeople will listen and solve problems--not push products.
Comments
|
My friend Dave Jung of B2Blog posts a story of frustration--trying to get an apparently qualified prospect to talk to one of his salespeople: "...we wanted to find out what he was up to and whether the model he picked out was the best choice--exactly what a salesperson should do."
Dave wonders: "Are these prospects afraid of a starting a relationship? Do they think they are smart enough to not need a salesperson? Are they overwhelmed with vendors?"
I love salespeople. I usually see one when I look in the mirror. But I think we all know that some salespeople ruin it for the rest of us.
Recent story: we're doing a little remodel around the house, and we need some new windows (okay, a lot of new windows.) We did our research--talked to friends, searched the 'Net, made some initial choices, and set appointments with two salespeople.
The first came to our home, vaguely insulted our half-finished remodel, looked at our windows and told us all the things he couldn't do. When we asked him how his windows compared to the competition, he cockily explained that his were the best, and that every other window was shoddy in comparison. He couldn't give us an exact quote on what he thought he could do (which wasn't what we wanted.) "Come to our showroom, look around, then I'll quote you."
The next guy came a few hours later. He listened to what we wanted, made a few measurements, sat down with his laptop and designed a solution that was even better than what we had come up with. When we wanted to look at other ways to do it, he reset the design, as many ways as we desired. He always had a total price running on his computer for the design. We finally made a decision, wrote him a deposit check, shook hands and were done.
One guy's a salesperson in name only, but he's leaving a trail of 'fear of salespeople' behind him.
The other guy--the guy from Pella--was a true salesman--confident in his product, but not cocky, able to create an answer to our needs, and price it out on the spot.
There aren't enough salespeople like that out there. And I think that's why a lot of people do everything they can to avoid having anything to do with salespeople.
The trick is to convince prospects that your salespeople will listen and solve problems--not push products.
