Southwestern Sales Talk
As Southwestern Company’s sales trainer, I’m always interested in seeing how other companies’ salespeople perform when they’re making a sales call. You might say I’m a keen observer of their techniques, or lack thereof.
This week, my wife and I were considering consolidating our phone services, and getting new phones for our daughters. We headed into a local long distance service provider store (OK, it was Sprint). We walked in; the store was empty. I was excited because I knew we wouldn’t have to wait for a sales associate to finish with another client–we’d get his full attention and expertise!
“Dave” greeted us as he looked up from his PDA (we’ll call him Dave, his real name was Jake.): “Hi. Welcome to
Sprint. May I help you?” Pretty neutral stuff. He didn’t look overly excited that we’d interrupted the game on his phone. Undeterred by his nonchalance, my wife cheerfully explained our problem and asked about phone plans and models.
Dave gave short answers to questions and seemed a bit annoyed that we couldn’t immediately decide how to reconcile 5 different users on 3 different plans. “Here’s the phone I like,” he said. “It’s made entirely of sustainable, biodegradeable, recycled alloids.” Or something like that. My wife and I looked at each other and thought–not a selling point for us.
Dave was not too engaged with us. Technically, he revealed some product information, but it was always in terms of his preferences, not our needs. He didn’t ask many questions; he didn’t offer many solutions. He watched us wallow in options. He did shut down one big sale though…the sale of an upgraded phone to me. How?
Background: I like buying stuff, and I like having the latest versions of equipment. I happened to show my HTC Touch Pro phone to Dave/Jake. He said something to the effect that 1) my model had problems and 2) the new HTC Titanium Quasar World Phone (something like that) was better. [Salespeople, remember: always question the customer's judgement by insulting their previous purchases.]
“New model?” I asked. (My wife quietly said, “Oh no.”) “What’s better about the upgraded phone?” Dave pointed out a couple cool new design improvements, then added, “But it costs like $549.” My wife attempted to steer the conversation back to the matter at hand–phone plan consolidation and phones for daughters. After a few minutes, I asked again about the advantages of owning the new HTC model. His response?
“Why would anyone pay that much for a phone?” Literally, that’s what he said.
Wow. (Like, “A BMW? Why would you buy that?’ Or “Who in their right mind would purchase a Goldmund Epilogue Full sound system?”) In short, are you nuts?
So, we quietly finished our conversation, without making a sale–a small one or a big one.
What are the lessons here?
- Make a good first impression. Be curious about your customers and their needs.
- Ask lots of questions.
- Listen for nibbles: hints that guide the direction your presentation should go.
- Let your customer buy. Forget your preferences and focus on what they want, not what you like.
Have you encountered a salesperson who should be in another profession? Share a tale! Or comment.
That’s funny Lee. After being on commission for 11 years it’s always fun to go into stores and spot the reps that are on commission and those that aren’t. We typically get better service from the ones that are paid to make sales.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 20th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Good observation Earl. Maybe the commission is the key factor to sales motivation…hmmm. Sure is a strong variable. Thanks for the insight.
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Dave/Jake, whatever! Lee I loved this…you are so funny! Makes me miss sales, but only a little! BUT still LOVE SW, the people you work with and YOU and DEB!
? Funny thing just bought my first cell phone in like 4 years here in Thailand–best sales reps—’cause they spoke broken English and so they could only give me what I pointed at!
Much Love, from this SW Alum–amy brock-devine
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 20th, 2009 at 11:17 am
ABD!! Thanks for the note from one of our legendary salespeople. I do like the Thai sales techniques–point and buy.
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haha that’s hillarious… seems like you met a very dull one
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 20th, 2009 at 11:14 am
He was not inspiring, Tsvetomira. Makes me appreciate SW students!
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so basic but SO TRUE!
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 20th, 2009 at 11:16 am
What a contrast to Southwestern student sellers (must be the training).
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If I was a manager (or whatever higher, nowadays everyone is a manager) of a company like Sprint I`d dress as somebody employees would not recognize and go around just like you Lee.
Me and my parents experienced something similar, we went to buy a plot for the kitchen in a new furniture store and we found exactly what we were looking for. It was too big for our place tho so they had to cut it off (which is a part of the store services). There was a young man, supposed to do that, who without even looking at us said loudly and rude: ‘There is no way that can happen right now, forget it!’
I looked at my dad, he – speachless. Asked if he can assist us for a minute.
‘I have too much to do, if you want to wait a few hours, no problem’
He didn`t even know what exactly we need. He didn`t even ask..
And we left and made a silent commitment we would never go back there.
I`m just wondering how many customers that store has lost so far…
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Yes, and people make decisions about entire companies based on their experience with a single rep. Impressions are important! Thanks for the story Evelina!
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Lee,
Love your writing style. I am not surprised at the service you received as it is all too common. Its not just young salespeople or low value products either. I recently blogged about my experience at an Audi car dealership: http://www.salesdnaltd.com/blog/sales-training-southampton-portsmouth-%E2%80%93-there-is-an-audi-car-dealership-that-definitely-needs-it/
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Peter: Wow. I just read your blog about your Audi experience. Just the opposite of mine–your salesperson was bent on closing! Thanks for sharing that and feel free to link to our sales talk blog!
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Lee,
Did it occur to you that he was using a new sales technique called “Reverse Psychological Selling?” This is a new technique whereby you get a prospect to buy by reaching into his sub conscious and un-convincing him to reverse his prior decision not to buy with a subsequent decision to buy. This is something that Southwestern should be teaching as it is very new and extremely effective. I’m happy to teach you more about the psychology behind it, but you probably aren’t interested are you? or are you?
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 24th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Dan–I don’t know what to think! (I am so confused–and a confused prospect never buys–or they always buy…). Regardless, I’ll go back and ask my salesperson where he received his advanced sales training.
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indeed a dull one to lose a buyer like you!
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 28th, 2009 at 10:33 am
And, much to my wife’s dismay, I am the buyer in our relationship….
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If Sprint goes belly up, the readers of this blog will know why… Too many Jake/Daves.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
December 7th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I think my encounter was an anomaly as far as the sales side goes. Thanks for the comment, Joe.
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Hi Lee ! Your story is really a good illustration of your 4 points. Unfortunately, a lot of times (especially in France maybe ?), so called (cold ?) salespeople are not paid on commission and as a result, they have no skills and no knowledge… Man, SW rocks. And those college students I hope know how lucky they are to be trained by you and Dan.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
January 10th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Ardarvan! Great to hear from you, and thanks for visiting our blog. Hopefully, you can impact French salespeople with your sales skills and knowledge. Stay in touch mon ami.
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