We come in contact with sales people everyday. The car salesman, the real estate broker, the yacht broker, even the sales person who plays in the Tuesday night poker game.
I’m proposing that professional salespeople can learn what NOT to do by observing these sales “professionals” we come in contact with in our everyday life. Think about how you felt when the car salesman pressured you to buy the car that was on the lot – rather than the color and model you really wanted. If you’re like most people you were not very happy.
Or, what about the real estate broker who pressures you to buy today… “It just came on the market and it’s going to go quickly. If you want it you had better make an offer today and its got to be at the asking price!” How do you feel when you hear that? If you are like me, you are more than just a little upset with your broker.
How do you feel when that poker playing salesperson sounds like a broken record all night just talking about his product or service? All he wants is for you to buy from him or help him sell it to your company or someone you know.
Sales people have been given a bad name by the likes of these sales people we come in contact with everyday. These are the sales people who create “burn victims” – dissatisfied customers.
I suggest we act more like the yacht broker I bought a sailboat from a few years ago. I told him I wanted a used boat, an ocean worthy 35 footer, and a boat of medium quality that was good in light air. I had some ideas on what I wanted because I’d been sailing for 20 years, but I wanted to see what he would find and recommend.
A week later he called me to say he was still looking at boats. He’d looked at several, but not any he wanted to recommend to me. He said he would keep looking until he found the boat that met my requirements.
Another week went by and he called to say he had found something that he thought I’d like. He described it to me and we made plans to go see it. It was a model I had not heard of. When we got there to see the boat, he had specifications, photos, brochures and magazine articles on the boat model and manufacturer for me to review. He never once pushed me to buy this boat. He let my wife and I look, talk and make a decision. It was exactly what we wanted. It needed a little work, but we made the decision to buy it on the spot. He didn’t have to push me. He only had to provide me what I needed (what I asked for) and information I needed to make my decision.
The moral of the story is that you can’t pressure someone into buying. The pressured buyer will always throw a volley of objections at the seller. Buyers use objections to control the sales person. If you’re getting objections you may be pressure selling. Second, people like to buy, you are happy after you have made that major purchase (think about the last set of golf clubs or the nice dress you purchased). As sales people, control the sales process and let the buyer control the decision to buy. Your buyers will buy from you when they are ready. |
