Have you taken a look at your sales presentation lately? How does it stack up? Are you asking questions, that you DON"T already know the answer to? Last night I spoke with a salesman at the mall that totally stuck his foot in his mouth, you aren't going to believe this!
Last night I was at the mall, picking up a few books, when my wife decided that she wanted to go into the Yankee Candle Store. We had our Five year old with us that just loves to put his hands on everything, and with the amount of glass in that store, I decided it best if I waited outside of the store for her.
In front of me was a Sprint kiosk. We all know how aggressive cellular sales people can be and the guy behind the counter was no different. I was holding my sons hand and leaning against the wall when he said, "Who is you cell carrier?"
"T-Mobile I said," trying to act uninterested.
"Oh, and what phone do you have."
"The HTC Sensation" I responded, " But I just got it, about a month ago, and have no intention of switching."
"No problem," he said. "How often do you use the internet."
"All the time."
"Really? Come here a second I want to show you something that will blow your mind!"
I took a look in the candle store and saw my wife still shopping so I thought, why not! Once at the counter he asks to see my phone, so I showed it to him. He acted unimpressed and shows me one of his.
"Like I said before," I started. "I have no intention of switching, I really like this phone."
"No problem, I just want to show you how fast the internet is. Do you have YouTube on your phone?"
I tell him that I do and he proposes a speed test. We bring up the same video in a YouTube search and he says, "This is going to blow you away, on the count of three we will click on the video and you will see how much faster Sprint is than T-Mobile."
At this point I figure Sprint is going to win, I mean why would a salesman paint himself into a corner if he didn't already know what the outcome would be. Not only did my phone win the speed test, it did it with ease!
Looking slightly embarrassed he says, "I'm going to go sit in the corner now."
"Why would you do that if you didn't know the outcome?" I said.
Switching the subject he asks me how much I'm paying then proceeds to sell me on price.
Let that sink in. What just happened there? What could this guy have done different? For one, he could have known what was going to happen before he did it. Some people may argue that maybe Sprint wins 7 times out of 10, but then I would ask them, "What about the 30% of the time where he looks like a fool?"
We all know that sales is a numbers game, so why would you start off your presentation by cutting out 30% of the people. Why turn off 30% of your prospects?
I ask you this? Where in your presentations are you turning people off? What can you do in your own presentation to increase the likely hood of making a sale?
Where can you tighten up your presentation? Let me know in the comments below.
I am not sure if this sales person had not already been told his product was the fastet… or he made the assumption. Either way the training was most likely just how to use the register or fill out the forms. A failure of management.
Retail sales operations that don’t deliver the best information and how to share that same information to prospects are destined to be average.
So true Craig! We see this in the auto industry as well. It almost seams like the paperwork, while important, has been the subject of training more often than the sales process. Thank you for the comment.
Craig,
Just came over from http://www.dealerelite.net to view your blog. I really enjoyed your post. One thought that you might wish to add is that salesmen (like your Sprint guy) often line up multiple “make-or-break” moments. Each of these provides an opportunity for a potential transaction to come to a screeching halt. In an environment where the average closing ratio is only 20% at the outset, imagine what happens when a salesman offers 3-4 “make-or-break” moments in his interaction with a customer. Each may not be a 50-50 moment but if they were, his opportunity could diminish rapidly (100-50-25-12.5%). Yet, as you illustrate in your post salesmen frequently create these “make-or-break” moments. The goal must always be to do what allows the sales process to proceed, not create opportunities for it to end.
Agreed. Too often salespeople are asking the wrong questions, or as in tise case, making a wrong assumption, that cost them the deal. In the case, I’ll admit, there was no chance of a sale, and maybe he knew that and went out on a limb. Not sure if he does this often.