Times are tough. We live in a two speed economy. Retail is really hurting. The carbon tax will push up prices and no amount of compensation is likely to change people’s perceptions regarding the cost of living going up.
So you’d think that given the sad state of consumer confidence, organisations would want to up skill their sales staff to give them the best chance of separating consumers from their money. After all, we still need to buy stuff – it’s just a question of from whom…
Sadly, this doesn’t appear to be happening too often. And frankly, both parties miss out. The potential buyer misses out on something that they really want and the seller loses a sale and often creates a long lasting bad impression.
Mind you, some companies get lucky and make a sale in spite of bad salesmanship and lousy customer service.
Here’s an example from the other day.
Chris’s hot water heater gave up the ghost Friday a couple of weeks ago. Well, it had given exemplary service over 17 years so he wasn’t too unhappy. Mind you a couple of days of cold showers did get the juices flowing!
Now Chris is a smart individual and knows you generally get what you pay for and wasn’t looking for the cheapest hot water heater in town.
His “buying criteria” was based around reliability, long warranty (which implies quality component and manufacture), great customer service, not price.
His current heater was a Rheem which he’d installed when he built his house 17 years ago. He liked the brand and what it stood for and was predisposed to buying another one.
However that didn’t stop him doing his research online. After all in the intervening 17 years there could have been lots of alternatives.
Well, it turned out the Rheem was a good $800 more than the closest competitor so Chris naturally wondered why… He picked up the phone and got a young lady at the other end.
“…So can you tell me why this heater is $800 more expensive than your opposition?” There was a short silence, then in a somewhat belligerent voice… “Is that all?” and she put the phone down!
Huh???? What sort of sales and customer service is that?
Here’s where the story gets more interesting. Chris looks for value for money and does not buy on price alone.
He wanted the Rheem. In his mind, the brand represented reliability (the old heater had lasted 17 years), it came with a 10 year warranty (he told me if it lasted 10 years he’d be happy) and was happy to pay $2000 for a new model – fully $800 more than he “needed” to.
So he did and is very happy with the purchase. In his own words “An emotional buy – justified with logic”.
But it could have so easily have gone the other way!
Bad salesmanship does huge disservice to lots of otherwise excellent organisations. And the sad part is it can so easily be fixed. But “training” is generally the first thing to go out the window when times get tough and budgets slashed.
And frankly, that’s a really, really short sighted view. Now is the time to be sharpening the saw.
Now is the time to be innovating, getting ahead of the pack, standing out from all your competitors.
Now is not the time to be burying your head in the sand and hoping against hope that everything will be okay. It won’t… unless you take action.
If you feel you’re not getting the most out of your sales team, would like to sharpen your saw and innovate, give me a call or email me with “Sharpen your saw” in the subject line.
I guarantee that I’ll be able to help you innovate and bring in more business – right now – even when there’s a belief things are bad out there.
Rashid.
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