My First Sales Lesson
I’d been with the company all of two hours when the first customers of the day walked in. They were a middle aged couple, a husband and wife. It was a large mall music store, the old-fashioned narrow rectangular piano and organ store with a few token acoustic guitars in the back. The kind that relied on “front pumping”, or the act of playing an organ in the front of the store to attract mall traffic. Mind you, I’m a guitar player. I’d never touched an electronic organ in my life. I was alone on the floor with an older guy “from the home office” (words I would later learn to dread) who was purported to be the “District Manager”. This 50-something white-haired grizzled veteran of the piano and organ game stood behind the counter and cleaned the shelves as the customers approached slowly, looking at this organ or that. My first sales lesson came abruptly and in a mortifying fashion when I turned and looked at him to ask what I should do.
“Show them something.” was his expert sales advice. Show them something? Seriously? Not, watch how I sell this part of the organ, or this little demonstration here is a catchy one, not ask great questions like these, or break the ice and get to know them; but Show them something? Talk about a high wire without a net. Two hours earlier, I was unemployed. Since then, I’d filled out tax forms and learned how to ring up clarinet reeds. Now I was expected to essentially prove my mettle in front of a 30-year veteran. The “mettle” I speak about is of no other sort than the nerve it takes to actually greet a customer and attempt to serve them even though you don’t know the FIRST thing about the merchandise. This is the essence, or the spirit of selling. It’s that nerve and moxie which most great salespeople all have in common. We’re willing to fail. We’re willing to fail in dramatic and horrific fashion. We often do.
The payoff to the story has already been delivered. Of course I eventually sold the customers an organ (what kind of storyteller would I be if I didn’t?), relying on help from others in Product Knowledge and my own general knowledge about music and sound. The answer to “how?” is that my instincts took over, and instead of trying to act as though I knew anything about the merchandise or put on a demonstration worthy of commission, I simply said, “How are you folks doing today?” And the rest was a process of following bread crumbs. What I didn’t know then was that it always is. From a $.25 guitar pick to a $2.5M consulting sale, the process isn’t different.
Your customers are already presuming you're an excellent mechanic. Trying to convince them that you're worth more than XYZ Plumbing or Electrical because you tighten that wire nut so much better than they, or you solder that joint so much better, is spinning your sales wheels into a rut. Focus on the relationship. Assuming all of your competitors are focused on: Timeliness, orderliness, cleanliness, courtesy, salesmanship, and craftsmanship, it's the only conceivable advantage you have.
“Show them something.” was his expert sales advice. Show them something? Seriously? Not, watch how I sell this part of the organ, or this little demonstration here is a catchy one, not ask great questions like these, or break the ice and get to know them; but Show them something? Talk about a high wire without a net. Two hours earlier, I was unemployed. Since then, I’d filled out tax forms and learned how to ring up clarinet reeds. Now I was expected to essentially prove my mettle in front of a 30-year veteran. The “mettle” I speak about is of no other sort than the nerve it takes to actually greet a customer and attempt to serve them even though you don’t know the FIRST thing about the merchandise. This is the essence, or the spirit of selling. It’s that nerve and moxie which most great salespeople all have in common. We’re willing to fail. We’re willing to fail in dramatic and horrific fashion. We often do.
The payoff to the story has already been delivered. Of course I eventually sold the customers an organ (what kind of storyteller would I be if I didn’t?), relying on help from others in Product Knowledge and my own general knowledge about music and sound. The answer to “how?” is that my instincts took over, and instead of trying to act as though I knew anything about the merchandise or put on a demonstration worthy of commission, I simply said, “How are you folks doing today?” And the rest was a process of following bread crumbs. What I didn’t know then was that it always is. From a $.25 guitar pick to a $2.5M consulting sale, the process isn’t different.
Your customers are already presuming you're an excellent mechanic. Trying to convince them that you're worth more than XYZ Plumbing or Electrical because you tighten that wire nut so much better than they, or you solder that joint so much better, is spinning your sales wheels into a rut. Focus on the relationship. Assuming all of your competitors are focused on: Timeliness, orderliness, cleanliness, courtesy, salesmanship, and craftsmanship, it's the only conceivable advantage you have.
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