It is now 12:42 on December 23, 2010 and I am at my desk typing this post while watching The Worlds Dumbest Record Breakers on TRU TV. If you ever get a chance to watch this show, PASS! It is a show that really lets us know exactly how stupid people are.
As I was watching I had one of my not so famous brain storms. I could make a show and call it, Worlds dumbest things that sales reps do. Let me tell you about some of the episodes you would see.
I would call this episode, NOW YOU SEE IT NOW YOU DON’T. A customer has a dirty mark on their wall paper, the sales rep takes out a cleaner from their sample bag, sprays the cleaner on the wall, and to give it some time to work starts telling the customer about the cleaner. After about 20 seconds the rep takes a wipe and rubs the mark. Voila, the mark is gone! Unfortunately so is the print on the wallpaper.
The next episode I would call, NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW. A customer had some hard water stains on a polished aluminum cabinet. The rep tells the customer that cleaning the spots off is a breeze and takes out a product that was made especially for this purpose. Without reading the label the rep put some of the product on a rag and starts to wipe down the cabinet. VOILA, stains are gone, but so is the bright polish finish. It was now a grey dull spot. The customer was really good about it and placed a sticker from an auto parts manufacturer over the spot and needless to say didn’t place an order.
One of my favorite episodes would be this one called, DON’T DO AS I SAY OR AS I DO. In this episode a sales rep shows the customer a drinking glass. The glass is very strong and resists breaking. To show the customer how strong the glass is the rep takes the glass and bangs it on the metal workbench in the customers shop. When I say BANGS it I mean BANGS it, he hits the workbench so hard that it leaves a dent in the surface. You think this is the oops don’t you, well you are WRONG! The customer is so impressed that he buys not one set of glasses, not two sets of glasses, not three four or five sets of glasses, the customer buys six complete sets of glasses. The rep brings the boxes in and get paid for the sale. As the rep is walking out the door he hears the sound of breaking glass and the customer screaming to him to come back right now! The trick to the demonstration was the rep always hit the bottom of the glass which was very thick, the customer pulled the first glass out of the box and hit the lip of the glass on the workbench which sent shards of glass flying around the shop.
The final episode of the show would be called, ASK DON’T TELL. In this episode an automobile dealership is running a special on manual shift transmission cars. The sales rep wanted to win the trip the owner put up as a prize for the sales rep who wrote the most deals for manual shift transmission cars over the entire weekend. It was late Sunday afternoon and there was only about 2 hours left before the dealership closed. The rep had closed 3 qualifying sales and was tied with another rep. A customer drives onto the lot and a young man gets out of his car. The rep runs over to this man with the sole purpose of selling him a manual shift car to win the trip. The customer asks to see a pickup truck, the rep says he will show it to him in a second but first he wanted to show him the best bargain on the lat and walks the customer to one of the special cars. The customer looks at it totally uninterested and the reps says let’s take it for a ride. The customer agrees and they get in with the rep driving off the lot, after about 5 minutes and a lot of talking the rep pulls over so the customer could drive the car. The customer gets behind the wheel, after several awkward tries he gets the car in gear. He looks both ways, takes his foot off the clutch and the car backs right into a parked car behind him. The rep asks the customer why he put the car in reverse instead of first gear. The customer looks at the rep and simply says, you never asked me if I have ever driven a manual shift car before, I had no idea what I was doing. The rep got upset and said then why did you take it for a test drive, the customer said I asked to see a pickup truck, it was YOUR idea to show me this car. To give the story an ending, the other sales rep won the trip and the rep who had the accident did sell the customer a pickup truck. The insurance of the dealership fixed the car they backed into.
I really think this show would be a hit and maybe win some awards for best reality show of the year. I would be there to accept the award as the producer, director, oh and yes, the main actor! Every one of these “oops” happened to me.
We all have our “oops” demos and we all have our “oops” sales calls. What we all need to do is learn from all these “OOPS” and make sure that we become better each and every time we call on a customer. All these episodes are funny to read, they are also the first and only time I made these mistakes with these products. These episodes would be very sad if they happened over and over again.
There are a few morals to this post;
1) No one is perfect
2) Mistakes will happen
3) Be able to laugh at yourself
For all of you who have not yet purchased my Christmas present, the best present you can give me is to sign up to follow my blog, and enjoy the menu offerings of the Training Buffet, Help Yourself.
Lorin
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