When I first started out as an outside sales rep, my sales
manager would impart some special pearls of wisdom to me whenever he worked
with me.
One fateful day that I was in the field with my manager he
and I stopped at a large office building to call on the management office. All
of my supplies were in the trunk of my car, unfortunately, they were not
arranged very well.
So there I was bent over, leaning into my trunk trying to
find all the samples and demo equipment I was going to need. I am sure that I
was only in this less than flattering position for under a minute but it was
long enough for my manager to walk up behind me and see what I looked like.
As we were getting back into the car after the sales call he
started what I knew was going to be one of his famous lessons. I don’t remember
it word for word but it went something like this;
“Lorin, when you make a sales call when do you perceive the
actual call starting”? I must have been giving him a blank stare because I can
remember his next words as if they were said to me today, he sat up in the car
seat and said, “If that question stumps you the rest of them will send you to
the nut house”!
I replied, “The sales call starts when I meet the first
person”. He was happy to see that I was able to speak, I could tell by the look
of pity he was giving me.
“Absolutely the wrong answer”. The pleasure in his voice told
me I had fell into his trap. “Lorin, you need to work under the premise that as
soon as you stop your car in the parking lot the sale starts” I decided to go
with it rather than fight it. I asked, “How so”? He once again gave me that
look of sympathy and said, “Listen once again to what I say, you need to work
under the premise that as soon as you stop your car in the parking lot the sale
starts. THE PREMISE Lorin”!
He continued, “When you get out of your car and walk to your
trunk and spend the next 15 minutes (he liked to exaggerate) digging around
looking for stuff what does the customer looking at you from the window see”?
He then told me to get out of the car and open my trunk. When the trunk was
open he asked me to step back about 10 yards and yelled, “How do you like this
view”? He bent into my trunk and all I could see was his rear end and legs, he
then started to wave his hands and arms around in crazy motions to show what it
looked like when I was searching for things in my car.
If you don’t understand what I am talking about, ask someone
to do this for you and take a good look at how bad it looks.
After we got back into the car, he said, “The parking lot of
a customer isn’t where you want to start looking for your “STUFF”. Stop in a
parking lot someplace on the way and have everything you need ready to go so
when the sale starts (as you park your car) you can look as professional as
possible”.
Not everyone uses their trunk for samples, some use their
back seat and some don’t carry samples or literature at all. It doesn’t matter,
the concept is the same. BE PREPARED! When you make a sales call be ready as
soon as you open your car door. Don’t show the customer your ba…. Let’s call it bad side, let them see a rep
that is ready to present the best product or service available and do it as
professionally as possible.
Lorin
No comments:
Post a Comment