YOU MAY BE WRONG BUT YOU MAY BE RIGHT

I received an e mail today from a sales rep that I trained several years ago. I thought it was so funny that I had to relay the story to you here on the Training Buffet, Help Yourself.

This rep has changed companies at least 5 times over the last 6 years. In his e mail he was telling me about all the different sales training he has gone to moving from company to company. He started with his present company back in December 2011 and went to his first training in March 2012. He wrote that the training he got at this company was the closest to the training he received from me.

Here is where the story gets crazy. He was out in the field and made a cold call on an office. As he was talking to the receptionist a woman walks into the lobby, looks at him and says, “I know you! We were in training together.” He looked at her and couldn’t remember ever seeing her before. He asked her what training and she told him the training in Atlanta with Lorin.

He still didn’t remember her but as they talked he found out that she was the manager of the office and was the buyer. He writes that he was thinking that this was going to be an easy sale.

He started into his sales presentation and she started laughing at him. He was confused, he asked her what was so funny. She said, “In 6 years you haven’t changed anything but your product line!” He thought this was funny considering he had changed jobs so many times and had been trained so many different ways.

He started to tell his story but she didn’t want to hear it. She was so fixed on the presentation that nothing he said made a difference. He finally asked her if his sales approach was going to stop her from buying (a bold question but one that needed to be asked). She said heck no, she missed the presentation and loved hearing it.

He continued his presentation and as he suspected made a very nice sale to her. In his e mail he said if he had walked into her office anytime between my training and his current training making the sale to her would have been much different and much harder.

As I typed the reply to him I had to comment on all the different “styles” of sales training and sales presentations. No one has a 100% fool proof method of selling. No one way is right nor are there many wrong ways. If a company trains their reps to sell in a certain way, they believe it is the best way for them. No company trains their reps to sell the wrong way!

This is very important to know. Because just as every company believes in their own method, every customer believes the presentation they like is the best way to present. What is right for your company and your customers may be wrong for my company and my customers.

The bottom line, YOU MAY BE WRONG BUT YOU MAY BE RIGHT!

Listen to your companies trainers they will give you the best ways to sell to their customers. Use your experience to help you take what the trainers teach you to the next level.

Lorin