MAN VS. MACHINE

It is said that everything you could want to know is somewhere on the internet, and quite possibly it is, but that doesn’t mean you can find it.

A friend of mine came to me today asking about a product that my company sells. He wanted to know things like how to use it, where and when to use it, and how my product compared to other products similar to it that are on the market.

Now this may sound like he is asking normal questions that any customer would ask, and in fact he was. The one thing that you don’t know about him is he is an internet junkie. I have never seen him buy anything without first looking it up on the internet and researching it beyond what any sane person would call absurd.

To give you an idea of how he looks things up, he spent hours looking up the best brand of gas to put in his lawn mower. True story, and to make it even better he found the best gas was a brand that isn’t even sold in Georgia. Enough said?

Anyway, for him to ask me about my products was a little out of character so I decided to go on the offence and find out what was going on. He started out by telling me about the research he did, and gave me a quick overview of what he found out. He then pulled out his folder and showed me what he had printed off about the products and what he thought was important.

To be honest, it was an impressive amount of information that he had gathered.

I asked him why then did he need more information from me if he already had all of this information. This is where the conversation got very interesting. He told me that he could find all sorts of information about each product, but what he couldn’t find anywhere was the differences between the products. He wanted to know why he should buy one over the other.

This made me think, how many of our customers run into the same problem? How many of your customers get tons of facts about products but have no idea of which product to buy based on the information they just looked up?

I started thinking about my customers and how many times one of them told me they looked my product up online or in my catalog. I thought about how many sales I lost because a customer looked up my product and someone else’s and the other product looked better on paper.

I told my friend about the two products he was considering and why one was better for him than the other. I explained that both products are excellent but my product was much better suited for what he intended to use it for.

What I am saying is I did what a sales rep is supposed to do, I didn’t just give my friend a bunch of features and benefits about the products and leave it up to him to make up his mind. I helped him to understand what the features and benefits meant to him and which ones were important to him based on his needs.

I thought to myself how easy buying would be if every product had a review of how it worked in every possible situation and a comparison chart to illustrate the pros and cons. That is when the concept of “everything is on the internet” became a little fuzzy to me.

The internet is here to stay. It is today, and always will be from now on, a major source of information for buyers. But I can say with complete confidence, THE INTERNET WILL NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF A SALEMAN when comparing products for specific applications.

So the next time a customer says they looked up your product on the internet don’t assume they know how the product will work, they may only know what a marketing person decided was important about the product.

Lorin

BELOW COST

Today I did something that I absolutely hate doing, I went with my daughter to buy a car! If I go to buy a car for myself, it isn’t the most pleasurable experiences, but doing it for someone else (even my daughter who I love dearly) makes it one of the most unpleasant things in the world. Couple that with needing to deal with awful sales people and you have found my hell!

We drove to our first dealer and parked. An extremely friendly gentleman came right over to meet us almost before we had gotten out of the car. He had a great smile and a good solid hand shake. I introduced myself, my wife and daughter and told him upfront that my daughter was his customer and I was just there for support. The salesman did exactly want he should have done and focused on my daughter and made her feel like a queen. He asked her about herself and what she was looking for. He probed for answers to questions like what model are you looking for and what options she wanted, what color she wanted, what were her driving habits and a list of questions that helped him guide her to a vehicle.

He did a great demo (a test drive) and let my daughter take the car over a variety of different roads to see how the car handled. He went over the options (features) and what each did (benefits) and explained how each one worked.

I was sure he was about to make a sale when he looked at my daughter and said so how long until you are ready to buy? I was in shock, he was about to let us walk out of the dealership without the car and without a sale.

My daughter looked at me and asked me what I wanted to do. OK, I need to be honest, I could have said I wanted her to buy the car and that would have been the end, my torcher would have been over. But being the good dad I am (and a sales trainer) I said well lets go think about it over lunch and we will let him know. And away we went to the next dealership.

We drove about 15 miles to the closest dealer that sold the same car and here is where I almost lost it. Because we knew what model and options she wanted from the last stop it was easy to pick a car on the lot. This salesman was smart enough to close my daughter on buying the car right then and there. I said lets go talk price.

We went through the normal routine of filling out some forms and off the salesman ran to get his “BEST” price. 5…10…15 minutes passed and no sign of our salesman. Finally he came in all excited and exclaimed how happy he was with the “DEAL” he just got for us.

He pulled out a piece of paper (not one of the forms my daughter filled out) and there were a few figures scribbled on it. He looked my daughter in the eye and said just sign here and I will get the car ready. My beautiful daughter looked and me and I just smiled and made a counter offer and sent him on his way back to his sale manager to go to work for us.

This time it only took about 5 minutes and he came back not quite as enthused as the first time. He said his manager was set on the price he gave us and wouldn’t do anything more. My daughter once again looked at me and I stood up and put out my hand and thanked him and said goodbye. He asked where I was going. I simply said to another dealer that wanted my daughters business. He asked for one more chance and I smiled and told him one more and it can only take 2 minutes.

He didn’t need both minutes I gave him, within 30 seconds he came back with his manager in tow. His manager looked at the paper as if he hadn’t seen it before (I thought he was the one who gave us the price, oh well) and he said, Mr. Greenstein to which I said, don’t talk to me, she (pointing to my daughter) is your customer. He looked at my daughter and said, do you realize that at this price I am losing $400.00?

At that, I stood up again and stepped in front of my daughter and said, “Baby, I don’t want you to be the person who makes this dealer go out of business, I can’t allow you to buy this car and have them loose money.”

With my speech over both my wife and daughter burst into insane laughter as we walked out the door.

Well we still needed a car for my daughter so back to the first dealer we went, this time I asked for the salesman we talked to AND his manager.

I am so glad I came back. The manager was an excellent salesman and for the first time I was feeling that my daughter was in good hands. He went back over the car with her and talked about the price. He explained how the pricing worked and why the car was priced as it was. He was never shy about asking his price, but built value around the price.

Then he said the magic words that pushed me over the top to where I told my daughter to buy, he said to my daughter, “ERIN, ANYONE CAN SELL YOU A CAR. IT IS THE SERVICE AFTER THE SALE THAT SEPARATES ME FROM THE REST.” He then told her all the little extras that he and the dealership provide.

He then did what his salesman forgot to do the first time we were there, he asked for the sale. This time my daughter didn’t need to look at me for an answer, she has been around me long enough and knew a good sales presentation when she heard one. She looked at him, put out her hand and said yes sir, let’s write this up.

The sales manager took care of all the paperwork went into the finance office with her and then did the best delivery of a car I have ever seen, taking time to show my daughter ever feature and how it worked on her new Honda Civic.

Today I have seen some good, bad and definitely ugly sales skills. I also saw a true professional that was not only good but PROUD of how good he was. Thank you Rick Johnson of Curry Honda in Chamblee GA for being the pro you are. My faith in car salesmen is restored.

Lorin