Most salespeople are really lousy at asking questions,
and so they fall prey to the old adage, "Ask a stupid
question, get a stupid answer."
Making sales decisions based on stupid answers to y
our stupid questions is stupid to the tenth power. Stupid
to the tenth power usually results in:
No Sale.
Not today, not yesterday, not tomorrow.
Many years back I was working with a guy who sold
chemicals. I should probably rephrase that. What he
really did was convince people never to buy his companies
products, which was a shame, because they were actually
good products, available at a very reasonable price.
I remember walking into a large hotel with him, and he
spent at least ten minutes trying to decide what to show
the purchasing agent. He decided on a degreaser, which
really isn't a product you can demonstrate in an office, at
least without some risk.
His opening question was, "What kind of degreaser y'all
use here?"
If he had been even somewhat observant, he would have
known the answer to his question. There was degreaser on
several of the hotel cleaning carts we passed on the way
to the purchasers office.
The purchasers answer was, "Same one we've always
used." Now there was some information you could use.
My guy followed that up with, "How long is that?"
"Ever since I been here," said the purchaser.
"So it works okay, does it?" says my guy.
"I don't know," says the purchaser, "I don't do no scrubbin."
"Huh," says my guy. "Well...okey dokey."
And off we went.
I spent an entire day with him, and he didn't sell anything.
Finally I couldn't stand it anymore, and told him I would
handle his last two calls. He didn't object.
We walked into a diner, and the place smelled like it
had just been fumigated. In fact, my eyes were watering.
I found the owner, and said, "Do you have a problem with flies?"
"Yes," he said.
"Do you think your customers will appreciate the smell
of whatever you are using?"
"I can't stand it myself," he said.
"If I could show you a product that kill flies...and smells
like cherries, would you buy it?"
"Hell yes," he said.
I pulled the fly killer out and sprayed it in a corner.
He walked over and smelled it.
"Damn," he said, "that smells good."
"I'm running a special on that this week," I said. "1 case
is $79.99. 5 cases is $64.99. You buy 5, you save $75.00,
you kill flies, and your place smells like cherries."
"Send it in," he says.
At the last call, another hotel, I sold over $2000.00 of
cleaning products, and made the schmuck I was with over
$500.00 dollars, all by asking the right questions.
I started by asking if I could show them how to cut the
cost of their cleaning products in half, would they buy
from me today?
I showed them a very simple way to insure that employees
followed the dilution ratios on the box, and they were hooked.
Dilution ratios are on every box of chemicals, no matter who
sells them. But simple systems for usage are not.
So it's all in how you ask.
The better the question, the more control you have.
The more control you have, the better chance you
have of selling.
From the big saddle,
Jim Whelan
P.S. If The James R Whelan Agency could cut your
advertising budget substantially, and get you better placement,
would you consider working with us?
Contact us at: thejamesrwhelanagency.com, or call us at 206 407 3124.
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