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 your 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 Joan Randall Agency could cut your
advertising budget substantially, and get you better
placement, would you consider working with us?
Contact us at: thejoanrandallagency.com, or call us at 206 407 3124.
Leave a comment