Talking yourself out of a sale
Sales people actually talk us out of doing business with them…it’s a real thing.
Today I was getting a quote for a large commercial printing job and I spoke with a few companies. Most were very helpful explaining the process and asking questions that helped them make the best recommendations. One of them however, from the beginning was telling me what could not be done. He told me all of the negatives of paper size, scale, colors and time frames and the project’s business model. All of this before I gave him my specs. By trying to show his knowledge , he talked his way out of a fairly large ongoing job.
I experience this when I walk into specialty shops. Take cameras for instance. We have a number of cameras for out video production services. Each time I walk into the specialty shop (I won’t say their name) the sales people often take a pompous and arrogant attitude in making sure I know that they are more experienced than me in camera equipment. I don’t argue that fact. They know more than I do, I admit it but they should because that is what they do for a living. My point is not in the knowledge, it is in the approach taken by trying to belittle their customer base.
If I had more than one local option, I would have jumped ship on buying from them a long time ago. However, in the commercial print world I have plenty of options. When I got off the phone I made sure I took a look at our sales approach to make certain we are not putting this vibe out into the universe.
It is one thing to educate, it is something completely different to attempt to make someone feel inferior especially when they are responsible for us ultimately making them a customer.
Good Selling,
Byron
