Be Careful With Your Friends

One of the things that I hate more than anything in sales is when a potential client brings in their friend(s) or a family member with them to buy. This can be a good idea for a few reasons, such as:

(1) Making sure that mean ol' salesperson doesn't take advantage of them
(2) Getting a second (or maybe even a third) opinion on what they're buying
(3) Getting help in the buying process

The part that I (and many others in sales hate) is when that "friend" doesn't have your best interests in mind.

I'll give you a good example of an interaction I had back in my days as a sales rep for T-Mobile. I'm talking with a young lady who brought her friend with her. For a while the conversation turned into one that was between me and the friend instead of the actual customer.   I heard everything from:

"I don't like that phone. You should get this one."

"Insurance??? You don't need that girl!"

"You see... that's why I don't even like T-Mobile."

"Don't listen to that. He's just trying to make a sale. "

"If I were you, this is what I would do..."

Anyone else notice the problem?

That "friend" was more worried about her wants and likes than the actual buying customer. What does that in turn do for the customer? She's more likely to get something based on what her friend tells her instead of what actually works for her.

This should be a well-known common sense-type fact, but here's a reminder just in case: what works (or doesn't work) for you may not necessarily work (or not work) for someone else.

P.S. For those who are wondering guys that conversation turned out.... Here goes: after explaining to the "friend" how I was working in the customer's best interest and not mine or the company's (example, yes I made commission but got paid on the service, so it made more sense to get her the phone she wanted and not necessarily the most expensive one;  how costly it would be for both her and me if she got a phone/service that didn't fit her needs; how I could be contacted virtually any time during the day with questions/issues/concerns) I was able to sell them BOTH.

Who's Really At Fault?

One thing that continues to amaze me to this day as long as I've been in sales:

It's amazing when a customer buys something and all is well, the customer wil say, "I bought ________." On the flip side, when something goes awry, the customer will say, "You sold me _______."

Excuse me, but didn't you make the conscious decision to make that purchase? Now I'm not talking about cases in which a salesperson lied or gave misleading information; in those cases (with few exceptions) a customer has every right to be upset.

It may not seem this way for some reason, but as a salesperson who is also a customer I totally understand that a TRUE salesperson, without lying or misleading, will do the following things:

*Ask questions to gather information about the customer
*Present a solution based on the info gathered and the salesperson's experience/knowledge
*Answer any questions the customer has
*Reassure the customer if necessary and overcome any objections using the info gathered from the customer
*Process the sale after receiving permission from the customer

Notice that at no point did I mention "Put a gun to customer's head and make them buy." Contrary to popular belief and all the sales books I read, the customer has complete control over the sales process until they relinquish that control. Think about it: no matter what that salesperson says or does, good or bad, high pressure or super nice, the customer can always walk away. Just like a customer can make the decision NOT to buy, they can also decide not to and not have to blame the salesperson for their own conscious decision.

We ARE actually human!

In today's age, salespeople are more accessible than ever, thanks in large part to cell phones. No longer do customers have to wait for their sales rep to get to the office to get in touch with them, or to return previous phone calls. Now that seemingly everyone has a cell phone, it can be a plus for both the customer (being able to get in touch with their sales rep throughout the day even if they're out of the office) and the sales rep (being able to be accessed while away from the office). However, there is a point where this becomes more of a hindrance than a help: sales reps are humans just like you.

Allow me to explain a scenario:

Like many other occupations, I as a sales rep have a company-issued cell phone intended for business use, i.e., being able to contact customers and vice versa. Also like many other occupations, I'm an hourly employee (plus commission), meaning that using the company-issued phone is considered work. As such, I'm not allowed to use the phone for business reasons while not at work. The problem with that is that some customers don't realize this and call incessantly. I'm not referring to the ones that call once and conveniently leave a voicemail, I'm speaking of the ones that call as if the house is burning down.

Just like others, on their days off, sales reps like to enjoy them. Not to trivialize whatever reason you may be harassing the sales rep about, please be patient and give them a chance to listen to the voicemail (if you left one in the first place) and let them enjoy their day just like you'd like to.

One of the worst questions to ask a salesperson is...

Everyone who's ever sold anything has gotten this question at some point in their career. Potential customers mean well when they ask this question, but in all reality, it's pointless really. I'll explain why later, but for now, on to the dreaded question:

"What do you have/use?"

A very common misconception about a product or service is that if the person selling it is using it, it MUST be the best out there. The problem customers tend to make is that, based on this belief, they will buy based on this, thinking that the product/service works for them.

A perfect example is the look of shock people have when I respond to that question:

Customer: "What phone do you have?"
Me: "I don't have a phone. "
Customer: (typical response) "Stop lying! You work for a phone company and don't own a phone?"
Me: (typical response) "That's right. I do have a company phone that's assigned to me--that's it. Truth be told, because I use a phone so infrequently, I'd likely have a prepaid phone if I didn't work for this company. Frankly, that's what works for me."

The point I'm getting at is that the salesperson picked whatever product/service they did because it works for THEM (or at the time they bought it they thought so). Buying something that works for someone else and not yourself is a recipe for failure.

Why lie?

We've all seen this...a sales rep somewhere has lied to somebody to close a sale. It's been going on since the beginning of sales, and unfortunately there's some bad apples that will continue to do so.

I'm here to shed some light on this. A TRUE salesperson will not lie to close a sale. If anything, they will be 2000% truthful, even if it means not closing a sale. There's one huge underlying reason for this: it's called a "chargeback."

For the uninformed, let me explain: in most commissioned sales, when a salesperson sells a particular product or service, the company they work for makes money, and in turn they pay the salesperson a commission on that product or service. If the customer returns that product or cancels that service, the company then loses money, and in turn, that commission that was initially paid to the salesperson is taken back. 

At it's purest, since a customer that's been lied to is usually an irate customer due to the lie, in most cases that customer will return the product or cancel the service, resulting in lost commissions for the lying salesperson. That's just the beginning: there's time wasted and lost from spending time with the salesperson to make the initial purchase (and probably previous visits ad discussions prior to the purchase), dealing with the salesperson to correct/explain the lie, dealing with management (local management, district management, corporate management) to correct/explain the lie, dealing with customer service to understand/correct/explain the lie (or make it worse), etc.

So, as you see, there's absolutely no incentive for the TRUE salesperson to lie to make a sale. If nothing else, it's simply the right thing to do.

So much for your word...

Ever wondered why that salesperson that you'd talked to before looks at you crazy suddenly?

***DISCLAIMER***Let's get this out the way before I say what I'm going to say. I'm not exactly condoning the actions of the salesperson that I'm about to describe; I'm simply explaining the thinking behind the action.

Imagine for a second if you were desperately trying to sell your car because you had to pay off your mortgage or otherwise you'd have no place to live. I stop by and talk to you about buying the car. We spend all kinds of time together working out a deal. I've asked how long you've had the car, had my mechanic check the car out, test drove it with you, haggled on the price a bit because I do want and like the car but it's a touch more than I can pay for it. We've even set up a couple of conditions where I'd actually pay you the price that you want for it; you might have even slipped and told me the real reason your selling the car. While I don't buy the car that day, because I'm highly interested and I like you, we'll set up a time for me to come back on pay day in 3 days and I'll give you cash. Delighted, you agree and you'll even have it detailed for me when I pick it up.

Fast forward to pay day, you're eagerly anticipating being able to sell the car so you can afford to pay for the house to live in, but something really weird happened. I pull up to your house driving an identical car to yours that I bought from your brother earlier that day for the same exact price that you were selling it for. Even worse, I ask you if you can help me with a problem with the car.

How would you look at me?

Have a clue what's going through that salesperson's mind?

Why Can't I Buy This?

Here's a thought that might need some clarification... I've sold a few things in my career. The majority of my sales have been devoted in the wireless phone industry (cell phones & service, etc.). Something that comes up quite frequently is when I client wants to buy something but the sales rep won't sell it to them for some crazy reason.

While this seems odd, let me point to the sales rep thought process as this may explain things. 

As a sales rep--especially a commissioned one--it behooves them to make as many sales a possible to earn money, correct? If that's the case, if the sale rep is intentionally not selling you something, then there's very likely some logical reason behind it, and 9 times out of 10, it's something that the rep has zero control over. These might include:
(1) customer's not eligible for that product or service for some reason (credit, tenure, policy, etc.)
(2) in the case of accounts, that client talking to the sales person is not authorized to make changes to that account (very common if one spouse is the actual account holder and that spouse is not the one talking to the sales rep and with business accounts)
(3) the product or service you're requesting is a piece of crap (there are differing opinions on whether a sales person should actually mention this...I'll reserve that topic for another post.)

 With that in mind, 9 times out of 10, that sales rep who intentionally won't sell you something isn't being a jerk, just like he/she is not intentionally trying to not make money; they simply can't sell it to you.