8/12/2010
What's Wrong with This Sales Call?
Here is a brief dramatization to test your sales skills and perception. Your answers will be part of a follow up post next week!
What’s Wrong with This Sales Call?
Scene – Purchasing agent’s office. A sales call is just winding down.
SALES REP: … and that’s how our product can save you money and streamline your operation. It should save you $10,000 a month.
PURCHASING AGENT: Wow! That’s fantastic. I’ve never seen anything like this. It could completely transform our business.
SALES REP: Good enough! Thanks for your time. (Leaves office)
PURCHASING AGENT: (Calling out through the doorway.) Hey – do you have a business card?
11 Responses to What's Wrong with This Sales Call?
Whats wrong is that this is unrealistic
On the contrary. I’ll grant you this scene is exaggerated, but I can cite hundreds of examples of how this scene plays out every day. It’s exactly what I want to talk about in the follow up post.
Love the interactivity, Brad. Thank you.
Yes, having worked with thousands of sales professionals, I can truly say this scenario is no exaggeration.
What’s Wrong with This Sales Call?
PURCHASING AGENT: Wow! That’s fantastic. I’ve never seen anything like this. It could completely transform our business.
SALES REP: That’s exciting to hear! In your opinion, *how* could it transform your business? What are you seeing?
Next steps would be to ensure commitment to specific actions pursuant to securing mutually beneficial purchase agreement i.e. a sale.
DECONTRUCTION:
* That’s exciting to hear! [acknowledgment]
* In your opinion, [asking for personal opinion demonstrates deference/humility]
* how could it transform your business? [builds conceptual agreement of value of solution - slight vocal emphasis on 'how' encourages the PA to open up]
* What are you seeing? [visual framed second question adapts to preference shown by PA and allows just a couple more seconds for them to formulate an answer i.e. reduces pressure slightly]
Best, Robin
Robin, Too bad you weren’t making this sales call. The thing that’s important, as you see, is to keep the process moving. There are many directions the sales rep could have taken, but I like how you suggest further exploration of benefits before rocketing into an attempt to close the deal. Thank you for sharing your insights.
I’m thinking if the purchase is going to have that big of an impact on their business then the real decision maker probably isn’t in the room.
Hi Fred, A keen observation. That angle never occurred to me, which brings up a good point – bringing two people on a sales call is a good idea: two heads are better than one.
Brad,
I would be amazed that this clown even got anywhere near this stage of the sales process.
What was wrong with it? Where do we begin?
1) The vague promise.
Promises of monthly savings of $10,000 sound lazy, vague, insincere and utterly unconvincing. It sounds more like a figure that the agent has just plucked out of the air to make a sale. If I were the buyer, promises like that using round figures which are just brandished around willy-nilly would serve only to make arouse suspicion.
How about instead, he relate the story of feedback from an existing customer (within appropriate limits re: confidentiality) about how the product saved them almost $9,200 last month. Alternatively, how about he gives a very brief overview of exactly where the savings figure comes from and how it is made up. Either of these steps – a cost breakdown or a real-life example, would add substance and credibility to the claim.
I might also add that unless the sales agent has a genuine basis to believe that savings of that amount (and not a cent less) will actually materialise, his conduct is unethical.
In making such a vague promise, the agent has shown he clearly has no idea about effective selling and no regard for ethics, professionalism or his company’s reputation.
2) Manners.
The blatant rudeness of the sales agent in this example pretty much speaks for itself, as does his obvious lack of respect for the buyer and his lack of concern as to whether the product really met the needs of the company who the buyer was working for.
3. Poor sales technique.
Let’s take a lesson from fishermen. What would you do if you were fishing in clear water and you could see a decent sized flathead swimming toward your line? First timers might be tempted to ‘help along’ by moving the line closer to the fish. By contrast anyone who knew what they were doing would leave the line exactly where it is. The reality of fishing is that you don’t actually ‘catch’ fish. Instead, you put an attractive offering in the right location, and fish catch themselves. If the fish is going for your bait – let it.
Same with sales. In this case, the purchasing agent was just talking himself around to the idea of either making the purchase (if he indeed had the authority for a final call) or at least recommending the product to his client or employer. The sales agent should have just shut up and let him talk.
Interrupting is rude. Interrupting when customers are talking themselves around to your product is costly.
4. No allowance for call to action.
Motivational speakers would say that thoughts are powerful, but action is what counts. Indeed thinking up great ideas without acting upon them does not achieve much.
Same with sales. Having your customer ‘think’ that buying your product might be a good idea is no good unless you provide them with a means to act on the idea. Revenue is not earned when customers think about making purchases; it is earned when sales are actually made.
There are probably many more things wrong with that picture. But that wouldn’t matter if I was the owner of the company which manufactured the product – those reasons would be more than sufficient to discontinue use of the sales agent’s services going forward.
Andrew, First of all, thank you for your detailed and thoughtful response. You (and Robin) have diagnosed the problem with great eloquence. Second, thank you for your indignation – that’s exactly the response I was hoping for and would expect from any clear thinking sales manager, executive officer, or business owner. Recapping your list: No precision. No testimonials. No rapport. Not saying enough. Saying it at the wrong time. No call to action. Yet, this very situation is allowed to persist in a certain area of sales I’ve been thinking about, one that seldom even appears on the radar. Amazing … but true.
No problem, Brad.
Situations like this (and I can imagine, as you and Robyn both say, that there would be situations not altogether unlike this) are so diabolical that they do call for a bit of a think about basic fundamental principles of how to approach the entire sales process.
Hi Brad, really love the way you presented this to spark thought and discussion. There are a few things wrong here and one of the immediate things that jumped out is the sales rep does nothing to move the process along. The purchasing manager clearly sees the benefit but where was the follow-up on that excitement, to dig deeper and discover other needs, key challenges, process for making a decision. budget to make a decision, follow-up meeting. The sales rep barely acknowledged the excitement (and yes as a former sales manager I have seen reps work hard to get the appointment, do the actual presentation and then be so happy to get through it they leave – fail) let alone sought to move to close.
Hi Karen, You’ve definitely zeroed in on an extremely important issue – stay tuned for today’s post.