Today's Business Lessons
Here is a brilliant salesman
One thing leads to another. As we know, this is applicable to almost everything – even to sales!
Now, here is an illustration of a very effective sales person – a story written by Pastor Allan Smith.
If you are familiar with the term up-selling, then the person in the story is certainly our hero and model.
This is a story of a country lad who was hired for a salesman’s job
at a city department store. It was one of those massive stores that have
every department imaginable. In fact, it was the biggest store in the
world – you could get anything there.
The boss said, “You can start tomorrow, Friday morning, and I’ll come and see you when we close up.”
When the boss looked up the young man the next day at closing time,
he saw him shaking hands with a beaming customer. After they parted, he
walked over and asked, “Well, that looked good! How many sales did you
make today?”
“That was the only one,” said the young salesman.
“Only one!?” blurted the boss. “Most of my staff makes 20 or 30 sales
a day. You’ll have to do better than that! Well, how much was the sale
worth?”
“227,340.00 and change,” said the young man.
The boss paused for a moment, and blinked a few times. “H... H... How did you manage that?!”
“Well, when he came in this morning and I sold him a small fish hook.
Then, I sold him a medium hook, and then a really large hook.
Then I sold him a small fishing line, a medium one, and then a big
one. I then sold him a spear gun, a wetsuit, scuba gear, nets, chum, and
coolers. I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the
coast. We decided he would probably need a new boat, so I took him down
to the boat department and sold him that 20-foot schooner with the twin
engines. Then, he said that his Volkswagen probably wouldn’t be able to
pull it, so I took him to the car department and sold him the new Deluxe
Cruiser, with a winch, storage rack, rust proofing, and a built-in
refrigerator. Oh, and floor mats.”
The boss took two steps back and asked in astonishment,
“You sold all that to a guy who came in for a fish hook?!”
“No,” answered the salesman. “He came in to buy a blanket.”
“A blanket?”
“Yeah, an extra blanket for the couch. He just had a fight with his
wife. I said to him, ‘Well, your weekend is ruined, so you may as well
go fishing...’”
This funny story brings us a serious lesson; one thing could lead to another.
A good sales person understands that in most cases, customers really
do not know what they need. Customers may think that they do, they may
have a slight idea of it, but they actually don’t. A customer walks into
a store wanting something yet feeling half-hearted and clueless. What a
good sales person would do is to correctly perceive the needs of the
customer. This may be by reading their mannerisms or hearing the
underlying tones in their voice.
I often go to my favorite Chinese restaurant in a 5 star hotel. I
know I want some good food, but I am not sure what I really want and I
definitely look confused. Nancy, the very able leader of the restaurant
would come to my table, look at me and then say: “Francis, I just know
what you want. I have this wonderful home-made tofu with three different
kinds of mushroom and I will prepare one for you….”
You see, one thing leads to another. Because she knows what I need
and what I want, this will lead me to go back to this restaurant and
bring some of my friends to experience the restaurant’s service. Then
word of mouth will spread; after all, this is best for business. This
will ultimately give the restaurant higher sales and a boost in
patronage.
The important thing here is this, we should learn to become more
perceptive of others and care sincerely what they really want and need.
Pleasant and healthy relationships will happen through this.
Remember that the key operative words here are ‘care’ and ‘perceive’. And these two make all the difference.
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