E-Bullet #52

14Apr11

BULLET #52

I was thinking about the times we live in today and the fact that most of us are doing things in pursuit of business that four or five years ago we’d never have considered. We didn’t have to; our market was providing opportunities for us where the only challenge was to make sure that none of these leads slipped through the cracks. We began to hear the word value. Twenty years ago the flooring industry had a phrase we called “perceived value”. That was where the customer perceived the product to be worth more than what it was. In other words we sold the classic bag of fog, a slight of hand, cotton candy and the over-worked line smoke and mirrors. Close you eyes and go back with me to the good old day of the eighties. Just imagine the retail salesman (sorry ladies but you don’t want to be in this dream) standing there in his horse-blanket plaid sport coat, open collared shirt with the top three buttons undone, double knit polyester slacks, white imitation alligator belt, white socks and white paten leather shoes. Oh yeah, throw about as much gold on as you could carry without leaning over. There you have it, a flooring salesman. The pitch was easy then, just walk’em around the sales floor until they got groggy and then talk’em to death. You would stroke that carpet sample until the fiber got hot then hand it to the customer so they could feel how warm the carpet would be in their home. I stood behind a sales guy one time when the customer asked, “What is this”? They wanted to know all about the product. The answer was, “This little sweetheart’ll run ya $15.99 a sq. yd. The scary part was that the company was one of the better flooring stores in town.

Today the Internet has cleaned up that horror movie with all the info you’ll ever need. So from that aspect the consumers are much better informed. The term “value” has taken on a different meaning. The good salespeople know that the real value is not so much the product but them. The real difference is the person selling the product or service. Today the good ones are asking the questions first and then really listening to the answers. They are truly there to help them solve the customer’s problems. Listening is an art that can be learned and honed to a razor’s edge. Some of us will take notes so we don’t forget a single issue that our customer has mentioned.

Some of us sell ideas. The products come later. The late John Bichelmeyer, founder of Bichelmeyer Meats in Kansas City said it best. “The first hunk of meat you sell is yourself” It doesn’t get any better than that. Value today is personal value. How you are perceived in the customer’s eye is everything. Ask yourself, what value do I bring to his table? Like the good retail salespeople, ask questions about their business with the thought of really listening. It will amaze you how you can increase your “net worth” in the customers eyes if you pitch in and help him with issues that are unrelated to your products or services. Become and unpaid employee of the company. Your real net worth will take a positive hit if you do. You know you have arrived when you are talking to another rep that calls on the same customer and they tell you that the decision maker took five minutes telling your friend what you did for his company and it had nothing to do with what you sell. The only thing that’s better is when your customer tells your competition how invaluable you are to him. Want to separate yourself from the pack? Become part of his or her HR Department. Keep your ear to the ground, when you hear about someone who’s been R.I.F.ed that might be a good fit for one of your customers, put’em together. That’s called thinking outside the box. That’s called real customer service. That’s called value and that creates customers for life.

All the best.

Jerry

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