Master the Heart of the Sale!
Part 5 — by Scott Morris
Engaging product
demonstrations build value, enlighten customers, and convinces them
through comparison.
When I was 20-years old, I interviewed with Wickes Furniture for a sales
position and thought I stood a good chance of getting hired. However,
about a week later, the sales manager informed me that he had decided to
hire someone with furniture sales experience instead. I thanked him for
calling, and asked if he was sure he wanted me to be working for his
competition? Luckily, he called back one week later and offered me the
job.
The company’s orientation training proved to be technically informative,
but memorably boring. After some initial success, my sales numbers
declined and I was “in trouble” at the end of the required 90-day
probationary period for new hires. Fortunately, John intervened on my
behalf.
John was by far the best among the 40 full-time salespeople in the
store. Nobody had ever outsold him in any given month. He took me aside
and said, “The sales manager told me that he is going to have to let you
go. Instead, I suggested he let you ‘shadow me’ for about a week,
because I believe you are coachable.”
Because John took the lead in speaking up on my behalf and mentored me,
you are now reading this article. Thank goodness for mentors! Every
salesperson should have at least one. Based on John’s tutelage my sales
career took off and by the age of 25 I had become the company’s youngest
store manager. His personal mentoring made up for what was lacking in
the industry’s best orientation sales training at that time. Forty years
later, and after talking with hundreds of salespeople, I feel that the
same problem exists today. There always seems to be a lot of training
“knowledge” passed out, but very little in the way of actual “know-how!”
Let me begin by telling you a bit about John. He was a retired steel
company executive who took early retirement because his wife was tired
of moving constantly, and wanted to be close to her family. John moved
back to the Chicago area, and chose to work for Wickes Furniture, the
second-largest furniture chain in America at the time. He said the idea
of selling furniture had always seemed “appealing.”
John looked exactly like Ted Knight, who played the comically insecure
news anchor on the Mary Tyler Moore show. But his personality was quite
the opposite. He always projected an air of confidence. When the sales
team went to local restaurants for our occasional sales meetings, the
waitress never failed to go up to John first, regardless of his position
at the table!
One of the first things I asked John was why he was able to sell so much
more than the rest of us mere mortals. His unexpected reply was, “You
should be able to talk about a bean bag for 10 minutes!” “Are you
kidding me?” I inquired. “Absolutely not,” he confirmed. “You should be
able to talk about anything in the store in a very informative and
engaging way, for the entire length of time it takes a shopper to make
up their mind.”
He then advised me to do what he had done during his first six months in
the business. That was to come to work 20 minutes early every day and
use that time to learn everything about a given item or group. Then, use
every spare minute during the day to practice my “presentation.” “If you
do exactly what I suggest,” he said, “you’ll become a true selling
champion within just a few months!” I did precisely that, and within two
years, I was being sent to Wickes stores around the country to turn
under-performing stores around.
His advice worked for me, and it certainly works for today’s new sales
hires. If you think that retail has changed quite a bit over the past
30-plus years, you would be correct. Today, product information is
accessible to salespeople via iPads and in-store kiosks. And, shoppers
can access troves of information online before they ever walk into a
store. But the reality is that there is a wide gulf between today’s
newly hired salespeople, who are in danger of failing after going
through orientation, and million-dollar writers. The truth is that a lot
of that difference is due to persistent preparation and the
“presentation,” which were elements of the sales charisma my mentor John
had.
Here’s just one last, quick story about John that will illustrate how
effective giving a great product presentation can be. I recall a Monday
evening when John was on duty. He was working with a young couple,
showing them a living room set he thought they’d like. He proceeded with
his usual and then famous “Oh Wow” pitch, that never failed to mesmerize
customers.
John proceeded to explain the important features of the living room
group, comparing it directly to the less expensive set they had just
seen. As always, he got both customers physically involved at every
step. He demonstrated each major feature, with its comparative
advantage, and confirmed it by the customer’s physical involvement, and
solidifying questions: For example: “This is what you really need to
have in YOUR sofa, right?” and “Can you believe how heavy this cushion
is?”
Just how effective was his “Oh Wow” presentation on that night? Four
more couples stepped up to listen to him as he demonstrated. They were
all captivated by his demonstration
The other salespeople were going a little “meshuga,” as prime-time store
traffic piled up to listen to John’s presentation. Once John was
finished, he asked the couple sitting on the sofa, “So what do you
think?” They talked briefly and replied, “We’ll take it!” Then John
asked each of the other four customer pairs, in turn. His one
presentation alone produced five identical sales! None of the standing
customers even looked at anything else in the store. The most
interesting thing was that John hadn’t spoken directly to the four other
couples standing off to the side. In other words, the extra sales had
nothing to do with establishing rapport, qualifying, or even closing in
the traditional sense. Instead, making an engaging product demonstration
that builds value, enlightens customers, and overwhelmingly convinces is
what got the job done!
Whenever I walk into a furniture store, I am reminded of John’s example.
It seems that there is very little energy given to crafting good product
presentations anymore. Even some million-dollar writers don’t seem to be
practicing this lost art. One wonders what they could sell if they added
this to their sales skill repertoire! If you agree that this represents
a missed opportunity, it could take your sales training to the next
level.
Begin by utilizing sales meetings to showcase presentations made by your
top salespeople. Make it a game of trying to develop interesting and
innovative new ways to present certain items. Frequently emphasize
John’s advice, which is sound doctrine for new hires and polished
veterans alike. It all truly begins with your commitment to improving
everyone’s performance by mastering “the heart of the sale.” This bit of
education and mentoring will certainly “Present” better results to your
bottom line too!