What are we hiding?

Is this a column worth submitting to the magazine?

PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS!!! I need feedback.

I’m not sure what I want to accomplish with this. Just let me ramble a few minutes and maybe I’ll figure it out. The encounter I’m going to try to relate showed some very strong elements of a great sales process. I saw everything from a well executed sales procedure, to evidence of good sales training, to good salesmanship, to good sales management systems. I think the thing that hit me the hardest though was the fact that the people in this company were so open and honest about their sales procedure, as though they had nothing to hide, that it allowed me to let my guard down as a customer. I knew they were trying to make a sale, and I was perfectly okay with it.

Let me set the scene. One of our clients has a rather disjointed cashiering system and I had heard that an unnamed chain of music stores has an excellent system so I went into one of their stores near my house to observe. The following is an account of what I experienced when I walked through their door. Now remember, I’m here to observe, NOT to buy anything.

Within a matter of seconds, I was greeted by about half a dozen smiling faces, all equipped with a warm friendly natural sounding, but uncannily similar greeting. I was asked by one particular employee if I had come in to look at anything specific and when I responded that I hadn’t, he announced that he would help me get my bearings by giving me a quick tour of the place. We ended up in the pro audio room, where they keep all the big sound reinforcement systems. (I have this fantasy about putting a concert quality sound system in my living room.) The salesperson again announced his intentions and sort of set the agenda for what was next by saying, “Let me give you a few minutes to look around, and I’ll be right back to help you with any questions.”

I thought his whole approach was really very cool. He simply told me, with both his words and his actions, that he knew what I was there to do, that it was his job to help me do it, and that he fully intended to do so. This guy was so comfortable with his sales procedure that he was not only NOT hiding it from me; he was letting me in on it.

When he came back, he asked me questions, he listened to my answers, he showed me a few things he thought I might like based on those answers, starting with the lower priced stuff in the category and then moving up in price until the point when I asked, “How much?” Then he gave me a comprehensive presentation of the system he thought I liked the most and calmly and unobtrusively asked me to buy it. When I hesitated, he simply asked me some more questions, listened some more, and then formulated a “Magic Question” (If I could, would ya?) based on my objections, and asked me to buy again by using that question. He was operating so naturally and so up front about it, I was blown away. I wanted one, he wanted me to have one, and he made no bones about it.

When I looked to Mrs. Hackett for approval and got none, (You married guys know the look) I told him that we would have to wait till I got home from my next road trip before I could fit it in the budget. He then announced that he would like to put me into his follow-up system so that he could get in touch with me when I returned.

Again, he had absolutely nothing to hide from me. He even took me around behind the counter and explained how their follow-up system worked as he entered my information into the computer. It was designed much like our Day Planner system in that the Manager would help determine the next action to be taken, hold daily meetings with each salesperson to help them plan how to best complete those actions, and get reports as to how each customer was treated, how far they got through the buying process, and what the final results were. Now for the coolest part; he did all of this before he knew that I did sales training, and once he found out that I was, he made absolutely no changes in his approach. He was so confident with his sales procedure, that he was okay with me knowing that he was working a sales procedure.

Now I’m not so sure that the only reason I was aware of what he was doing throughout the entire encounter was because I do sales training. I think the reason I could see what was happening was that he had no reason to hide what was happening. He was trying to help me get the sound system I wanted… so what’s to hide? By showing me his follow-up system, he was telling me that he wanted me to have one when I’m ready, and when I am, he wants me to buy it from him. And it was working!

My wife and I wandered around the showroom for a few minutes trying to figure out a way to shuffle some money around to make this thing happen. I know this doesn’t sound like anything too remarkable, but let me remind you of something. I went in the place to observe a cashiering system and suddenly I’m trying to buy a sound system. Man, if ever a customer came in and was really “Just looking”, it was me. Now I found myself wanting so badly to buy something from this guy that I was trying really hard to do so… and I walked in the door with no intentions whatsoever of buying. And now even my wife wanted to buy the system! How often does that happen?

I think that all too often as salespeople, we try to hide from our customers the fact that we want them to buy something from us. It’s almost like we have this technique carried over from when we were trying to pick up girls and we didn’t want them to know that we were trying to pick them up. It’s like the Wizard of Oz hiding behind the curtain.

What these guys did so amazingly well was what I try to preach all the time; he wants one, and I want him to have one. So why is it that we try to hide the fact that we want our customers to have one and that we have a process for helping them get one? Is it just me?