It seems like there is always someone trying to sell us something in today's society. This has caused many of us to put up our defenses whenever we feel that we are about to receive a sales pitch. However, there are times in life when we either seek out a sales professional, or at the very least, are open to listening to a sales offer. During these times, it behooves the salesperson to listen to what the potential client / customer has to say.
Listening does NOT mean allowing the words to bounce off of you while you are preparing what you are going to say next. In the world of sales, listening is about learning. Good listeners will gather information and then use what they have learned to meet the needs of the client / customer. If you are a salesperson, and you are going to ask questions, listen to the answers to your questions. Do NOT get locked into a scripted sales pitch, regardless of what the potential client / customer is telling you. It is a disservice to the person that you are speaking to, as it puts your need to speak ahead of their need to be heard.
My family and I recently took a driving trip to Pennsylvania, where were guests at a resort. One of the conditions of our stay was that my wife and I needed to attend a timeshare sales presentation (90 - 120 minutes in duration). Both parties must attend to qualify for the complimentary room, so we brought our kids with us. Throughout the sales presentation, my son kept himself busy coloring, and chiming in with his thoughts every once in a while. My little one, on the other hand, has a limited attention span, which makes things more difficult for the salesperson.
After sitting down with the salesperson, he started asking us questions that would help him to guide his presentation. Within a matter of minutes, I realized that he had been trained to ask certain questions and to overcome certain objections. This was not readily apparent to my wife, but it was to me because I do the same thing for a living. The problems arose when my wife and I started giving answers that he was clearly not trained to answer.
As a salesperson, there is nothing more frustrating than having someone waste your time. Out of professional courtesy, I let the salesperson know early on that we were familiar with the program, thought highly of it, but we were not going to be buying on that day, which accomplished a few things.
First of all, the salesperson knew that we were familiar with how the system worked, (having already owned a timeshare once and also from sitting through this presentation at another location), so he was able to skip the step of explaining it to us. Second of all, the salesperson knew that this was not likely to result in a sale. While I'm sure that there are certain steps that must be taken in each presentation, I was giving him the opportunity to spend less time with us so that he could move on to the next person that may have had more interest in making a purchase. The ball was in his court (so to speak), and he proceeded to ask us some questions.
"On a scale of 1-10, how important is it to you to take a vacation every year?"
My wife and I both responded with a 2, which is a bit ironic, because one of the reasons that we chose this number is because we have a daughter that has started her "terrible twos," and traveling with her is challenging (to say the least).
Now, if you're trying to sell me on the benefit of owning a timeshare so that I can travel every year, and we've just told you that it is low on our priority list, do you think that you can convince us that we should travel more? Not likely, but he still has to do his job.
"On a scale of 1-10, how important is it to you to travel overseas?"
Our answer was a 1. Neither one of us has any burning desire to travel the globe. While there may be a few destinations that we would travel to someday in the distant future, our vacations are more likely to be on American soil for a long time to come.
He then proceeded to take us to a really cool interactive computer program. Each resort that the company owns is marked with a red dot, and when you touch the dot, it brings you to a video of that particular resort. We knew that we weren't buying, but we took a look at the resorts that we could choose from should we ever decide to buy.
Remember, we were just asked how important it is to travel overseas. The first tour was of Orlando, Florida. This makes sense. We have two small children, and the property is located about 2 minutes from the Disney parks. He followed Florida with Australia, and then Fiji.
Didn't we just say that we are not interested in traveling overseas? Why would he show us Australia (about a 24 hour flight), and Fiji (many hours, ending with a flight on a "puddle jumper"). This was not going to play on our emotions because we have no interest in visiting these places. Did he even listen to the answer to his own questions?
"Is there anything that we can do to make you timeshare owners today?"
We told him that there wasn't. It's not something that fits our needs right now, and we see no reason to take on an extra monthly expense.
"How much could you afford to pay?
I'll check with my manager and see what programs we have available?"
My wife relents, and says $5 per month, knowing full well that we are not vacationing for that amount of money. If they said yes to that amount, we would have found some short driving trips to take every once in a while.
The manager comes out, and asks us once again how much we would be willing to spend. We repeat our answer. She most likely has been at this long enough to know that they weren't going to budge, and moved us on to our "exit interview" with public relations (which will be an upcoming post of its own).
The bottom line is that we provided honest answers to every question that we were asked. Each answer was an indication that we were in no way motivated to purchase a timeshare at that moment, and that travel was a low priority on our list of things to do. Instead of hammering away at us with a pre-scripted sales presentation, it would have made more sense to listen to what we had to say and realize that there were better prospects out there.
As REALTORS®, many of us are so afraid to walk away from any potential business that we end up working with / for people that are not ready, willing and able to proceed with a transaction. We may not use the high pressure sales tactics that were used at the timeshare presentation, but many of us convince ourselves that we can somehow motivate the unmotivated into making a purchasing decision. I hope that this story shines some light onto why this is an ineffective approach to selling.
Comments(29)