The Talkative Salesman

This post revolves around an encounter that my family and I had, with a very chatty salesperson. Because the salesperson had good intentions, for the sake of privacy we’ll call the salesperson Bob.

Before we introduce the star of the story, I’m going to give some context. Normally, Pittsburgh gets a surprising amount of rain each spring and summer, but last year that wasn’t the case. Last year there was basically a drought. My family’s property got basically no rain, to the point where if we were to walk on the grass, there would be a trail of dust behind us. Grass needs water in order to grow and stay healthy, so when we experienced this drought, a large portion of our front and back yard grass died. Some people could reseed, fertilize, or do something to bring the grass back. But due to the amount of grass that died, we had to contact someone who specializes in this sort of thing and that’s when we met Bob.

A family friend had referred us to Bob, who they said could fix our problems. We called him, and Bob came out to inspect the dead grass and give us a quote on what it would cost. Bob took a few steps, muttered a few things to himself, then proceeded to pull out a pen and some paper.  He wrote a few things down, and then shruggishly said “Aight, this is what it’ll cost ya.” Due to our yard being large and due to how much grass needed to be regrown, Bob’s estimate was very steep. The price was large enough that we wanted to know a few things before agreeing to it so we asked a question. That question would end up being the last words we spoke in the 15 or so minutes that remained in our conversation with Bob.

Bob was all over the place in his response. He talked about what we did wrong when we planted the grass originally some 15 years ago, and then he talked about everything that he would have to do in order to bring our grass back. And boy oh boy, do I mean everything. Bob covered everything from filling up his truck with gas to bring his equipment with him, to how often he would need to check on the grass after he was done. The talking went on and on to the point where my Dad just walked about, leaving my poor Mom to continue listening to Bob. Eventually he stopped talking and left, but not before he ruined any chance of us choosing to do business with him!

Bob made several mistakes in this case. For starters, once Bob began to talk, we were rarely given the opportunity to speak. Instead of the 70/30 rule, Bob chose to follow the 95/5 rule where customers only amount for 5% of the conversation. Another mistake Bob made was how few questions he asked. Aside from asking us where we lived before his arrival, and then asking us when we would want it done, Bob did not ask us any other questions. I understand that for something like dead grass, the pain may be very evident but salespeople should still investigate and identify the customer’s biggest pain as well as, in this case, find out why the grass died. Maybe if Bob would’ve considered those things, he would’ve gotten our business.